Review on Enhance your Entertainment: Introducing the Creative Zen 20 GB Portable Media Center by Charles Notti

I had a few days to play with the Zen Portable Media Center because my friend, the owner, was having trouble loading content. The creative support staff were friendly but knew nothing about this recently released product. Since I'm his tech guru, he asked me to show him how to get it working. Zen is the size of a paperback novel. It's small but too big to carry in your pocket. It comes in a nice case that folds easily into a simple stand. This allows you to place Zen on a table or on an airplane tray while in use. My first impression when I turn it on is that the user interface is a clone of XP Media Center Edition (the Microsoft Media Center PC operating system). I have multiple XP Media Center computers, so the interface felt very familiar and intuitive. However, my first reaction was that the navigation and playback controls were swapped. I had a few other people playing with zen and they made the same comment. Maybe the UI control layout was designed by a left-hander (I'm right-handed) or maybe they were XBox users (many XBox games use their left thumb for navigation). In any case, this is a trifle. To upload content to Zen, you need to download Windows Media Player 10, which has just been released by Microsoft. It's clear that Microsoft wants to get into the content management market and try to trump the iPod and iTunes by supporting not only audio but also video. However, my friend has problems with Windows Media Player 10. He could not understand what was new in the heavily revised Windows Media Player user interface. To download new content, you need to connect Zen, go to the "Sync" tab, and then create "playlists" of the videos, audio files, and images you want to sync. Once a "playlist" has been created, the content can be synced to Zen. It's not difficult, but calling it a playlist is a bit of a stretch. Once you've started the syncing process, you can wait. and wait. and wait a little longer. TV shows stored in XP MCE can be added to a "playlist" and synced, but must be converted to a Zen-compatible WMA file. This lasts about as long as the show's playback time. It takes about half an hour to convert and download a half-hour show, an hour-long show takes an hour, and so on. Also, the TV shows I downloaded from my XP MCE machine had garbled colors. It was like watching a negative TV show. I suspect this will be fixed in a software update (and that's not a big problem for my friend as he doesn't care about TV content). don't want to pay them again to upload them to his zen). So, I have to work here. My first attempt at downloading a movie was a product called "DVD To Pocket PC" by Makayama. It is designed to convert DVDs directly to WMA files for Pocket PC and run on Zen. I tried the trial version and was unsuccessful at first (probably because XP SR2 was installed). I finally tried this on a non-XP SR2 machine and it worked fine. Since the app is fully operational, it's probably a good choice for transferring content from DVDs you own to your Zen. Then I tried Dr. divx This application can convert unencrypted DVD to Divx AVI files. It worked for me (although it took a few tries to get the hang of it), but it's nowhere near as "turnkey" as "DVD To Pocket PC". Also, Divx conversion takes time (around 2-4 hours for a full length movie). Make sure you use one of the portable formats as Zen has a limited bitrate that it can support. I had a little trouble getting the aspect ratio right, but a few tries fixed that issue too. After converting the movie, you should go to Windows Media Player 10, add it to "Playlist" and sync it to Zen. It takes some time but it's worth the wait. Movies look good and play great. After using it for about a day, I have a wish list of features Zen doesn't have (no big deal, but a good product could be even better).* Parental Controls - I want to protect some content from children. There is currently no way to do this.* I would like plugins for visualization when listening to music.* Since it is used on the road, a travel alarm function would be very useful. Pros:* The player sounds good, the UI is great, and the size is very convenient and the features are awesome. Cons: * It's a little pricey * Moving TV content from my XP MCE machine was only partially successful (although I suspect this will fix it), moving content is very time consuming and you will probably do it overnight want to get done.* On it's not really a direct replacement for the iPod (it's bloody big). That's not exactly a fair criticism of Zen, though, as it's not meant to be a direct replacement for the iPod. All in all it's an impressive product, even considering that it's version 1.0 of the management software (WMP 10), hardware and firmware.