MP3 Player Battle: Creative Zen V Plus vs. Ipod Nano - help me decide! - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

Kipper is King · 09-12-2007, 12:18 PM

Hey,

I am thinking of buying my mom an mp3 player for her birthday. She goes running in the morning, so it should be a tiny flash based model. However, my mom is not very technology friendly. She gets confused by an mp3 player with a multitude of buttons. Simplicity is key. Although- I think she would like having a screen to display what song is playing, so an Ipod Shuffle won't cut it.

I have decided it comes down to an Ipod Nano (not the new one with video, the old one) or the Creative Zen V Plus.

Any suggestions to help me decide?

Also, if anyone could reccomend some songs that are nice to jog or run to, I could then put together a playlist for her.

Thanks!

iggypop · 09-12-2007, 12:36 PM

Zen no doubt. I sold ipods and zens among other electronics for about a year. Its ridiculous how easily ipods break down. This is coming from a guy who is on his 4th in 3 years and i have always taken good care of them in a case. Ipods really are junk, honest. Oh and I use a mac laptap and I love it, so trust me this isnt a bashing apple post.

peter12 · 09-12-2007, 12:47 PM

Agreed on the superior quality of the Zen. I used a Zen for two years no problem and then switched over to the Ipod after I bought a Macbook. My first Ipod broke in about 3 months.

However, I'd still recommend going with the Apple product. Creative has terrible warranty protection in Canada. The one thing I can say about Apple's Ipods is that they treat you very well when you return one of their products. I returned my broken Ipod in for repairs and recieved a brand new one in 5 days.

Flames89 · 09-12-2007, 12:51 PM

Make your mom feel hip - get her the iPod

llama64 · 09-12-2007, 12:58 PM

For your Mom? Buy her the iPod. It's easier to deal with and comes with superior software. Plus it's much more stylish.

If I was personally facing this issue, I'd pick the Zen only because it is a better device. And I kinda want to break out of my own iTunes dependancy since I'm sensing an inevitable switch from Windows to Linux in my near future.

TurnedTheCorner · 09-12-2007, 01:01 PM

If it's for running, she won' tbe looking at a screen. Go for the Shuffle and avoid rationalizing an unecessary upgrade to a Nano.

Canada 02 · 09-12-2007, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by llama64

For your Mom? Buy her the iPod. It's easier to deal with and comes with superior software. Plus it's much more stylish.

i have an ipod as well as a creative mp3 player. I like the creative more simply because I don't need to use software. just drag and drop mp3 files into it like any external drive. I absolutely hate itunes; it's not intuitive, and a pain in the ass to use, imo

Kipper is King · 09-12-2007, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurnedTheCorner

If it's for running, she won' tbe looking at a screen. Go for the Shuffle and avoid rationalizing an unecessary upgrade to a Nano.

Good point, but she does want a screen anyhow.

CRXguy · 09-12-2007, 01:13 PM

I had a IPod mini a couple years ago, and bought a Creative Zen M 30gb last boxing day when the mini crapped out. The Zen is much much better, just drag and drop and it's very user friendly. I will not buy an Apple product ever again.

The Yen Man · 09-12-2007, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canada 02

i have an ipod as well as a creative mp3 player. I like the creative more simply because I don't need to use software. just drag and drop mp3 files into it like any external drive. I absolutely hate itunes; it's not intuitive, and a pain in the ass to use, imo

Agreed. Itunes is an absolutely infuriating program to use. I wish the Ipod could use a more user friendly program. It sucks imo.

Barnes · 09-12-2007, 01:17 PM

iTunes not user friendly?

Genre>Artist>Album>Song.

Geez what a difficult paradigm to wrap your head around.

The Yen Man · 09-12-2007, 01:34 PM

Hmm, I guess "user friendly" isn't the right term. Should have just said it's annoying in general.

I mean, maybe I'm dumb, but I still can't seem to figure out how to add more than 5 or 6 mp3 files at a time. I select anymore than that and it doesn't add to the playlist at all. That in itself annoys the crap out of me, cuz when I go "add to playlist", I can't seem to get it to stay in the last folder that I was getting my mp3s from. Instead, it's back to the default folder, and I have to click my way back to my mp3 folder, just to add the next 6 files, and so on.

Barnes · 09-12-2007, 01:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

Hmm, I guess "user friendly" isn't the right term. Should have just said it's annoying in general.

I mean, maybe I'm dumb, but I still can't seem to figure out how to add more than 5 or 6 mp3 files at a time. I select anymore than that and it doesn't add to the playlist at all. That in itself annoys the crap out of me, cuz when I go "add to playlist", I can't seem to get it to stay in the last folder that I was getting my mp3s from. Instead, it's back to the default folder, and I have to click my way back to my mp3 folder, just to add the next 6 files, and so on.

Select your mp3s and drag and drop to the library in the nav panel to the left. iTunes is not a file browser. It holds links to files in an xml file. I have never understood Windows users need to know exactly what directory a file was in.

Kipper is King · 09-12-2007, 01:42 PM

I would be loading all the songs into the mp3 player for my mom. Using Itunes does not bother me that much either, so I am more concerned with which one of the actual devices is better.
And is creating playlists easy on a Zen V Plus?

Flames89 · 09-12-2007, 02:03 PM

Zen is a better machine, but in the world of MP3's - that doesn't matter.

Reason's your mom wants an iPod:
1. iPod's are sleek and sexy and all the kids have one. She'll feel cooler with it.
2. iPod's have a whole industry of add-ons for them. Speakers, Cables, etc.
3. iTunes, when used basically, is very easy
4. iTunes has very strong integration with the iTunes Music Store, making her life easy to get new music

This really should not be an issue. If you were getting one for yourself, that may be different. Some want to go against the grain, some want additional features.

llama64 · 09-12-2007, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Canada 02

i have an ipod as well as a creative mp3 player. I like the creative more simply because I don't need to use software. just drag and drop mp3 files into it like any external drive. I absolutely hate itunes; it's not intuitive, and a pain in the ass to use, imo

The concept of "Drag and Drop" for most users is worse then anything experienced in iTunes. I still have to continously explain how computer files work to many friends and family. To them, using Windows Explorer is like dabbling in the arcane.

iTunes obfuscates that process by presenting an easy to understand, intuitive interface. You can sort and view your media using artists, albums and genre's. You can also drag and drop playlists onto your player. The best part about it is that you can setup playlists that contain the same song without having multiple copies of that song on your player. Try doing that with just Windows Explorer. So for ease of use for an average users, iTunes is superior. And my last experience with Creative's software was horrid.

That said, anyone who has tried to migrate their iTunes library from one computer to another knows that it is one of the most painful experiences you can get. For that reason alone I would consider a non-apple product as my next player. Now if only someone would program a decent media player to manage my library. Both Winamp and foobar2000 suck in my opinion. Listen (linux side) is amazing... I wish they had a windows port.

llama64 · 09-12-2007, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Barnes

Select your mp3s and drag and drop to the library in the nav panel to the left. iTunes is not a file browser. It holds links to files in an xml file. I have never understood Windows users need to know exactly what directory a file was in.

It probably comes from a sense of utter insecurity due to the instability of our operating system.

BradMan23 · 09-12-2007, 02:26 PM

That in itself is what I hate about Itunes. If you move the music to a diff directory, itunes is unable to find it....so you have to remove song from library and re-add it into your library. How hard would it be to put a little search function in the program. Im not changing the file name...just the location. Drives me mad.

Engine09 · 09-12-2007, 02:38 PM

ITunes is a definite pain in the ass.

I had to load some mp3s on my girlfriend's ipod, in the end I was angry that it took longer than it should have to figure out that crap.

I drap and drop files on my current mp3 player is 3 seconds. Easy, done.

I don't buy anything because it's trendy, in fact I tend to go in the other direction.

llama64 · 09-12-2007, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BradMan23

That in itself is what I hate about Itunes. If you move the music to a diff directory, itunes is unable to find it....so you have to remove song from library and re-add it into your library. How hard would it be to put a little search function in the program. Im not changing the file name...just the location. Drives me mad.

I have to do the same process in every music manager software I use. If you want to use playlists, that's what you have to deal with.

And iTunes has the capability to move your music library whereever you want on your PC. It's under one of the option menus. Moving things to a different computer/external hdd on the otherhand...