What's the best way to transfer AAC files to the Zen?

[biggiep]

I have to say, my glowing reports above were no more than initial impressions, and after my numerous attempts to transfer 4GB of my library to this player, I have concluded that this is quite possibly the worst MP3 player I have ever used. It is no wonder that Creative is not only stagnant in popularity but also ceding market share to Sandisk and Microsoft. I understand the fanboy will inevitably tell me that X file type works fine on the Zen and that I brought this horrible experience on myself by using AAC. But if Creative is going to implement AAC support and advertise it, then they sure as hell should make every effort to insure that AAC support is as good as its support for other files.

First, the only way I've found to make album art show on every track is if I only transfer a small group of tracks at a time. If I transfer anymore then, say, 100 tracks, all of the files will be album artless.

Countless times now, I have left Zen Media Explorer alone to transfer files to the player, only to come back a few minutes later finding that either:

1. Zen Media Explorer crashed
2. the Zen decided to go to sleep, where only a reset can get it going again
3. or some random error (0x80048007) halts the entire transfer and I have to start again.

And if I am lucky enough to get a transfer through "without issue," then there's a damn good chance that I'll encounter issues when I start using the player, including:

1. the Zen does not get out of docked mode and I have to reset it
2. some of the tracks were corrupted during transfer and I get garbled music
3. and even once, the interface was corrupted with the letter "a" getting replaced by "¶" (weird, I know) and all "w's" were half a line below all the other letters. Only a reset and cleanup fixed this.

I don't even see why the reset button is a tiny, hard-to-access pinhole seeing how it is pathetically the most used button on my player. It's too bad, I was dying to give this product a second chance because I love the interface, features, and potential for memory expansion. Instead, the great hardware of this product is marred by its horrible software and firmware, and for that, I will never, ever recommend Creative MP3 players to anyone I know. Maybe only people I hate...

[CrowdAds]

[BobbyRS]

I have to be honest with you.... it sounds as though you may have a defective Zen or at least one in need of a firmware upgrade/reload and a format. What firmware version is installed on your Zen? Have you reloaded the firmware or tried reformatting?

Zen Media Explorer crashed

No surprise there. The software isn't that good at all and way too buggy when used with Vista.

[biggiep]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

I have to be honest with you.... it sounds as though you may have a defective Zen or at least one in need of a firmware upgrade/reload and a format. What firmware version is installed on your Zen? Have you reloaded the firmware or tried reformatting?

I believed that was the case with the first Zen, but as Dubya said, "fool me twice, shame on you" ("you" being Creative).

By the way, thanks a lot BobbyRS for all your help in the past week. I've all but given up on this POS.

[BobbyRS]

You can have this with any manufacture, as well as possible bad batches with retailers. There were known bad batches (especially with the earlier stocked 2GB/4GB/8GB Zen’s. Perhaps you have one, who really knows. What firmware version is installed? If you have an older Zen, it will have an earlier firmware installed. Have you tried reloading the firmware and reformatting the Zen?

[ZenChick]

I concur with the firmware update. Older firmware versions have known issues with AAC files - particularly Nero-AAC files. Since the last few firmware updates, I have not heard of any AAC issues.

I also concur with Creative's software being buggy, particularly on Vista. It's why most veteran Zen-series owners use something else. Here's to hoping that the brand-new-and-improved software suite that will be shipping with the Zen X-Fi will be a whole lot more stable and robust. IMO, the only software suite that's worse than Creative's MediaSource is Sony's SonicStage.

[biggiep]

Originally Posted by BobbyRS

What firmware version is installed? If you have an older Zen, it will have an earlier firmware installed. Have you tried reloading the firmware and reformatting the Zen?

The fw version is 1.21.01, the newest one. Sorry, but we're simply running out of excuses for this POS.

Originally Posted by ZenChick

I also concur with Creative's software being buggy, particularly on Vista. It's why most veteran Zen-series owners use something else. Here's to hoping that the brand-new-and-improved software suite that will be shipping with the Zen X-Fi will be a whole lot more stable and robust. IMO, the only software suite that's worse than Creative's MediaSource is Sony's SonicStage.

Yea, it's a shame that this product came out almost a year after Vista came out. By the way, the Zen does not ship with MediaSource; I believe Creative has officially moved on to another horribly-engineered program in the Zen Media Explorer.

[BobbyRS]

Well, they aren't excuses. They are possible causes of your "problems". We aren't the ones with your Zen or have any relation to Creative. However, all of the possible causes/excuses in the world won't help if the device is defective. It may seem as though you already have your mind made up, but.... again, have you reloaded the firmware?

[ZenChick]

Originally Posted by biggiep

The fw version is 1.21.01, the newest one. Sorry, but we're simply running out of excuses for this POS.

It does appear you've already made up your mind about this. However, please try to keep one thing in mind as you're considering your options: Nothing is perfect. I have known several people who had bought iPods that were defective right out of the box or whose hard drives failed within a month. Don't believe for even one second that only Creative products have a measurable defect rate.

[BigDan827]

Hi, everyone! I'm new here and I just got a 4GB Zen today after shopping around and checking out this site a few times. I also have a 20GB iPod so I have a couple thousand songs I ripped from CD's and a bunch of mp3's I got from Amazon. I have Vista SP1 with WMP 11 and at first I tried plugging in the Zen without using the software. The Zen was immediately recognized, but I was only able to import my mp3 and wma files. The AAC/m4a. files were not transferring using the drag and drop method through Windows Explorer. I was a bit hesitant to try Zen Media Explorer, but after I loaded that, all of the AAC files I wanted are now in my Zen. I guess it's just a matter of luck and personal preference with the Creative software. I don't mind it at all. Unprotected AAC files work great with this player now and I'm definitely glad I got it. I have to start testing video and an SD card on it tomorrow.

[BobbyRS]

Hello BigDan827. Welcome. Thanks for posting and congrats on the new Zen. Enjoy!