Hi all, I have a Creative Zen Vision:M 30gb but had not used it in over a year. I recently upgraded both my computers to Windows 7 and then discovered that apparently there were no drivers for my player, plus my player cannot be detected by my computers. When I plug the player in, the blue light still blinks but nothing happens when I switch it on. I contacted Creative and they said that there is no windows 7 driver for this player. However, I found a forum a while back where some people mentioned that they somehow had a windows 7 compatible driver for their players and it works fine, unfortunately I cannot find the forum anymore:( I'm hoping somebody could give me some advice as I'd hate to get a new mp3 player when I'm sure this could still work. I tried installing the updated firmware but my computer can't detect the player. Websites say that this player is for Windows XP but I'm sure Windows 7 should be able to handle it?

If anybody happens to have the same player working on a Windows 7 OS I'd highly appreciate the help! Hi germizor, Do you see the Creative mp3 player in? Is there any yellow exclamation mark or question mark in device manager? From where did you download the updated firmware?

Are other USB devices working fine? Creative ZEN Vision:M 30GB seems to be compatible with Windows 7 in.

Try the steps below and check if it helps. Step 1: Run Windows updates to check if there are any updates available through Windows Updates for Creative ZEN Vision:M 30GB. Step 2: If Step 1 fails then, I would suggest you to install the Windows XP drivers and firmwares in Windows XP compatibility mode and also the application which is Vista Compatible in Windows Vista Compatibility mode and check if it helps in fixing this issue. Hope this helps. Let us know if you need further assistance. Thanks and Regards, Santosh Y – Microsoft Support Visit our Forum and let us know what you think. If this post was helpful, please click the 'Vote As Helpful' (green triangle) button.

If it helps in resolving your issue, click 'Propose As Answer' or 'Mark As Answer' button. By proposing/marking a post as Answered, or Helpful you help others find the answer faster.

Ahh, toys the latest one to enter the fold is the personal media player. This device does just about everything. But is it any good? Well, read on to find out. Feature List. 4.3″ WQVGA high-resolution LCD screen – View 480 x 272 resolution in a wide aspect screen at up to 262,144 colors or output video and photos to an external display at a maximum of 720×480. Holds up to 240 hours of movies – ZEN support formats such as AVI, DivX 4 & 53, XviD4, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG, which simply means more choices and fewer restrictions.

Store up to tens of thousands of photos – Complete with a thumbnail gallery and zoom capabilities. Up to 15,000 songs – With 5-band EQ or 8 preset EQ settings and 96dB signal-to-noise ratio. TV output – Connect the ZEN to a projector or TV with the bundled AV cable for everyone to see. FM radio – Listen to more music with the integrated FM radio with 32 station presets. Personal organizer – Syncs your contacts, calendar, and tasks with Microsoft Outlook.

Voice recorder – Record meetings, lectures, even voice memos. Long lasting battery – Enjoy up to 13 hours of music, or 4.5 hours of movies. Offload digital photos – Transfer pictures from your camera to ZEN without a computer. Initial Impressions The device was packaged with accessories including earbud headphones, a wall power adapter, a USB cable, a software disc, A/V-out cables, and a felt case. After unpacking the device I noticed that it is hefty, but not heavy. It weighs 10.5 ounces and though it looks a little plain you can tell that the screen is quality even before you turn it on.

The software installed just fine on my heavily abused XP system and is very simple to use. It includes functions to load songs, video and photos on the device as well as the ability to rip audio CDs. One thing notably missing however was the ability to rip DVDs. This to me was a glaring omission. How does Creative expect people to get their DVDs into this PMP device? In order to perform this task I had to use some other software. I’ve documented the process of ripping DVDs to your hard drive for.

I’ve got two options, one fairly simple but not free, one free but a little more complicated. Back to the review at hand I found Creative’s transfer software to be very simple to use and after loading up some MP3s and videos I immediately plugged in my Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones to take a listen.

With these headphones I initially felt the sound quality was a little flat, but then I changed the EQ settings to suit my preference and it sounded fantastic. I then threw on a movie and was impressed with the sharpness and clarity of the video. I never forgot that I was watching a tiny screen, but I was very, very happy that I hadn’t picked up an iPod. The Zen W’s screen is at least 200% larger and I wouldn’t want it any smaller.

The only thing that I immediately missed is some sort of built in stand for the unit. If you want to set it down to watch it you’ll have to lean it against something, and then it wants to slip.

I’m considering making a stand for it myself on my. The Good and Bad Things I Like:. The screen is beautiful. It is very sharp and clear and has a good refresh rate. The user interface is very intuitive. I didn’t read a single page of the manual, but everything was extremely easy to figure out.

The built in speaker is adequate. I wish it could go a little louder but hey, at least it has one, (unlike the iPod and other units).

The player remembers exactly where each movie stopped, and resumes playing from that spot, even if you watch several different movies at at time. The fast forward and rewind functions work awesome! They start out slow and then speed up exponentially. It feels just right – very unlike Ipod. The non-bloated, functional and simple software.

Although I haven’t tested it yet, I’m looking forward to syncing the device with TiVo as the box says “transfer them to your player using TiVoToGo”. Creative built in a ton of extras such as Outlook contact, calendar and task syncing; and excellent FM radio and a microphone for recording. CNet claims 18 hours and 28 minutes of MP3 battery life, with 5 hours 6 minutes of juice when playing video, which is far more than Creative’s claims. In addition, it’s removable so you could get an extra one if you wanted to keep going after that.

Things I don’t like:. You must install the Creative software in order to transfer files.

Although you can easily partition up to 16GB to act as USB Mass Storage, it doesn’t allow you to just see the whole 60GB and drop files where you want them. Still, this is a reasonable compromise.

Although the size is fine, I wish it was just a little thinner. Its.9″ thick and it would be ideal if it could be more like.3 –.5″ thick.

I realize the technology isn’t there yet. The buttons are a little too small for my fingers.

I’m 6’1″ with fairly large hands. It doesn’t stand up by it’s self.

If you set it down it needs to lean on something. In order to test the widest range of encoded information I downloaded a bunch of bootlegged movies from the Internet (and then deleted them immediately afterwards of course:-) ). I did this because I can’t possibly create test formats for the wide variety of choices out there.

Compatibility Formats Tested:. I checked out a version of, encoded with TMPGEnc, 352×240, at 30fps, and it worked well until about 1/2 way through when the voice got out of sync with the video.

This is normally associated with the quality of the software used to encode the video. encoded with TMPGEnc, 352×240, at 30fps worked flawlessly. I tried to install which was encoded with MPEG4, 560×304, 24fps, but the Creative MediaSource software failed to convert it and therefore it did not transfer to the device. The software did not explain why it couldn’t convert it, it just failed. While watching a video of (encoded with XVID, 624×336, 24fps) the video played back choppy.

Approximately every 10-20 seconds there would be about a.5 second pause., encoded in MPEG1 Layer 2, 352×240, 30fps worked just fine., encoded with DivX 6.2.2, 352×240 at 30fps worked perfectly., which incidentally is the greatest Bond movie ever made!!!, encoded in MPEG1 Layer 2, 352×240, 30fps worked fine as well. I could go on, but I think you get the picture. I’d say that approximately 90% of the movies downloaded at least worked.

A few of them had a glitch or two. The ones that I ripped from my own DVDs, worked flawlessly. Summary I had considered every personal media player on the market before picking up the Zen Vision W. Money was truly no object, I just wanted to get one that had a fantastic screen, long battery life and excellent compatibility with a wide range of encoding and formats. For any amount of money I don’t think you can do better than this media player, and given that you can pick one up for $350-400 it makes the perfect A/V travel companion. Other Resources.

There is also a short video of CNet editor James Kim’s. As always, questions and comments are welcome, and if you found this article useful please do me the favor of DIGGing it, bookmarking it with Del.icio.us, or any of your favorite sites from up by the article title. EDIT: 1/8/2007 I also just added a for those that might be interested in upgrading the hard drive. EDIT: 7/12/2007 Thanks to we have this picture of the w/stand. As he described it: The kickstand is built separate as a flap in the back. The top cover just throws back and hangs there to keep the weight pulling backwards onto the kickstand. And when you’re done, the kickstand is magnetic, so it will snap back to the case and not stick out.

Hi this is kinda weird!! My little brother sticked a Nokia charger inside the headset port (since he assumed that it fits there: ) so i had 2 ICs burned inside!! Right behind the port (yellow colored) so i had them changed i started my zen!! It worked very well!

I entered the recovery mode (by using the battery thing) formated the hard drive and it formated verywell then erased the old firmware and connected the zen to my pc the upgraded the firmware and the zen rebooted after finish!! But the peoblem is i see the “Creative” logo and the “ZEN” logo when it start my zen but then i see NOTHING only a black screen what do you think the problem is?! Please help. John Lord says. I absolutely loveee this player! Just like in your case, money was no object, I just wanted to get the best suitable player for me.

I actually bought an iPod before this and it was a horrible experience! Their software sucks and the screen is way too small. Plus that navigation wheel was driving me crazy. The Zen W has a very nice sized screen and it’s so easy to transfer media into the player.

I had an old Creative player before (the B&W version) and I liked that one too because of the easy file transfer system and navigation. I still have trouble getting my videos in from Adobe Premiere, but I’m still learning. I found your review very useful. Chris says. ALL I know CREATIVE won’t answer technical questions accurately – If you e-mail them.I Think all they do is READ THE MANUAL. CREATIVE Software is not Vista Compatible either.

– So If you want to use their software you will need a computer runnin’ XP – I’m not happy with the software at all – other thing I’ve found out: You won’t be able to convert some files to AVI if you have QUICKTIME 2.2 You need to downgrade this VERSION! – its a PAIN! And the thing I HATE MOST!!

– “CAN NOT CREATE VIDEO PLAYLIST” its a most for MUSIC VIDEOS!. Richie says. Well – I got the ZEN Vision W 30GB about 2 weeks ago – And sometimes the ZEN stops responding when unpluggin’ the device from computer – all I do is to disconnect the battery and put it back – Now features: I think CREATIVE could have done better software for this PMP – The main reason I bought it – was because I wanted to see my movies y music videos in a bigger screen – however the software SUCKS! – you can not have video playlist as IPOD does – the buttons are too small! – Imagine PLAYING THE EAGLES OR PINK FLOYD album?? Well other than is nice device with a bad software.

I will try to sell it and get the new ARCHOS 605 WIFI 30GB. Chris says. Richie, about your battery, for my zen vision m, i used to have it plugged in, and chargin while i used it on home speakerss andhtinks, if you keep things charging, or just plugged in while its finished charging for a long time, the battery life goes down, so my zen m used to have a 14 hour bat life, and now it has about a 8, so you might just want a new battery. Though, ithink that creative should make a battery like they did for the vision, where its extended time. OR another one, that its just an adapter, that you can put AA or AAA batterys in, so its like a shell, and you can just keep putting batterys in over and over, it would be great. Richie says. Well after almost exactly one year my zen w is still alive and kicking, however, the battery that came with it just stopped working.hmmmm Coinscidence, i think not.

I went ahead and took it apart for kickswow the lil hitachi drive is tiny. I played with the recovery part of it the other daylets you wipe it out all togetherand that includes password The only way it would go into recovery mode was to unplug hd, boot it upthen plug hd back in. This thing has been left in 100+ degree weather in the sun and coldstill booting just fine Ps, mine was one of the first to hit shores here in US.

Now that I think about it, the battery didnt crap out until I updated the firmware 1.00.01 to 1.01.10 or some shit.hmmm. Jason says.

John, thank you for the information, definately appreciated. I picked this up last night at circuity city for $249 and think I am going to like it. Right now I am looking for a good application to convert my media center DVR-MS files. Experimenting with Digital Media Converter 2.78 which seems to do a decent job. Also using CloneDVD Mobile for moving over DVD’s. It does the widescreen DVD’s in 480×272 no problem, but the Zen isn’t happy with a standard 4:3 DVD converted to 364×272, it locks up the player.

320×240 is ok, 720×480 plays perfect as well. It’s odd, because 364×272 seems like it would be the native size to shrink down to for 4:3. Does anyone recommend a good case? It looks like the one from creative with the stand isn’t much, several negative reviews on it. Any thoughts on this one?

For only $15, it’s worth a try. Thanks again for your tutorial. Another great review. I was out traveling when the Achos 20GG portable video player came out, I picked one up in Heathrow Airport, it cost a good pile of pennies and it worked for 4-5 days. I never dropped it or mishandled it, it just stopped working. I live in Asia, and it would be a major pain to FEDEX it back and forth, plus it would probably get lost or taxed on the way back here, so I just let it lie. I have been a little gunshy with these players since.

Zen Vision M Firmware

This one however looks like a great little entertainment center for people on the road, especially the support of all the various codecs we ehmn I mean “they” use for boot leg movies:) Kim:). Chris says. John, All I want from a site like this, is a way to find any older posting that would help me with a “now” problem. I don’t now of any easy way to do it.

I think the paged method is good, so one does not have to wait for the download of 120+ posts. I would prefer to see the latest postings first. Assigning a seq. Number to each posting would make it easier if a new posting wanted to refer to an older one. But, any search/grouping of subjects would be ideal, although I don’t see how it can be done easily:-( As for my “My Zen” issue (see my last posting) it drives me crazy. It works like I described with my machine at home (XP Home), that is I can move file/folders and also rename same, while I cannot do any of the above with my machine at work (XP Pro). In general, the Zen is very particular in deciding with which machine to do business with.

It seems it likes to stay with one machine, not to fool around with many:-) George B Brighton, MI. says. George, You are correct.

Zen Vision M Drivers For Mac Download

You can use the Zen as a storage device but of course that method still doesn’t allow you to manipulate the media on it, only the partition that you set up for holding other stuff. I should have been more specific. I’ll try to work on the comment numbers when I get a chance. It’s this threaded comment plugin for WordPress that replaced the comment numbers.

I still can’t decide if it’s better to have the threaded, paged comments, or just the long string of all the comments on one page. But for posts like this one with over 100 comments I think it’s still better this way.

Did you notice the change, and what are your thoughts since you regularly use it too? John. Tracy R says. I have the Creative Zen Vision W and I have to say I absolutely love it. My only question is about encoding recorded tv programmes for uploading to the Zen.

I use TMPGEnc, had all the settings, and had it working fine – then we upgraded to Windows Vista – it still worked fine – then we had to roll back to XP and I lost my settings!!! Now I can’t recreate what they were and am having an awful problem with the audio and video being out of sync. Can anyone please tell me what settings I should be using? Many thanks Tracy R Caversfield UK. GeorgeB says.

I am hoping to find some answers here. So far, Dell cannot help and Creative cannot help. I use Windows Vista.

Had I known that Creative had not run many software and device driver updates I would have refrained from spending $250. When I plug in my Zen Vision W, my computer does not recognize that the device is connected. I have tried all of my usb ports and even tried a hub, and none of them recognize that it’s there. I have downloaded all updates for software and drivers but I cannot finish the installation because the player needs to be connected – again, my computer does not show that it’s connected.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. K. vertexar says. Hey ya’ll i found that my 30gb fits on the JBL onstage plus (for psp). I picked up on clearance at walmart, 20 bucks. Was 99 It sounds better, and the zen has a cradle in top the has a wire to plugin speakers. Yeah, they come with dc adapter, needs batteries for the road, but 7 days later, im on the same pair at 3-4 hours a day.(4 aaa) it is in stereo.I can make a pic, but will have to be later.

Thanks Amazon. Anywhoo, thought some might enjoy a little more oomf, say maybe for an alarm clock or some thing. Gang, First of all I’m sorry about the problem with the numbering on my theme here. Now that we’re up into the 100+ comments I see that the numbers are obsuring names and I’m working on solving that problem I’d also like to find a way to have the comments “paged” so that we don’t have to scroll down through all of them to see the one on the bottom.

Seems like displaying the last 20 or so at at time and then allowing people to page through older ones would work better, but I need to re-write part of the theme to make that happen and not quite sure how to do it yet. Moving on, Jeff thanks for that pointer to Best Buy. I actually just left the mount for my in a rental car (DAMN!) and need another mount for it. Since it’s about the same size as the Zen W perhaps it will work as a replacement for both! I’m going to get one tonight. Also, Aaron over at just sent me a 100 GB hard drive to swap into the Zen and I’m going to get that fully documented in the next few days and I’ll put up a new post as soon as I’ve completed it.

So, everyone can give Aaron some thanks for pushing the documentation forward.:-) John. Jeff says.

Richie, That link you gave is for the Creative Vision Zen, not the Zen W. I have read a lot of people purchasing that one thinking it will just work. But like the text under Tech Details section of that page says. “Not compatible with the Zen Vision W”. As for a car mount, I use the following.

I like that I can move it around my windshield wherever I want. Like if I and on lunch and want to watch a movie, I pull it near the steeling wheel. But if I am going somewhere and my girl wants to watch something, she can have it over near her, far enough from my view. It was a very good choice for the Zen W.Jeff -.

Richie says. Im glad to see so many people still enthralled about the zen. I bought mine waaayy back in august/september 06 and its been through hell and back, yet screen doesnt show sscrathes, yet the less than a yeard old cellphone who also rides with zen in pocket it scratched to h3ll. The zen has gotten less and less bad about lockup, or a 3 minute period of wating for the next song to play if its on shuffle, with 8-10k songs on it. It great in the car, like a indash tv, the has.removable face. It’s great, I get movies off a torrent then can put the files on zen w and go anywhere. Got vista up and running, and yes it list it as a Mass Storage Device, unless it in the Portable HDD mode To answer some questions.

Eric: (thats the place i get all mods for zen, and some even come from creative). Eric says. One Man, I’m looking to get a Zen Vision W.

I’ve read all about it way way back before, the specs and all, and I was just about to get a 30 GB when the store I ran to ran out of stock. I figure, by the time they restock a 30 GB, I will have enough money to get a 60 GB, so I’m going for that.

But anyway Now I was just looking for reviews about the product, trying to get some feedback from the actual users to see what they have to say. And let me say I am fortunate to have come upon your review on my first try. Now I am even more driven (and a bit frustrated) to get myself a Vision W, and I’m even more driven to get the 60 GB version. I won’t need to hound for more reviews – yours says it all.

Chris says.