Creative Zen Portable Media Center review: Creative Zen Portable Media Center

Intro
The portable video player (PVP) market is percolating, with some manufacturers already releasing second- and third-generation devices such as Archos's AV420. A major offshoot of this fledgling category is the Portable Media Center (PMC), which was first introduced back in January at CES. The Creative Zen Portable Media Center is the first device of many to come to employ Microsoft's Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Center operating system; competing devices from Samsung and iRiver aren't far behind. The 20GB Zen PMC includes a variety of innovative features both on and below the surface, and they make navigating a mountain of music, video, and photos painless. The device is designed to work seamlessly with Windows Media Player 10.0 on any Windows XP computer, but those using Windows XP Media Center Edition will get the most out of the Zen PMC, given the device's ability to play recorded television content. In essence, the $500 device is a portable extension of the Windows media experience. While it plays back video, music, and photos admirably, the Creative Zen PMC is a first-generation product with room for improvement. Sporting a durable, glossy black-plastic face and a metallic backside, the Creative Zen Portable Media Center (PMC) is designed to be used in the old-school, Game Boy-like style. It measures 5.7 by 3.4 by 1.2 inches and weighs 11.7 ounces--significantly bulkier than most audio-only 20GB players. It reminds us of the first hard drive-based audio players, circa 1999. The Creative Zen PMC's most impressive physical trait is its expansive, sharp, and colorful 3.8-inch TFT LCD, which is ideal for viewing video, photos, album art, and the menu. The screen is vivid indoors, especially with the brightness turned up, but it's not ideal for use outdoors during the day. This is in part due to the display's reflective (and protective) glossy face, which attracts fingerprints galore. In direct sunlight, it's better to turn off the backlight, as the sun's rays will illuminate the screen so that it looks like a nonbacklit Game Boy Advance; it'll also save you some battery life.

The Zen PMC's controls are highlighted by the Windows-icon-clad Start button, which instantly takes you to the top menu. Given the feature-laden device's deep menu options, the button is critical for comfortable navigation and will be found on all PMCs and Media Center Edition remotes.

The left half of the Zen PMC includes a circular four-way navigational pad with a nested Select button and an essential Back key. The right half has two dedicated volume buttons and another circular controller for play/pause, forward, and rewind commands. You'll experience a tactile pop with each press, along with an accompanying and strangely appealing system chime, which is on by default. Along with a power button, four numbered keys line the top of the unit and are designated as programmable presets. Pressing one takes you directly to your favorite movie (complete with a bookmark), song, album, artist, or photo. We like this thoughtful feature, as we all know how difficult it is to fish for content in a 20GB sea. Except for the Start key, which lights up green, and the preset buttons, all keys are backlit in a dim and mystic blue when activated. Expect to use both hands for most operations. Once in a while, you'll catch yourself erringly pressing the play button with your right hand instead of the left-handed Select. Aside from this, the controls are extremely intuitive, thanks in big part to the Windows interface (more on this later).

A power port resides on the device's left side, and a hold switch, an A/V-out jack, and an "intelligent" headphone jack line the right side. A dock-style USB 2.0 connector is located on the Zen PMC's bottom side. The silver backside features a removable lithium-ion polymer battery. It's important to note that unlike many PVPs out on the market, the Zen PMC lacks a built-in kickstand to prop itself up. Instead, the device ships with a carrying case with a flap cover that substitutes as a stand. The case is worth bringing along on your travels since holding the Zen PMC to watch a movie for an extended period of time can be taxing on your hands, your arms, and your neck.

You'll also find a tiny speaker on the bottom-right corner of the Zen PMC. Surprisingly, it doesn't sound terrible and tinny. And if your headphones accidentally pull out of its jack, the system saves you from potential embarrassment and mutes the audio.

Our chief design complaint is the Zen PMC's sheer bulk. Granted, it has a terrific screen indoors and Swiss Army Knife-like functionality, but its thickness just doesn't feel right, especially when used for audio. Creative claims that the device is small enough to fit comfortably in your pocket. Our advice: Don't wear tight jeans. The Zen PMC would also be better off with a docking cradle, which will be available as an optional accessory in October.

The Zen PMC ships with an A/V line-out cable, a proprietary USB 2.0 cable, a carrying case with a built-in stand, a pair of earphones, a Quick Start guide, an install CD, and an inconvenient two-line-and-a-brick-style power adapter.

There are other devices that can play video and music as well as display photos and store data files, but what sets the Creative Zen Portable Media Center apart is its dependence on Windows Media Player 10.0 (WMP10). The Zen PMC is designed as the portable counterpart to WMP10 and its library; therefore, the majority of content on the device can mirror your PC, though typically in a more compressed form. This includes everything from MP3s to JPEG photos to movie downloads to home movies. Throw a Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) PC into the mix, and the Zen PMC turns into a portable playback-only Tivo-like device, as it will allow you to watch your recorded MCE broadcasts on the road. Those without an MCE PC can still record and transfer TV using a TV-tuner card and third-party software.

All this content may sound nice, but what formats does the Zen PMC actually support? All PMCs support WMV (versions 7, 8 and 9) at 320x240 pixels, 30 frames per second, and with a constant bit rate of up to 800Kbps. Similarly, all PMC devices can play back WMA (including protected WMA, WMA lossless, and WMA voice), MP3, and JPEG files. If you have other types of files, such as MPEG, MPEG-2, DVR-MS (Microsoft recorded TV), TIFF, WAV, AVI, and so on, they need to be transcoded into a compatible PMC format and size. This may sound confusing, but never fear, WMP10 takes care of all the transcoding automatically in the background so that the files are ready to roll the next time you sync the device. The original files remain untouched, and in most cases, you won't even know it's happening. It's important to note that popular file formats such as MPEG-4 and DivX are not compatible with the Zen PMC unless you've purchased a third-party decoder plug-in for WMP10. PMC OEMs can add support for other formats.

While transcoding content decreases quality, that's not necessarily a bad thing in the PMC's case. Imagine trying to transfer 85 hours of video or tens of thousands of photos from your PC to the PMC. Without reformatting, you'll quickly run out of space. Where the decrease in quality will show up is when you hook up the Zen PMC to a TV (NTSC or PAL).

Unlike music files, video content isn't exactly spilling out of the woodwork. You can purchase or rent specially formatted movies from sources such as CinemaNow (which is conveniently integrated into WMP10) and MLB.com, load up your own home movies, or watch TV broadcasts that you've recorded with your Media Center PC. If you have tons of content that you've downloaded from P2P apps, it's likely that a number of those files won't be supported without a third-party decoder.

The Zen PMC's interface, which looks and behaves much like its Media Center counterpart, marks a significant advance in navigating a portable device. The Start menu has five basic options: My TV, My Music, My Pictures, My Videos, and Settings. Once you drill down into a main menu option, you'll be able to instantly categorize your content without much fuss, thanks to the interface's innovative x/y-axis design, which Microsoft has coined twist navigation. For example, within My Music, a horizontal list appears with the items Artist, Album, Songs, Genres, Playlists, or New. As you navigate left or right, the contents of each item spills down below it, including a Play All option. Once you select a track or any other item, it appears along with all the other tracks in the horizontal list. It's difficult to understand without using it, but it makes playing music or adding songs to a playlist a breeze.

Likewise, you can sort videos by New, Name, or Date, and all videos include an automatic resume feature. You can have 10 movies bookmarked and resume watching them from where you left off. The same goes for My TV; you could have five recorded shows, then watch and bookmark all of them independently--and on your own clock. Also, you can move forward in commercial-skipping 24-second intervals and rewind in 10-second intervals. In My Photos, you can set parameters for slide shows and even listen to music while you're viewing photos. While it lacks convenient features such as audio and video recording, the Zen PMC has the soul of a computer and the heart of a multitasker.

Once you're experienced with the interface, you'll realize the player's depth. For example, when you're listening to a song, you'll see a Now Playing page with graphically pleasing ID3 tag info and larger-than-life album art. Pressing the left or right controller buttons will take you to additional screens with options such as play-mode selection, an equalizer, user ratings, and even an option to buy CDs (which takes you to a purchase page when you sync up with your PC).

One of the Zen PMC's coolest features is Auto Sync, which allows the player to sync automatically with WMP10. The device utilizes Microsoft's driverless MTP device standard and shows up in WMP10; based on user-defined auto playlist settings, the Zen can transfer up to 20GB (pretranscoded size will be much higher) of content via USB 2.0. These settings can include top-rated music, favorite photos, TV programs acquired within a certain time frame, and so on. You can also manually transfer content. Additionally, the Zen PMC is compatible with the next-gen Windows DRM (formerly known as Janus), which will allow music and video subscribers to download and play licensed content on the device for as long as the subscription is valid.

The settings page includes Equalizer, with seven presets that can be monitored in real time; Display; Effects, for sound and animated screen effects; International, Restore Original Settings; and Information, which has a breakdown of all the content on the unit.

The Creative Zen Portable Media Center, along with other PMC models, runs on standardized hardware specs, including a 400MHz Intel XScale processor, 64MB of RAM, 2MB of ROM, USB 2.0, and a screen resolution of 320x240 pixels. The size of the screen and the hard drive may vary, depending on the manufacturer and model.

Depending on the quality of the file, video files look sharp and vibrant on the 3.8-inch screen. Occasionally--and depending on the original file's aspect ratio--video can look squeezed. The device's audio quality takes a step down from that of its audio-only counterparts (such as the Creative Zen Touch) with a 90dB signal-to-noise ratio, but it's still impressive to the ears, especially when you're watching a movie.

The Zen PMC's animated screen effects, such as text and graphics morphing and sliding, are a nice touch and give the interface a responsive feel. We noticed an occasional delay while forwarding or rewinding through and between songs. This is not a concern, though, as the 400MHz processor is speedy enough in most cases. As far as powering on the system, this is an instant-on experience, and it resumes where you left off.

At 7 hours, 45 minutes, the Zen's battery life exceeded the rated 7 hours for video only; we were also able to squeeze a bit less than the rated 22 hours out of the Zen PMC for audio. Most users will play back a combination of video, audio, and photos, so expect a realistic battery life of somewhere between 10 and 15 hours. These are impressive numbers indeed, more so because you can throw a spare battery into the mix for about $70 (price has not been finalized). The Zen PMC has a modest transfer rate of 2.5MB per second using Windows Explorer drag and drop and 2MB per second using WMP10, both over USB 2.0.