iPod or Zen?

The last half of this thread looks more like a trolling fest than one about a real discussion about the G5 iPod and the Zen Vision:M. I'll add my two cents.

The iPod and the Vision:M are basically equivalent in features. Both support the 5-star rating system and smart playlists, though iTunes/iPod integration of smart playlists/synchronization is infinitely superior than Creative's integration with WMP10/11 (though 11 is much better than 10, in my experience). The Vision:M also supports Unicode-formatted tags, which means support for Asian characters, symbols, and the like, which the iPod has supported since at least 4G and which the Zen Touch had none.

Both support videos: the iPod only supports H.264, which is the best video codec out there right now, but has a RATED battery life of 2 hours at video (which means it's really less than half that). The Vision:M supports DivX4/5 (and DivX6, in my experience) and XviD without Global Motion Compensation enabled, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and Windows Media Video (though I've had the majority of my WMV's rejected by Creative's software for being incompatible, and had one "compatible" WMV at 320x180 resolution hang my Zen upon playback). The Vision:M also has a rated battery life at video at 4 hours, but most users have been able to coax it to play back 5 hours with ~500kbps DivX video. If you end up outputting your video to a TV, the Vision:M supports an outputted resolution of 640x480, infinitely superior in quality to the iPod's 320x240. Both device's battery life for audio is rated at 14 hours, though I've read numerous reviews stating that the Vision:M's battery doesn't reach 14 hours due to MP3 bitrate above 128 (and as usual, many iPod users report batteries which don't quite reach 8 hours).

Audio format support: iPod supports MP3, WAV, AIF, AAC. Vision:M supports MP3, WAV, WMA. Sound familiar? If you mod your iPod, it should also be able to play OGG and FLAC, but both would drain the battery beyond belief. If for some reason you actually purchase music online (lawl. what are you doing on this forum then?), the iPod is limited to iTunes, whereas the Vision:M can take anything from any store OTHER than iTunes (and RealPlayer?). However, in my opinion, AAC is infinitely superior to WMA as a codec. The Vision:M has an odd feature where its photos have a clear need of ANTI-ALIASING. But if you zoom in with your photos, it no longer becomes as big a deal. Both devices support use as a removable storage disk, but the iPod (unmodded) does not support true drag and drop like the Vision:M does. A bonus for the Vision:M is an included mic and FM tuner, but the iPod has more accessories which more than cover the Vision:M's extra features.

In the end, it really comes down to personal choice. For me, my horrible experience with the 4G iPod's battery life pushed me to the Vision:M without a second's glance back. However, the iPod is a nice device.. it's just that the Vision:M really does offer more to the user.

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Originally Posted by Storm Petrel

First of all, if you don't even know what SNR is, RABicle, then you should go do your research before coming here and saying things like you know what you are talking about, because I have done my share of the research, I spent 2 weeks researching before purchasing my Zen Touch.

And to neothone, Zen Touch DOES HAVE Unicode Tag support, my Zen Touch is the living proof, I have songs that are in Manderin Chinese, German, French etc and they all get displayed properly on the Zen Touch.

Enlighten me. What ID3 tags did you use, and what firmware version? It just occured to me that Unicode is probably supported in Firmware 2.x, but I didn't feel that wiping my entire library to upgrade from 1.x to 2.x was worth it.

Double Post:

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek

I just prefer to nagivate my hierarchal directory structure. I've been doing it that exact way ever since I encoded my very first Mp3 file, and I don't plan on changing any time soon. I like to know exactly where everything is, what is in each folder, how they're named and labeled, etc. I like to be in full control of my files and my iPod is no exception. I'm really very anal about how my files are organized.

The biggest thing that bothered me was trying to organize multi-disc OSTs. With my system, I can just click on the album name and navigae to \Disc 1\, \Disc 2\, etc, but I couldn't find an easy way to do this with iTunes and the default iPod OS, so I ended up having to make each disc into its own album, which just cluttered up my list.

You've never used iTunes, have you? iTunes easily handles disc numbers without having to change the album name, whereas Windows Media Player doesn't, and is a major frustration for me with my Zen Vision:M and game soundtracks.

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Originally Posted by ORLY

neothe0ne left out a couple of features that the Zen Vision:M has over the iPod in what was otherwise a great breakdown of the pros and cons between the two players.

First is that the Vision:M has a FM radio... In addition to that, the Vision:M has voice recording.

I did mention that.. it's one of the last sentences in the second to last paragraph. It's just that my post was so cluttered you probably missed it

Originally Posted by PiccoloNamek

I used iTunes for a long, long time before I installed Rockbox. I am aware of the "Disc Number X of X" entry, but I still couldn't find a way to organize an album into separate discs, like this:

Cardcaptor Sakura Complete Vocal Collection\
\Disc 1
\Disc 2
\Disc 3
\Disc 4

I tried everything and never could get it to work the way I wanted. Perhaps I was doing something wrong. In any case, even if it had worked perfectly, I would still have installed Rockbox, because iTunes is clunky and messes up my organization.

If you actually wanted to separate the discs as if they were seperate albums, then no, you can't do that without changing the album name. But still.. why would you want to do that anyways?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

But other times, you simply have products that have an almost ubiquitous problem. Mainly, iPod's with short batteries and Zen Touch Micro's with faulty headphone jacks.

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Originally Posted by neothe0ne

Zen Touch Micro's with faulty headphone jacks.

Which is exactly what I said. But that doesn't change anything for those whose 1-year warranty ran out and still have a faulty headphone jack for their Micro.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Shunyata

I decided on a Creative Zen for the battery life alone, basically. What I didn't realize until after getting it, was that it allows a wider range of music formats (wma, mp3, etc.), where, apparently, iPods only work with mp3s. I pretty much have only mp3 files, but there are still the few wma files that I wouldn't want to go without, and with iPods, you have to do everything through iTunes, where with Creative Zen, you can just as easily use Winamp, or any other music program.

When it comes to playing videos... I use both my computer and my television. There's no need for a 2" by 2" screen to squint upon just to view what I want to watch. The Creative Zen I bought doesn't even play videos, for that matter (basically cuts $100 off the price, while keeping the same amount of space, etc.). Pretty much the only problem I faced was losing the backlight due to dropping it about a week after getting it (due to the dimensions of the one I got, basically).

No offense... but you're posting the most ridiculous BS I've ever read on MP3 players. The iPod is (in)famous for its (nearly exclusive) support of M4A/AAC, in addition to ALAC (lossless in m4a container), AIF (Apple equivalent of WAV), WAV, and of course the ubiquitous MP3. Whereas the Zen only supports WMA, WAV, and MP3.

Also, the screen of the iPod and Zen Vision:M is 2.5" diagonally, which is surprisingly large.

How ya doing, buddy?