I'm going to start off by saying that I'm not an Apple/Ipod fanboy. I've owned an old 3rd gen in the past and now I'm looking for something that'll hold a lot more files and play videos.

I was pretty much set on the 30GB Ipod video until I read some reviews about how the UI was slow to navigate, the video battery life sucked, and that itunes wouldnt let you import videos that are avi's and mpeg's (what most of my video library is composed of). The Zen seems like a decent alternative, assuming the video/movie playback is as good as they say it is. The main thing keeping me back from purchasing it is creative's support in case of battery/drive failures, which i'm sure Apple easily owns.

So what do you guys think? Do any of youall have the Zen?

3/6/2007 4:42:36 PM

zune from the bookstore ftw

3/6/2007 4:49:46 PM

theres two versions of 5G videos. the older 30gig/60gig ones and the newer 30gig/80gig ones. the newer ones have like 2X the battery life and adjustable brightness. so make sure you know which version youre reading about.

zune? bahahahahah

3/6/2007 5:03:36 PM

actually compared to the ipod the screen on the zune is huge

i wasnt a believer until i played with it

3/6/2007 5:06:45 PM

Can someone explain to me why you would want to watch video on a 3" screen?

3/6/2007 5:07:41 PM

the zune is an abomination



I have a vision:m. it's ok, but the battery life is fucking terrible.

3/6/2007 6:05:39 PM

Can someone explain to my why you would want to listen to music on tiny headphones when you can instead sit in a car with amps and subs

3/6/2007 6:07:24 PM

because I can't drive my fucking car into my office and my co-workers might not like to listen to John Coltrane for 8 hours, you fucking moron

3/6/2007 6:08:39 PM

^ I was responding to

Quote :

"Can someone explain to me why you would want to watch video on a 3" screen?"

Sarcasm, much?

3/6/2007 6:11:58 PM

i have the 60 gb ipod and it has adjustable brightness and i think the estimated battery life is the same

3/6/2007 6:13:34 PM

Quote :

"actually compared to the ipod the screen on any so-called portable device the zune is huge"

Fixed.

3/6/2007 6:43:06 PM

i think i'm leanding toward the creative, because of the multimedia it can support and it looks a little better than the ipod.

do you guys know if circuit city/best buy/staples can pricematch to amazon.com? They've got the cheapest price for the creative.

[Edited on March 6, 2007 at 7:31 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2007 7:24:25 PM

^^ Well walk into the bookstore's computer section sometime and give the zune a look if you think it's so big. We've got one on display so we can try to sell some. Nobody wants them because they all think it's bigger than jesus, but it's really not that bad!

3/6/2007 8:10:50 PM

OMG, IT'S GINORMOUS!!!



you'd be a fool if the fact that it's SO HUGE is your only reason to hate it, it should be quite obvious that the gorgeous screen MADE for video is what causes the millimeters of difference in size.

personally it's not the size that keeps me away, it's the fact that none of my music i've already purchased online will play on it... absolutely retarded

i'd go for the creative

[Edited on March 6, 2007 at 8:28 PM. Reason : .]

3/6/2007 8:26:12 PM

my bro has a program that converts avis/ mpegs to whatever the ipod format. can't remember the name, but we have all the VW commercials on there and quite a few music vids

3/6/2007 8:29:59 PM

I thought Microsoft was gonna buy everyone out of iTunes if you bought a Zune?

Did they not do that?

3/6/2007 8:30:43 PM

Quote :

"you'd be a fool if the fact that it's SO HUGE is your only reason to hate it, it should be quite obvious that the gorgeous screen MADE for video is what causes the millimeters of difference in size. "

Have you held both?

The zune is bulky and cheap feeling.

3/6/2007 10:49:57 PM

Quote :

"OMG, IT'S GINORMOUS!!! you'd be a fool if the fact that it's SO HUGE is your only reason to hate it, it should be quite obvious that the gorgeous screen MADE for video is what causes the millimeters of difference in size."

Now show the side view.

The Zune is massive.

3/6/2007 11:11:48 PM

Haha. You can almost tell that from the essentially 2D picture. The Zune casts a shadow on the iPod.

3/6/2007 11:12:48 PM

I love my zen, and the only thing it doesn't do that I wish it did was interface with itunes. Then again, I wish itunes would have folder monitoring, which wmp DOES have... so whatever.

Anyway, the zen has true color rather than 16 bit, it plays tons of video types whereas the ipod only plays m4v, and in my opinion, it sounds better. There are less accessories out there for it, but I was never into accessories when I had an ipod either.

Quote :

"The main thing keeping me back from purchasing it is creative's support in case of battery/drive failures, which i'm sure Apple easily owns."

Can't speak to their support, as I haven't needed it at all in the 6 months I've had the thing, but from what I understand, the battery doesn't just magically stop working after a year, and the hard drive doesn't start churning and clanking and die on you soon after the battery dies within that year. So, if the support isn't as good, that might be ok, because you might not need it so badly.

also my zune's battery life is good - better than the 3g ipod I had before, but I understand the new ipods have far better battery life.

[Edited on March 7, 2007 at 12:53 AM. Reason : .]

[Edited on March 7, 2007 at 12:54 AM. Reason : ,']

3/7/2007 12:52:24 AM

get an ipod

3/7/2007 7:14:08 AM

If you're interested in good video, you might want to consider a Cowon A2. I've got one since I do a lot of business travelling and wanted to bring my own in-flight movies, and I love it. The battery life is fantastic (I get 8-10 hrs of video, about 15 hrs of audio on it), and the video screen is bigger than an Ipod or a Zune. As a result, it's a larger device than either, but for my needs at least, the extra size is worth it. Navigation is pretty straightforward, it doesn't require any software to sync up with, it plays a lot of file formats, it can record video from a TV on the fly, radio tuner, all kinds of stuff on it.

3/7/2007 8:52:10 AM