Some people are book learners. Some people need a teacher's constant guidance. I pick up new skills most quickly from a combination of books and videos.
When I took up guitar a few years back, I bought just about every DVD course imaginable, and the disks were scattered all over the house. To consolidate my collection for use at home and on the road, I bought a low-cost, versatile Creative Zen 4 GB Portable Media Player.
The Creative Zen succeeds on several fronts. It costs a fraction of many multi-media players and is more versatile and portable. Its credit card-sized dimensions and 2.1 oz flea-weight mean it's pocketable. It has a sharp and bright 2.5" TFT display that's bright enough to be seen in daylight. And it has an SD card expansion slot. I put a 16 GB SDHC card in mine, and I can't see how I'll ever run out of space.
The Zen comes with built-in memory capacities of 2 GB, which holds 500 songs or 7.5 hours of video; 4 GB, which holds 1,000 songs or 15 hours of video; 8 GB, which holds 2,000 songs or 30 hours of video; 16 GB, which holds 4,000 songs or 60 hours of video; and 32 GB, which holds 8,000 songs or 120 hours of video. The player supports the following audio formats: MP3, WMA, non-protected AAC, WAV and Audible 2, 3, and 4.
Creative estimates that the Zen will play up to 30 hours of music and up to 5 hours of video on a single charge. I've never drained mine down fully, so I can't verify this, but I do get at least four hours from a charge.
The Creative Zen comes with basic earphones, a standard USB 2.0 cable for charging and transferring data, and a CD with software that allows you to manage songs, videos and other data and to convert video files into a format that the Zen accepts. An added plus: The standard cable matches the cable that came with my cell phone and GPS so I already have wall and car chargers that work with the Creative Zen. It's nice not to have to bring another cord on the road.
The Zen's main menu features Microphone (for sound recording), Photos, Music, Videos, FM Radio, Extras (date, time and organizer), Memory Card (to access data on the SD card in the expansion slot), and System (to set settings for audio, photo/video, display and player).
Converting DVDs into the formats that the Zen accepts (MJPEG and WMV) seems complicated until you've converted a few. Then it becomes pretty routine. It's definitely time-consuming, so you better have a newer computer that will allow you to multi-task while it's churning away. The two critical steps are to first convert DVDs into MPEG2 video files that can be saved on your computer. I use free software available at ANY-VIDEO-CONVERTER.COM. (This was the best software option I could find.) Then use the Creative Video Converter that's included on the CD that ships with the Zen to convert the MPEG2 video into a form that can be downloaded to the Zen for viewing. There may be a quicker way to convert videos -- like buying Any Video Converter Pro -- but I didn't want to invest a lot of money in conversion software.
If you buy videos for direct download to your computer, conversion won't be as involved as it is with DVDs since they are delivered in a computer file format that will likely be compatible for direct download and viewing on your Zen. Audio books can also be downloaded this way.
I often listen to music on my Creative Zen. The player has 8 equalizer settings (acoustic, classical, disco, jazz, new age, pop, rock and vocal) that give you the power to customize the sound to your preferences.
The Zen exceeds my expectations for brilliant video and sound clarity. The only issues a buyer may have are: 1) The plastic screen is flush with the front and prone to scratching and smudging. Despite a scratch or two on mine, video shows through brilliantly. 2) Video sound tracks might lag slightly behind the video picture. 3) Video conversion is an involved process.
That said, I have nothing but praise for my Creative Zen.
The top holds the SD card expansion slot, which gives the Zen virtually limitless memory. An SD card is not included with the Zen, but prices are plummeting, so buy as much memory as you can afford.
