Vision on the go

I bought this product orginally to serve as an easy way to dump memory cards from camera - it does that and more.

I allows me to review jpegs but not raw - thats ofk I shoot in raw and large jpeg mode anyways - the zoom feature let's me check exposure and focus much better than I can on camera.

In addition I now am an MP3 addict - could not understand until now. I also have subsribe to podcasts that keep me upto date on a number of topics.

Now all I have to do is import my contacts and my digital life will be complete.

It is larger than an ipod but so is the gorgeous screen.



Rating:


Great Purchase

If you want to carry every media file on your computer with you at all times, this is the way to go! With the 4.3 in. screen you have absolutely NO problem wathcing movies or anyother video wherever you are. This is also the only media player i have ever seen with an external speaker which makes showing off everything ive got even easier. I suggest this player for everything except if you want music while you jog or work out etc. It's far to big to fit comfortably in your pocket, but once you get used to all the other great features it has to offer that wont even be a problem anymore. Another thing i like about this product that i havent seen with anyother player is that you can delete media off it without connecting it to a computer. the microphone works great and i've even recorded some of my band practices with it to show my friends. the best part id say is that you dont even have to use the software given to you to put media on the zen. for example, you cannot put media on the IPOD without ITUNES, you cannot put media on the ZUNE wihtout the ZUNE software, but wiht the zen you can sycronize it to multiple different programs, windows media player being one of them (thats what i use, its easy to use and works great). you can even open your media player as a folder and put media on there with a drag and drop method. i do, however, suggest installing the creative software because it automatically converts unplayable video formats to work on your zen! GREAT PRODUCT!

Rating:


Preparing for the widescreen world

My wife initially wanted an IPOD for Christmas so she could listen to music. In looking at some of the IPODs in the Apple store she then saw the video IPOD and commented that if she had that she could store pictures and videos of our grand childred to show to her friends. She commented on the small size of the screen. In another store we saw that there were other alternatives to the video IPOD. The sales person in this store commented on the limited file types supported by the IPOD and described the difficulties of translating videos to a format that the IPOD could use.

In researching the many alternative players, I purchased the Zen W because it supported more file types for video, pictures and audio than the IPOD. I have put a lot of her music CD's on the zen, many of the pictures of the family and some of the videos. In addition, I have purchased several videos for us to watch during our airline travels.

The picture and video resolution is great and the quality of the audio is good also. Getting files from the PC to the Zen is a little more complex that I thought before purchasing the device. This is more of a complaint about Windows Media Viewer. For MP3's and picture files, I found that Windows Explorer was much simpler and efficient. Also, I could organize the files on the Zen using explorer. Videos were another matter. The purchased videos from Amazon could not be transfered with the Windows Media Player but were very easy using teh Amazon Unbox application. It took more time than I expected to transfer non commercial video files than I expected. Also it was difficult to understand that some videos could be put on the Zen but were not viewable in Windows Media player.

My wife is very pleased with the Zen and likes the larger screen and the resolution. This is good and bad in that the larger screen means that the device is not as portable as the IPOD. However, I realized this in my selection.

Rating: