Creative MP3 players(Zen and Zen Vision M)

I'm in the market for a new MP3 player. My old Cowon X5 only holds a charge for around 4 hours, and that isnt cutting it for me. I'm interested/torn between the Creative Zen Vision M(30 gig), and the Zen(16 gig). I only have 10 gigs of music, so both have more then enough space. The big question for me though, is video playback. Do i need to transcode all my movies before i drag them on, or will they play DivX/Xvid at high resolutions? I know it'll eat up more memory, but i'm more interested in the convenience of simply dragging it in, rather then have to spend a solid day re-encoding all my movies. Id only keep 3 or 4 on the thing anyway.

So to sum up:
Will creatives new players non-standard resolution Divx/Xvid videos?

 

Hey Cam. I personally own the Zen 30GB and can tell you that its awesome. It can play Divx and Xvid both but the audio stream HAS to be MP3 as it cannot play an AC3 audio stream. If the vid in question has an AC3 audio stream it will likely play but without sound. As long as the audio is in MP3 format then you should be ok. As far as the 30GB vs the 16GB I'd say just go for the 16GB unless you feel that you would outgrow it soon. In that case go for the 30GB. I can tell you that you will likely be happy with purchasing either as its one of the best investments I've made in some time. Hope this helps.

 

if you don't want to convert, stick with the 30 gig Zen Vision M. The Zen has to convert all the files other than WMA I believe. Also, I think that it can play AVI without conversion, but that's only if the video is 320x240 (I doubt that yours will be).

 

I have the same question. I have an old 3g iPod and am more interested in video and have heard too many negative things about the new ipod to invest in another. I am looking at the Creative Zen and the new Zune? Any thoughts on which is better for video? I want to be able to take tv shows recorded on a Vista Media Center PC with a tv tuner card and the occasional DVD. I want the easiest solution as close as possible to drag and drop. Any thoughts?

 

get the zune. I think the zen will be nicer for viewing movies on the actually player compared to the Zune, even though the Zen's screen is smaller. I'm guessing it's because both of the resolutions on the players are each 320x240 and the zune's screen is 3.2 inches while the smaller Zen is 2.5 inches. Since you want to do all that Vista Media Center stuff, just get the 80gig Zune.