Playdock Z500
 

I am thinking of buying a Zen Vision M, but am struggling to see if there is a speaker docking station that supports it and what price.
On Creative website there appears to be a new Playdock Z500 coming out, does any one know when it is and how much it will be or if they are using another speaker system that works well?

Here's the press release bro... Z500

Also as I accidently opened a box that was hidden in our closet :D I found This After being caught sneaking in the closet, I convinced the wife to let me try it on my Zen to MAKE SURE it worked... Sure enough .... was pumping Trance Around the World through my 5.1 speaker system!!!! I'm realizing that even though it says "iPod only" thats not necessairly the case in some instances.....

this is right at the bottom of the press release.

Very nice!

PlayDock Zen Z500
 

Hi,
Anyone knows if PlayDock Zen Z500 be connected to a home theater system ?
THX

That would defeat the purpose of the dock.

If you are connecting to s home theatre system, why not just use the sync adapter?

I know that will defeat its purpose but with the Dock hooked up i can use the wireless remote to navigate Zen and with the adapter i cant....my main goal is to use Zen with wireless remote.
Thx

fair enough.
There SHOULD BE output like the dongle so that you can connect external speakers.
I have not checked so cannot confirm. You can check the specification to see if there is any output ports.

well i cant find any info.. send Creative an email, they should know the answer :p

I have asked Creative and even ask them to send me a link for user manual but they keep giving me links to European creative sites and even they dont have User manual....so that i am kind a stuck...If anyone owns this Dock please let me know if this can be hooked up to a theater system..
THX

After reading about it, it has an aux INPUT, a video out, and a headphone out. You could hook up the headphone out to your theater system and using the vid out see it on your TV.

Anyone bought this yet? Feedback?

I'm curious to know about people's experiences of the Playdock Z500 as well. Having just got the ZVM, i'm probably going to want some good speakers for it and these ones are among my top choices.

200 bucks is outrageous, IMO. It would be cheaper to set up the zen to play through my stereo. Hell, it would be cheaper to BUY a stereo to play my Zen through.

I found a set of computer speakers with a subwoofer at a yard sale for $5, they have great quality and plenty of volume, and you can't beat the price. Depending on the size and style they can be quite portable as long as you have and AC power supply.

I bought Creative's 3100 2.1 system online at Circuit City with rebates for $20. It acutally has a picture of a ZVM hooked to it on the box. Sounds fabulous. Think about it . the 500 is just a plastic box with 2 speakers and an amp. $200 ? you got to be kidding. A year from now it will be $20.
Johnny

Yeah, on a lot of iPod docks the connectors are suspiciously similar to those which the ZV:M uses. I'm thinking of bringing my player the next time I go to a store that sells iPod accessories, and comparing the dongle's connector to the one on the dock, since I don't want to try and put my Zen in there unless I'm sure it won't mess up the data port, since my player would be SCREWED at that point.:eek:

Playdock Corrupting Zen Hard Drive
 

has anyone else had problems when using Z500 playdock. Within minutes of putting Zen (vision m 30gb) into playdock Zen becomes very sluggish, tracks take ages to start, menus stick, start up and shut down is slow, hard disk makes rhymical faint clicking noises. Even after taking out playdock, problems still exist (including very slow transfer from PC).
"Disk clean up" doesn't work (sticks on "scan disk").

I have found a cure for the problem is to re-format harddrive and reload all my music, then my ZEN performs perfectly, until placed back in the playdock again, then the same problems occur.

I did another format and reload a week ago and have been using my ZEN with the hifi instead of playdock, resulting in, no problems.

I love the sound of the playdock but obviously the above problem makes it unuseable.

Would like to know other users experiences with the Z500, is it a fault with my one?, or a design fault affecting all playdocks?.

There is a magnetic field close to where the Zen sits in the playdock (have tested with compass), could this be affecting the harddrive?.

I am using the latest firmware.

Have contacted creative and they suggested ZEN could be at fault, but as I have said above, without the Z500 the ZEN works perfectly.

Help, any ideas. Would love to get this sorted. Last resort would be to get a refund.

Paul.

It could very well be the magnet affecting the HD

As extraordinarily unlikely as it sounds, right now it's the only remotely-plausible explanation. Try taking your player to a store that sells Playdocks, and plug your player into another one and see what happens.