Syncing it to my laptop or other computers is easy, the viewing experience is wonderful.... and I don't think I can fill up its 20 GB hard drive. With a couple hundred videos on it so far, it looks like it'll hold well over 100 hours of the home video productions made with Movie Maker and PhotoStory. It's a perfect compliment to my computer video productions.

Some Video Samples on the Zen

I'm jotting notes to share what I think of the Zen.... and I've taken copies of a few of them back from the Zen to show you what the video/audio quality is like.

Click one of these five links to view the file. These snapshots, taken from them by Movie Maker, they are at the same 320x240 pixel resolution that the videos are. I want you to see the same quality and viewing experience as you will when you see these videos on the Zen.

Of course the quality of the video on the Zen depends on the quality of the files to start with.... so I'm showing a mix of videos made from my analog Hi8 camcorder, my new digital camcorder, and one of WMV-HD files from the new dual disc High-Definition packs.

Sample 1 - At the MVP Summit in 2003, I videod the monorail ride from one end to the other, using my analog Hi8 camcorder. The complete 'short' ride is here.

At the Seattle Center end of the ride, there's a wonderful 'Experience Music' attraction.... the video includes the entry-way to the exhibit area.

Zen and Seattle Monorail - Analog Hi8 Camcorder

Sample 2 - The grands are great to video, and then go to your own home to edit the footage in quiet. At this slumber party they let me take a bit of video... then closed the curtains. The footage is also from my analog Hi8 camcorder.

The opening clip was made in the days of MM1, when I had to do my own transitions and effects while waiting for MM2 to come along.

Zen and Grandkids - Analog Hi8 Camcorder

Sample 3 - The Brook Lodge in Augusta, Michigan will be the background for a wedding video I'll be doing in August 2004.

I took some footage there with my new digital camcorder to check it out a bit.

Zen and Brook Lodge - Digital Camcorder

Sample 4 - the Seagulls at the beach in Saugatuck, Michigan are always interesting and challenging subjects. The clips here were from my analog Hi8 camcorder.

Zen and Seagulls - Analog Hi8 Camcorder

Sample 5 - The best is toward the end... some footage from a few of the WMV-HD discs in the new dual disc packs.

The main feature files are protected by DRM and can't be copied to the Zen, but the extras on the discs are free to use.... and the trailers are of the same high quality as the main features. It's a good test of what true WMV-HD looks like when rendered/copied to the Zen. I noted when rendering/copying the WMV-HD files to the Zen that the time was similar regardless of the quality of the source files....

Zen and Files from WMV-HD discs

Sample 6 - How closely can you get to the quality of sample 5 above? Try a PhotoStory.

Here's one of the sample PhotoStories used on my PhotoStory website.

www.photostory.papajohn.org

I put it together to demo how a higher quality story would play from a streaming server.... it was made from high resolution pictures and rendered as a story with the optional 800x600 profile. Here's the copy as its playing on the Zen.

Zen and a PhotoStory

While you watch these, I'll check my notes and start adding some comments about the player.

9/6/04 - I received my notice to return the Zen.... it was a loaner to evaluate and write about. So it goes back tomorrow and that'll be the end of this blog topic. This blog page will be moved into my Movie Maker website under a new menu item for Distributing > Portable Media Centers.

I had one last fling with it today. At a family get-together I handed it to the youngest of the 5 grands. We were celebrating his 6th birthday. I showed him the on-off switch, and told him to use the big green button to start over when he wants to.... within seconds he and the other 4 grands, and some of their friends, were happily watching lots of movies. None of them needed more help with the controls.

The Zen feels so comfortable and appears so rugged that I had no qualms about turning it over to them for a few hours.... and it came through fine.

9/3/04 - Custom Profile to Use with Movie Maker

If you're a Movie Maker user and want to avoid the transcoding step when you copy your movies to the Zen, one option is to render the movie using a custom profile that aligns the saved movie with the specs for the Zen. I added a downloadable custom profile to the website which does it..... the link is on the Saving Movies > Custom WMV Profiles page.... and here's a direct link.

Portable Media Center Custom Profile

9/2/04 - WMP10 was Released with a Key Change Since the Last Beta Version

....there were lots of announcements today.... including one I've been waiting for - the final release of Windows Media Player 10. That's the software that syncs with the Zen and I wanted to test one of the features that I had heard about, but wasn't able to test in the beta release. The feature is WMP10's ability to transcode the video files before the Zen is connected, so I won't have to wait with it attached as it transcodes (which takes a while) and then copies files to the Zen (which is quick).

As soon as I downloaded and installed the final release, I checked it all over and everything worked fine.... including the syncing and moving of files to the Zen. But it was all like the beta; I didn't see how to tell WMP10 to transcode the video files before the Zen was plugged in.

I found the answer in Galan Bridgeman's 8/25/04 online article: Using Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers and Windows Media Player 10. Toward the bottom is a section named 'Auto Sync and Background Conversions'. I'm exploring that now.

While exploring the settings that Galan discusses, I came across an interesting one, the location and size of a cache of files for WMP10 to use for temporary files. The setting is in WMP10 > Tools > Options > Devices tab > Zen (only shows on the list if it's connected) > Advanced. The default location is 7 layers of folders down and the default setting on my laptop is to use 5723 MB. That's a lot more space out of laptop's hard drive than I want to turn over to any application for temporary files unless I can keep a good eye on it.

From that settings window, you can delete the current set of temporary files, change the location of the folder, and the amound of disk space alloted. I started by clearing out what I had collected in it so far, and changing the location to c:\temp\Zen Transcoded Files Cache, someplace easier for me to keep an eye on. I left the size the same. I freed up a good bit of space when I cleared out the files so I know it's not reserved space, just a maximum setting.

I put a few more videos of the wedding onto the Zen.... the same files as on the website, but somehow they look better playing on the Zen.

8/29/04 - The Wedding Reception Was Too Good

Everyone at our table got to see the Zen and the reaction was totally positive.... I've yet to run into anyone who doesn't understand why you would get one, or who thinks the $500 price tag area is too much.

The band was terrific and kept everyone on the dance floor, so the Zen had to take a back seat to the wedding reception party, and not make the rounds of all the tables.... and the party kept me busy taking video; I got over 4 hours of footage from the weekend to show off in the Zen in the future.

8/28/04 - All Who See the Zen Love it Immediately

I'm doing a wedding video this weekend.... yesterday was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. As I walked around the dinner taking videos, I let some of the people who were interested in digital video see the Zen with the above samples and other stuff on it. They all loved it instantly, especially when listening to it with the ear-buds.... the room was pretty noisy so the built-in speaker wasn't sufficient.

.... and they didn't even see the good one yet, a video of the rehearsal with themselves in it. When I got home last night I captured the camcorder video footage from the rehearsal and dinner, whipped up a video with minimal editing, added background music and rendered a 22 minute flick. As I write this, it's being synced to the Zen.

At today's wedding reception, I'll let the Zen be passed around to give the non-dancers another option.... seeing a video of yesterday's rehearsal and dinner.... OK, the rehearsal flick is on the Zen and playing great. It's time to get dressed and head to the wedding.

8/27/04 - Getting Files to or From the Zen

How do you get your movies and other files into the Creative Zen? What file types will it take? A few words about that, and a couple pictures to show you the syncing process.

The Zen will have an ongoing primary relationship with one of your computers, one that is running the new version 10 of the Windows Media Player (WMP). No software or driver installation.... just plug the Zen into a USB port (USB1 or USB2) and WMP10 will see and work with it. Not much for you to do except plug the Zen in and turn it on.

I've been putting files on it all week from my computer.... to test it a bit more with other file types, I just downloaded an assorted batch of files from the Prelinger Internet Archives... DIVX encoded AVI, MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2 files, RM... no WMVs in the batch.

I use Total Commander as my file browser.... it has an ftp feature that I use to connect to the Prelinger Archives and download files. I just drag and drop the batch of files from the list in Total Commander to the left side of WMP10. That stages the list of files to be synced to the Zen. I dropped the whole batch in, and WMP10 accepted all of them except the MOV (Quick Time) and RM (Real Media) files, as expected.

With the list of files at the left and the Zen connected, I pressed the 'Start Sync' button on the WMP10 menu. WMP10 took it from there, converting each of the files into appropriate WMV files and copying them to the Zen. This snapshot shows that part of the process in action..... super easy and it did them... including the DIVX encoded, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files. It should do anything I can play in WMP10. Of course I need appropriate codecs on my computer to support playing Divx and MPEG-2 files.

When this batch of files finished, WMP10 refreshed the list of current files on the Zen.... here's the short list of the files I just synced at the left, and the list of what's now on the Zen at the right.

For the eagle-eyed, I'll explain the only file you see in the lists on both sides. '00087' is a Prelinger Archives Divx encoded video. The transcoding rendered it to a new WMV file for the Zen..... note that the file on the Zen is larger than the Divx encoded AVI file at the left. Usually files on the Zen are smaller, but not in this case.

Just unplug the Zen, take it wherever you want and see the videos. I checked the new ones and they all played great, including '00087' as I'm learning to expect. By the way, I didn't know what '00087' was when I downloaded it, and it's a 9-1/2 minute flick 'What is Capitalism?'

This flow of files from your computer to the Zen is a one way street. You can delete them from the Zen using WMP10, but you can't copy them from the Zen to your computer.

To copy a file from the Zen, explore 'My Computer', go to the Zen, select the file and copy it to wherever you want. It'll be a WMV file that you can use in Movie Maker.

8/25/04

I thought I was done with the sample videos yesterday, ending with one from WMV-HD files..... but today I added a 6th and important one, a PhotoStory.

The main menu of the Zen has 4 main groups of files: my TV, my music, my pictures, and my videos. Additionally it has a settings choice. Movies and PhotoStories are accessed by the videos choice.

When exploring the settings a bit, I realized I should have moved the brightness setting up from average (#3) to bright (#5) when shooting the videos of the Zen.... but they are good enough as is. I won't do a reshoot, but I'll leave it set at the brighter level for a while to see how it works there.

A word about sound.... you have a choice of listening to it with the built-in speaker, which is suitable, or with plug-in earbuds that come with it, which are great!! One of the menu options is for an equalizer setting: None, Acoustic, Classical, Electronic, Hip Hop, Jazz, Pop, or Rock. You can explore the different sound effects as music is playing. In fact music keeps playing all the time if you opt for the 'play all' option. It plays even during a slide show of your still pictures. The only time it stops is when you start a video or recorded TV show, or you turn it off.

About the still picture slide show option: the pictures do a fade or dissolve transition between images, as they do in PhotoStory.... no pans or zooms, but you have the background music so the default experience is pretty good.

8/24/04

I've been playing with a Creative Zen for a week now.... and here's my initial assessment:

It works and works well.... it's a great product for someone who is as much into making movies as I am. It makes you want to carry it everywhere and show it to everyone!!! From my lowest quality videos to trailers from the new WMV-HD (High Definition) dual disc packs, the movies are easily rendered and copied to the unit during a sync process with WMP10. Those who won't come over to your computer to watch your creations can now be cornered and made to watch them on this portable player. They won't watch them long, as you'll want it back or show it to someone else. The Zen does for your movies what players like the iPod do for your music.

Movies that meet the specs for the Zen (320x240 pixel dimensions and 800 Kbps bitrate or less) are copied quickly to it during a sync process. Those that don't meet the specs.... like the 720p High Definition files.... are automatically rendered by WMP10 to appropriately sized files and then copied. The rendering time is about the same as real-time, so a 1/2 hour video will take about 1/2 hour for the rendering (on my 2.4 GHz computer). It would be nice if WMP10 would do the rendering as it stages files for the sync process rather than waiting for the Zen to be connected before starting.... this is number 1 on my wish list.

The Zen is weak in file management features. Deleting files can only be done using WMP10 during a sync process. You can't rename a file on the Zen but you can have multiple files with the same name. I have over 200 videos on the unit so far, but can't effectively structure them in folders and subfolders.... just one long running list. The list is in alphabetical order and can be scrolled through very quickly..... but I need to remember what the file name is, especially if I'm trying to impress someone by showing it.... I can't scroll easily thru 1000 files seeing only 6 names at a time and not remembering if I called it 'Tim's Birthday' or 'Birthday - Tim' or June 10 - Tim's Birthday' or '?????'. But, when I find it, it's guaranteed to be a hit when playing on the Zen.