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ZEN (portable media player)
Encyclopedia
The ZEN is a portable media player
designed and manufactured by Creative Technology
. The flash memory
-based player is the de facto
successor of the ZEN Vision:M and was announced on August 29, 2007, to be available in capacities of 2, 4, 8, and 16 GB, as of September 14. A 32 GB model was announced on December 4, 2007, setting a record for storage capacity among flash players.
The player has a width of 83 mm (3.3 in), a height of 55 mm (2.2 in) and is 11.3 mm (0.44488188976378 in) thick—making it the slimmest Creative portable media player and the second slimmest Creative player of any type (other than the now-defunct MuVo Slim
) so far. Because of its dimensions, the ZEN is advertised to be the "size of a credit card". This is the first Creative player to have a SD card
slot (enabling the support of SD and SDHC cards; an optional adapter is needed for microSD and miniSD cards), support for DRM
free iTunes-encoded AAC
(in a ".m4a" extension), as well as a truecolor TFT LCD display.
/UMS
transfer system that makes the player compatible with Apple computers, it makes use of a slightly altered firmware which may not be installed on the original ZEN or vice versa.
The earlier ones have reportedly caused players to occasionally result in a white screen of death.
Version 1.10.05 was released on October 23, 2007. Thai language support was added, while video playback was improved. Adapter charging and startup time were quickened.
The prior version, 1.20.02, was released on December 19, 2007. Transferring content via the SD card slot is enabled, though only image files are viewable.
Firmware version 1.21.01 was released on February 28, 2008. It improves the player's playback performance of WMA (.wma) files.
The latest version, 1.21.03, was released on January 19, 2009, which improves FM radio player operation.
audio format. However, only iTunes
-encoded files can be played by the player hardware. iTunes's implementation has been licensed by Apple from Dolby
and is proprietary. These files are in the .m4a format, which is the same as the Apple Lossless Audio Codec. Creative has acknowledged this issue in a support article.
The latest version of Nero-AAC Encoder (1.3.3.0) "Solved compatibility issues with some hardware devices". Including ZEN. This update makes Nero-Coded AAC files playable on ZEN.
Portable media player
A portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
designed and manufactured by Creative Technology
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
. The flash memory
Flash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
-based player is the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
successor of the ZEN Vision:M and was announced on August 29, 2007, to be available in capacities of 2, 4, 8, and 16 GB, as of September 14. A 32 GB model was announced on December 4, 2007, setting a record for storage capacity among flash players.
The player has a width of 83 mm (3.3 in), a height of 55 mm (2.2 in) and is 11.3 mm (0.44488188976378 in) thick—making it the slimmest Creative portable media player and the second slimmest Creative player of any type (other than the now-defunct MuVo Slim
Creative MuVo player models
This article is about the technical specifications of various Creative MuVo series media players. The models listed here are organized by their release date with the older models at the top to the newer models at the bottom...
) so far. Because of its dimensions, the ZEN is advertised to be the "size of a credit card". This is the first Creative player to have a SD card
Secure Digital card
Secure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
slot (enabling the support of SD and SDHC cards; an optional adapter is needed for microSD and miniSD cards), support for DRM
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
free iTunes-encoded AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
(in a ".m4a" extension), as well as a truecolor TFT LCD display.
ZEN MX
The ZEN MX is a derivative of the ZEN launched in 2009. The form factor is exactly the same as the ZEN, though less than a millimeter thicker at 11.9 mm (0.47 inches), but there are a few notable feature differences. The ZEN MX does not support .AVI, .MPG, or .AAC files natively. In order for them to be played back on the device, they must be transcoded using the bundled converter. The player's button layout is slightly altered, merging the play/pause button with the power button. The MX version also allows for music to be imported from the SD card to the player's internal memory and library, in addition to the ZEN's original picture import mode. Because the ZEN MX features the MSCMSC
- Computers:* Mario Strikers Charged* Microsoft Common Console Document, file for the Microsoft Management Console* Microelectronics Support Centre* Microsoft Corporation* MIDI Show Control* Message Sequence Chart...
/UMS
UMS
UMS may refer to:* Universal Motion Simulator, at the Centre for Intelligent Systems Research* Underwriting Management System, for automated Insurance Underwriting* Unified Messaging * Uniform Mark Scheme...
transfer system that makes the player compatible with Apple computers, it makes use of a slightly altered firmware which may not be installed on the original ZEN or vice versa.
Specifications
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 2/4/8/16/32 GB Gigabyte The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is... |
| Memory type | Flash-based Flash memory Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data... |
| Dimensions | 82 × 54 × 11 mm/3.26 × 2.16 × 0.44 in |
| Weight | 65 g (2.3 oz) |
| Screen | 2.5 in (63.5 mm) TFT LCD |
| Screen resolution | 320 × 240 pixels (QVGA) |
| Color depth | 24-bit (16.7 million colors) |
| Battery life | Audio playback: >30 hr Video playback: >5 hr |
| Video formats | MJPEG, WMV Windows Media Video 'Windows Media Video is a video compression format for several proprietary codecs developed by Microsoft. The original video format, known as WMV, was originally designed for Internet streaming applications, as a competitor to RealVideo. The other formats, such as WMV Screen and WMV Image, cater... , and AVI Audio Video Interleave Audio Video Interleave , known by its acronym AVI, is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback... (MPEG-4 SP, DivX DivX DivX is a brand name of products created by DivX, Inc. , including the DivX Codec which has become popular due to its ability to compress lengthy video segments into small sizes while maintaining relatively high visual quality.There are two DivX codecs; the regular MPEG-4 Part 2 DivX codec and the... , Xvid XviD Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a... ), while MPEG-1, and MPEG-2 MPEG-2 MPEG-2 is a standard for "the generic coding of moving pictures and associated audio information". It describes a combination of lossy video compression and lossy audio data compression methods which permit storage and transmission of movies using currently available storage media and transmission... are supported, but must be transcoded Transcode Transcoding is the direct digital-to-digital data conversion of one encoding to another, such as for movie data files or audio files. This is usually done in cases where a target device does not support the format or has limited storage capacity that mandates a reduced file size, or to convert... with the included software (Video must not exceed the player's dimensions at 320 × 240 pixels). ZEN MX: AVI, WMV, MP4, MPG, ASF, MOV QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible proprietary multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. The classic version of QuickTime is available for Windows XP and later, as well as Mac OS X Leopard and... , M4V, DAT (all transcoded into Creative's proprietary CMV format) |
| Audio formats | MP3 MP3 MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression... , iTunes-encoded AAC Advanced Audio Coding Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates.... (unprotected ".m4a"), WMA Windows Media Audio Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs... (including protected), not in ZEN MX: WAV WAV Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs... and Audible Audible.com Audible.com is an Internet provider of spoken audio entertainment, information, and educational programming.Audible sells digital audiobooks, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers.... 2, 3, and 4 formats |
| Photo formats | JPEG JPEG In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality.... (other formats would be transcoded) |
| Battery | Removable, rechargeable lithium-ion battery |
| Signal-to-noise ratio | Up to 97 dB Decibel The decibel is a logarithmic unit that indicates the ratio of a physical quantity relative to a specified or implied reference level. A ratio in decibels is ten times the logarithm to base 10 of the ratio of two power quantities... |
| EQ Equalization Equalization, is the process of adjusting the balance between frequency components within an electronic signal. The most well known use of equalization is in sound recording and reproduction but there are many other applications in electronics and telecommunications. The circuit or equipment used... types |
Pop, jazz, rock, disco, vocal, new age, classical, acoustic, and 5-band custom setting |
| Album art source | ID3 ID3 ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself.... tag/jpeg file in album folder |
| Microphone input quota | 10 hr |
| FM radio presets | 32 |
| Connection type | USB 1.1/2.0, SD memory card |
| PIM Personal information manager A personal information manager is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to Personal information management as a field of study... |
Synchronises with Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook Microsoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite... contacts, calendar, and tasks |
| System requirements | Windows 7, Windows Vista Windows Vista Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs... or XP Windows XP Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base... . For Linux, see libmtp (Native support as a mass storage device is available on Ubuntu 9.04+, and possibly other linux distributions). Third party programs such as XNJB add transfer-only Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems... compatibility. |
Firmware releases
Numerous firmware updates were released very soon after the player's launch, fixing a variety of bugs, but Creative did not add features to the SD Card functionality. The SD card functionality is considered to be poor by many people who own a Creative Zen because these people had expected the SD card to function more along the lines of a RAM expansion pack or additional non-volatile RAM instead of a separate drive with limited functionality, which is how Creative designed it to act. The ZEN MX requires an entirely different firmware.The earlier ones have reportedly caused players to occasionally result in a white screen of death.
Version 1.10.05 was released on October 23, 2007. Thai language support was added, while video playback was improved. Adapter charging and startup time were quickened.
The prior version, 1.20.02, was released on December 19, 2007. Transferring content via the SD card slot is enabled, though only image files are viewable.
Firmware version 1.21.01 was released on February 28, 2008. It improves the player's playback performance of WMA (.wma) files.
The latest version, 1.21.03, was released on January 19, 2009, which improves FM radio player operation.
AAC Support
Creative states that the ZEN supports the AACAdvanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
audio format. However, only iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
-encoded files can be played by the player hardware. iTunes's implementation has been licensed by Apple from Dolby
Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. , often shortened to Dolby Labs, is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression.-History:...
and is proprietary. These files are in the .m4a format, which is the same as the Apple Lossless Audio Codec. Creative has acknowledged this issue in a support article.
The latest version of Nero-AAC Encoder (1.3.3.0) "Solved compatibility issues with some hardware devices". Including ZEN. This update makes Nero-Coded AAC files playable on ZEN.
See also
- Creative ZENCreative ZenThe Creative ZEN is a range of digital audio players and portable media players made by Creative Technology. The players evolved from the now-defunct NOMAD brand through the NOMAD Jukebox series...
- Creative TechnologyCreative TechnologyCreative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
- Portable media playerPortable media playerA portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
- Comparison of portable media playersComparison of portable media playersThe following comparison of portable media players compares general and technical information for notable digital playback devices.- General :- Technical specifications :- Syncing and transfer :- Wifi Connectivity :- Audio formats :...