Detailed Creative Jukebox Zen MP3 Player Description & Review

Creative: Jukebox Zen £276.77inc. VAT  &  Delivery

The Jukebox Zen has been superceded by players such as the Creative Zen Micro Photo 8gb and the Creative Zen Sleek 20GB.

The Creative NOMAD Zen Jukebox, or Zen to its friends.

Very sleek. Very cool. The first Creative Jukebox that does not seem to owe something in its design to the Discman or at least to Portable CD players. Finally, a hard disk Creative Jukebox that fits straight in your pocket!

It's slimmer and lighter than the Archos FM Recorder 20, but the smaller size is probably due to the corners not having knock-stoppers. It also has fewer features than the FM20, but it plays more than just MP3s.

So what's good and bad about the Zen? Here is the dirt.

Bad points:

Headphone output only. No direct connection to amps etc.

Record options: Nil. At the moment. Like most Jukeboxes the Zen needs a computer to make its music files for it. (Once you have files, however, they can be transferred direct from Zen to Zen without a computer. See below for more). We say at the moment because there is some rumour of the Zen being able to record using the 'new' "Wired FM Remote". Creative have been less than forthcoming with their accessories. At the moment the only place any UK consumer can buy the Creative accessories is from creative.com. We have been asking nicely for a long time if we can please sell their accessories.

The Creative Zen's control buttons are all down the sides. This means that simultaneous hold-and-navigate around your tunes one-handed, a' la mobile phone texting, is a bit tricky at first unless you're a skilled guitarist or a basketball player. Oh, and that one hand should be the right hand. Maybe it's years of using mobile phones in a specific way that makes it seem tricky. You get used to it after a while, but we have to think that front buttoned would be easier.

The screen is bigger than older models of Creative Jukeboxes, but it could do with being bigger still.

The worst real complaint about using this Jukebox is the same as for other Creative Jukeboxes: the software that comes with it actually seems to set about thwarting your attempts to control its contents. As before, this can be fixed with this software.

Marketing Pap: once again Creative have listed that the Zen can hold a huge 667 Hours of WMA encoded at 64Kbps. Yes, that is true. It could also hold 1500 hours (rounded up) of WMA encoded at 32Kbps. There seems to be no valid reason why Creative didn't say this. Neither music encoded at 64Kbps nor 32Kbps WMA is actually enjoyable to listen too, sounding as it does like music piped over a can-and-string phone system from the bottom of the sea.

Originally only USB 1.1. Thankfully Zens now come with USB 2 as well. We're into the nit-picking now.

Other Points:

The Zen allows USB recharge. You can recharge your Zen in about 4 hours by plugging the unit into your computer's USB port. The USB connection accomplishes that nicely. It means that you only have to plug in one cable to both transfer music and recharge, at least.

If you want to upgrade your PC to include either USB 2.0 then you can get the necessary PCI cards here.

Unprotected tracks (i.e. those MP3s or WMAs not 'locked' by the copyright holders) and/ or data can be transferred between Zen Jukeboxes without going via a computer. I.e. Jukebox to Jukebox. Transfer lots of useful data and music in the middle of the Kalahari dessert. For example.

Smart volume/ Volume matching/ volume levelling. Call it what you like, this jukebox has it. No big jump/ drop in volume from one track to the next.

Creative EAX music tricks come as standard. Add effects: Sound like you're in a cave/ cathedral, based on your mood. Make slow songs more solemn by slowing them down; make chipper songs more chipmunk by speeding them up, etc.

Battery News:

"Up to 12 hours." That's about 9-10 hours on Earth. Like some of the competition's Jukeboxes the Zen has the battery locked in. I.e. it's not designed to be replaced, only recharged. This is not a good design idea. It prevents battery swaps to extend the operation life of the jukebox when you're away from power sources (in the Kalahari, for example) and in the (rare) event of the battery developing a fault, the whole Jukebox has to be sent in for repair. Having said that 10 hours is not bad for a battery life. If you were on a cycling holiday and could only recharge during the evening you would be still able to listen to music for the whole time you were cycling - assuming you cycle for 9-10 hours.

All in all this player is Really Good. If you prefer the styling of this model, or the WMA playback features then this is the player for you. Plus it's a much better price than the iPods.

Red Chair Software: Notmad Explorer

Most people who use Creative's PlayCenter will have come across its limitations. It's not a terrible piece of software, but then again it is ...

We heartily recommend that anyone with a Creative Jukebox buys themselves this piece of software to use instead. Notmad from Red Chair Software has just about every feature you can think of to give you full control over your Jukebox and its contents.

Manage all your music on your PC and on your Jukebox with this one all-embracing program.

Navigate through your Jukebox using the 'Notmad Explorer'. It has the look and feel of Windows Explorer, so it's instantly recognisable. It has very similar features too:

Drag-and-drop or copy/ paste Playlists, files or folders. Where did you put that song? Is it on your Jukebox at all? Is it on your Jukebox 4 times under different Playlists? Find out quickly with a search that uses a built-in, powerful SQL engine. Synchronise the contents of your PC and your Jukebox with one click. Notmad will automatically build any necessary new Playlists and directories when you transfer the MP3s (or WMAs) from your PC.

This software has advanced features as well. You can set your Jukebox up so that you can control it over a Network, for example, meaning you could access your Jukebox from the other side of the world!

Boasted features include:

• Clean, intuitive integration with Windows Explorer.
• Transfer files, folders, and Playlists by drag-and-drop, copy-and-paste, and SendTo.
• Automatic playlist and directory generation following transfers.
• Drag-and-drop playlist and ID3v2 and WMA tag editing.
• One-Touch PC-to-Jukebox synchronisation.
• Search and HTML/XML reporting provided by embedded Notmad SQL Engine.
• Internal Memory, SmartMedia Card, and FM Tuner support for Nomad II series.
• Tunes2Go: Automatically fill your Nomad II with songs on your way out the door.

Unlike some software manufacturers (e.g. Realnetworks) Red Chair have not taken the "Cash Cow" attitude that customers should buy their goods and then buy an update every six months for life, because with one purchase you can get lifetime updates, if you so choose.

All-in-all a great piece of software that does exactly what software should do: make your life easier.