Notable differences using SD memory?

[reservoir_dogs]

Hey all, this is my first post (probably first of many more!)

I'm very intrigued by the Zen, and definitely want to buy it. It's just a matter of size right now.

I think 4GB is sufficient. Here are my two options:
1) Buy the 4GB
2) Buy the 2GB, and find a 2GB SD card on eBay, where the total will be less than the 4GB.

It seems that #2 is the no-brainer. But will the data be read slower if it's reading from the SD, and not on flash? Am I better off to just buy the 4GB?

Any info would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

[CrowdAds]

[leenippsound]

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...play.php?f=138

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=20211

i would recomend you check out these faqs first, as they are extremley helpfull. i have had my zen for a while now, and love it. personaly, the choice you list above is dependent on how you use your player. if your putting just music on it, i would recomend buying the 4GB version, just because the SD card dosent intergrate with the main memory on the player, so you'd be left with two lots of music, accesed through 2 menu paths, and organized in two different ways <main memory is id3tags, sd card is file folder>. i presonley use the main memory for my music and the card for video's and pictures. that helps to keep everything strait.

keep in mind that when/if you pick one up, and you do the firmwear upgrade, depending on the platform you use you may need to do it twice, right away, but its nothing to wory about.

by the way, weclome to the fourms, from one newbie to another.

[HipHopScribe]

This is covered in the Zen review on this site, the SD slot is pretty crippled for music use:

"Creative has added an SD card slot for expandability which, however, is severely crippled. The SD card does not fully integrate into the library; it is a completely separate entity which cannot take advantage of all media functions.

Here is how the SD card works. In order to use media (video, photos, or audio) you must go to the "Memory Card" menu on the player. When in this menu you can browse the media by typical file folder browsing, but ID3 browsing cannot be enabled. All media is playable by selecting, but you don't have the same options, such as "view details", "lookup artist", "remove", "save as playlist", "add to playlist", and "set bookmark", as you would if you were in the main library To add insult to injury, if you have a short cut key set to the Now Playing screen, it will take you to an empty Now Playing screen and stop your music. If you are playing music from the SD card, just moving to any other part of the menu will stop the music.

That the SD slot is pretty much useless really kills this player for me. If you had hopes of using the SD slot to expand your memory, you should avoid the Zen until this is fixed. Other MP3 player makers such as Cowon and SanDisk got this right, so there is no excuse as to why the SD slot cannot be fully integrated into the main library on the Zen."

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archi...zen-review.php

[reservoir_dogs]

Thanks very much for those tips leenippsound & HipHopScribe. I'm definitely gonna go for a higher internal memory.

Those links you provided are also great, so thanks again.

Ouch, the fact that the media within the SD is not fully integrated must cause some headaches.

Edit: leenippsound, I did in fact look at that FAQ, and didn't see a solution, and that's why I made this thread. I probably missed it then...

[leenippsound]

no its not you, i probably just mixed it up with some other thread.

and also it hasent caused me headaches. the intergartion problem. like i said, i use the cards for video and pictures, so it never realy caused problems,
the best thing by far and the reason im useing the zen now is the UI, its one fo the best iv come across. the customizable menus are the bee's knee's:>

[BobbyRS]

Hello reservoir gods. Welcome to ABI.

But will the data be read slower if it's reading from the SD, and not on flash?

You shouldn't notice any difference with playback from either the Zen's internal flash memory or the SD card.

Am I better off to just buy the 4GB?

I would say yes based on just price/value. Plus, most end up wishing they bought a higher capacity version shortly afterwards anyway.

[reservoir_dogs]

Thanks again for the comments above, your posts have definitely helped

[BobbyRS]

No problem. Good luck and enjoy the Zen!