Seems like the best choice... Forget the Zune HD

[ajai_dev]

Wow Creative really nice. DIVX/XVID,WMV9 and MP4-SP upto 640*480 and FLAC. Also i loved the 75g weight.

Now the bad things :-

No H.264 why?? I think the CPU is powerful enough.

Low battery life. Creative says 25Hrs means around 20-21Hrs

Fix to H.264 problem would be to put Android in this thing but batery life may go down even more


My orignal plan ws to get Zune HD as a High end player and Zen XFi 2 or Achros 3 as a everyday use player, but Achros 3 is not that good and XFi 2 seems better than the Zune HD in video support but not battery.

To break it down

Zune HD:-
3.3inch
74g
52.7 x 102.1 x 8.9 mm
33hrs music
8.5hrs video
WMA,AAC & MP3
WMV,MP4 PART2 & H.264 "Generally upto 720*480"
WiFi

Zen XFi2:-
3inch
75g
57 x 102 x 11.6mm
25hrs music
5hrs video
MP3,WMA,Audible4,AAC,FLAC
WMV9,MPEG4-SP,DivX,XviD "Generally upto 640*480"

So it seems that Zune HD has a bigger screen its lighter "tad"with smaller "tad" and its battery is a very good performer indeed added to that WiFi, but it lacks very badly on codes. No FLAC & no Xvid really make Zune HD a no sense upgrade from S9. The ZEN XFi2 is pretty much great in code support, i dont want to buy a S9 again that only leaves the XFi2 as a possible choice or maybe Zune HD will support Xvid in a upcoming firmware but most likely not.

[CrowdAds]

[Satellite_6]

I'm not sure it plays all those video types natively. The original ZEN only plays WMV I think.

EDIT: (The ZEN was supposed to support all that too, but they lied. . . )

[sumx4182]

are you kidding!? The UI is reportedly shit, show to respond. The screen is RESISTIVE LCD and they say you gotta MASH it to get it to respond to touches. No wifi, no apps. This thing is CRAP!

The Zune has a better screen, HD radio, better touch interface, wifi, apps. It kills the XFi2

[curiouswonderer]

I'm pretty sure it doesn't support those formats natively, only through conversion.
Plus, ZuneHD also supports WMV, and MP4. It also supports H.264, like you wanted.

PLUS, it has better screen, better interface, a nice browser with WiFi, and a good community (Zune Marketplace).

IMO, the XFi2 came out 2 years too late for it to be considered at all.

[Dreamnine]

It just looks bad, also.

[no9]

Originally Posted by sumx4182

are you kidding!? The UI is reportedly shit, show to respond. The screen is RESISTIVE LCD and they say you gotta MASH it to get it to respond to touches. No wifi, no apps. This thing is CRAP!

The Zune has a better screen, HD radio, better touch interface, wifi, apps. It kills the XFi2

Who? Where?? The youtube vid I just saw on epizenter of the guy showcasing the UI didn't seem to be mashing anything. It should have come out when the Xfi did but that doesn't necessarily make it crap now.

[Satellite_6]

"Generally up to 720*480"

Are they calling this HD?

[sumx4182]

Originally Posted by no9

Who? Where?? The youtube vid I just saw on epizenter of the guy showcasing the UI didn't seem to be mashing anything. It should have come out when the Xfi did but that doesn't necessarily make it crap now.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/02/v...t-you-pay-for/

If the OP buys this crap over a ZuneHD because of codecs (which is the absolute ONLY thing that handidly beats the ZHD)...I can't wait till he's back here complaining about it...I'll never buy a Creative product the way they are going now...

[ajai_dev]

You all are rite Zune HD is better build and better in lots of other things like i summed up in the first post but you have to agree at the price point this is not bad at all.

Hell i still want to buy the Zune HD but it will not be able to play more than half of my S9 video collection. I have about 40gb's of FLAC's "Opera, etc" which also are not support.

Zune HD is a very very good player hardware wise but lacks codes in both video and audio. If Zune HD gets a firmware update that supports Xvid and FLAC's i would buy the HD in a sec.

Originally Posted by sumx4182

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/02/v...t-you-pay-for/

If the OP buys this crap over a ZuneHD because of codecs (which is the absolute ONLY thing that handidly beats the ZHD)...I can't wait till he's back here complaining about it...I'll never buy a Creative product the way they are going now...

I already did:-

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=46023
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=45195
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=36104
http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=38204

But i also complained against Sony A729:-

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/forum...ad.php?t=36104


Every player has problems but creative players generally have more. I have short listed the XFi2 because its specs meet my requirements, but its not like i will not wait for reviews tough.

[sumx4182]

you can always make the library work with the player...you can't make the player work if it sucks...trust me. I'd rather spend hours making my library compatible with a great new player than buying a player that sucks because it works with my files.

[yuki]

Originally Posted by sumx4182

you can always make the library work with the player...you can't make the player work if it sucks...trust me. I'd rather spend hours making my library compatible with a great new player than buying a player that sucks because it works with my files.

yes becuase that is a proper way to handle a already lossy format, is to recode it into another lossy format... adds warmth to it ^^... Not to mention the wasted hours at dealing with crap that does not work directly, I think my time is worth more than messing around with getting some music on a player.

[sumx4182]

Originally Posted by yuki

yes becuase that is a proper way to handle a already lossy format, is to recode it into another lossy format... adds warmth to it ^^... Not to mention the wasted hours at dealing with crap that does not work directly, I think my time is worth more than messing around with getting some music on a player.

that's your opinion...personally, i don't even see a point in lossless versus high bitrate lossy unless you are in a recording studio with high quality equipment and you're mixing and things like that. Whatever, if i can set my computer to encode those (and still hold on to the FLAC files, just in case) and just let it run overnight, then are you even wasting hours? Compared to buyign a shitty player and wishing you hadn't and be looking for another player in a month or two? Don't get it twisted, it's cheap comparatively speaking, but over 200 bucks is alot to spend for a half assed product.

[ajai_dev]

Re-encoding Xvid to h264 is do able but re-encoding FLAC's to WMA Lossless @ 768kbps or AAC @ 320kbps seems stupid to do.

Also i want to point out the fact that in terms of hardware Zune HD is really up there but what is the point of the player if you have to re encode everything. Web videos are generally Xvid sometimes its h264 but most of the time they are custom flv's.

So if i download stuff from video sharing sites Divx/Xvid maybe the file you get rather than h264. In future this may change but not soon, h264 is still very cpu intensive.

[no9]

Originally Posted by sumx4182

http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/02/v...t-you-pay-for/

If the OP buys this crap over a ZuneHD because of codecs (which is the absolute ONLY thing that handidly beats the ZHD)...I can't wait till he's back here complaining about it...I'll never buy a Creative product the way they are going now...

Yea Creative is going to hell in a handbasket but a video from IFA that showcases a xfi2 without finished Fw is your example? I'll never buy a Zune because of how weak the codecs that they decide to give you are and the locked down system they make you use. It may work for some but if I wanted to play by somebodies rules I would have bought a freaking ipod along time ago. Atleast then I'd be able to use 4 or 5 different softwares to put music on my player instead of being spoon fed what I can and can't do.

[quintets_man]

Originally Posted by ajai_dev

You all are rite Zune HD is better build and better in lots of other things like i summed up in the first post but you have to agree at the price point this is not bad at all.

Hell i still want to buy the Zune HD but it will not be able to play more than half of my S9 video collection. I have about 40gb's of FLAC's "Opera, etc" which also are not support.

Zune HD is a very very good player hardware wise but lacks codes in both video and audio. If Zune HD gets a firmware update that supports Xvid and FLAC's i would buy the HD in a sec.

Just wondering from this post, but do you have a S9? And if you do then why are you considering Creative?

[curiouswonderer]

Interestingly enough, the Engadget video marks the price of the XFi2 at 230 BRITISH POUNDS, not American Dollars.

By my calculations (and the comments on Engadgets), that would make the XFi2 more expensive than the ZHD.

[musichound]

IMO, for the most part, the general population don't give a rat's arse for the number of CODECS that a player can support; MP3 and WMA iare good for the masses, so this is who Microsoft is targeitng. If I were going to choose between the two, the Zune HD all the way, because the Creative players seems like crap to me.

[sumx4182]

Originally Posted by musichound

IMO, for the most part, the general population don't give a rat's arse for the number of CODECS that a player can support; MP3 and WMA iare good for the masses, so this is who Microsoft is targeitng. If I were going to choose between the two, the Zune HD all the way, because the Creative players are crap.

FIXED! lol

[musichound]

Originally Posted by sumx4182

FIXED! lol

Well I don't want to hurt too many people's feelings.

[Scarpad]

Yeah the S9 trounces the X-Fi 2, I had an X-fi one and it was a decent player but that was 2 years ago. Plus this has an odd screen resolution 400x240 what the heck is that?