RSSCreative Introduces Zen Vision Player
By Nate Mook | Published August 3, 2005, 11:52 AM
In its latest effort to take back some market share from Apple's iPod, Creative on Wednesday introduced the Zen Vision music player with photo viewing and video playback. The Vision sports a large 3.7-inch color screen and 30GB internal hard drive for storing media.
Video will be a primary feature of the Zen Vision that its Apple counterpart lacks, and Creative is boasting a screen size three times that of the color iPod. Vision's 640x480 pixel resolution is also 10 times more than the iPod.
Creative has included support for TiVoToGo for watching television shows while on the run, along with popular video formats such as DivX and Windows Media Video. For those needing more video storage space, the unit includes an expansion slot for Flash memory.
On the audio side, the Zen Vision features largely the same functionality as Creative's previous players, including an FM tuner and support for Microsoft's Janus DRM format used by Napster and Yahoo Music Unlimited.
Battery life of the Zen Vision is advertised as 4.5 hours during video playback; Creative did not provide audio-only playback times.
"The Zen Vision is our most versatile and coolest-looking digital entertainment player ever," said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative. But such features do come at a price: the Zen Vision is a larger device than standard MP3 players, measuring 4.9 x 2.9 x 0.8 inches and weighing 8.4 ounces.
In comparison, the 20GB iPod measures 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.63 inches and weighs only 5.9 ounces.
Creative has not set an official launch date for the Zen Vision, but the company is accepting pre-orders via its Web site. The device will retail for $399 USD, which includes a rechargeable, removable Li-ion battery, an AC adapter, USB 2.0 cable, high-quality earphones, an AV cable, and a protective pouch.
the problem with comparing this to a PSP is that the PSP can play games (good ones) - this is more a contenter for the PMP market (such as Archos') not so much the ipod or psp. However if the psp was to get some kinda hard drive or attachable one it'll be more in the same boat then. This isnt nothin very new (it may be a good product) but its more a glorfied upgrade model of Creatives previous PMP device the 'Creative ZEN PMC DISPLAY UNIT'
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|Creative need to add more functions to this device:
1. add functions as external harddisk via USB 2. and better if also network
2. Use it also for Image storage which can copy from SD card, MMC, and other card directly without PC.
3. Add FM radio
and other functions
With that additional functions it will make this device more useful, and people will be more willing to buy
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|Umm...
1. It has a USB 2.0 connection, and Creative media players have always had the capability of being used as an external hard-drive.
2. It has native support for images and a Compactflash card slot. As for direct-copy, I don't know anything for sure (obviously), but I can imagine that that would be an option. It usually is in mobile devices with more than one storage medium.
3. It has an FM radio.
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|Did you even read the article?
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|What does this do, that the PSP does not? I can think of many things that the PSP does, that that does not do...
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|I don't remember the PSP having a 30GB hard-drive that you could load ANY video on to watch. PSP's biggest flaw is its "Universal" Media Discs
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|Who needs local storage, I got a 300GB HDD with all my media on, I don't want ANOTHER copy of it.
PS2 needs to be able to stream across the wireless, then who needs UMD or HDD, or even MSDuo.
Please Sony, implement "UPnP rendering" on the PSP, it really will be the killer hardware...
If you don't do it, someone else will, and then I will be forced to bypass the copy protection to use the full potential of the PSP...
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|I'de buy one to hook it to my car. That is nice.
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|Nice product, if it was a little cheaper I would buy it. Maybe $250 - $299.
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|It is a shame that it doesn't have a 16:9 screen though. *Almost* perfect. Especially since they are comparing it to the wrong competition, the iPod. The real competition is the 16:9 PSP.
The PSP has taken off huge a video player while everyone is waiting for games.
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|hmm... it looks a little like it might be 16:9.
I know the resolution mentioned is 640X480 (4:3), but some widescreen displays "stretch" a 4:3 resolution into 16:9. Just a total speculation. I couldn't find specs anywhere that said exactly what the aspect ratio was.
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|The Head-On betanews image has the screen at 320x240, so I'd guess it's just 640x480 with no stretching.
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|i think you're right
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|Niiiiice.... I like it, even though I would never buy one. I just can't see myself watching a tiny little screen for more than 2 minutes. It sure looks nice though =)
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|tivo and divx. Sounds like i found myself a portable entertainment machine. if only it played games also. The PSP is a weak video player. cause it only plays one specific format.
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