Another Travellin' Song
Mar. 28th, 2006 07:16 amThe Creative Zen arrived yesterday morning. Which, since I only ordered it at 5pm or thereabouts on Friday evening, is pretty good going.
I played around with the machine a bit last night. First impressions. The ripping is fast (and in MP3, rather than the WMA default on the Rio Karma) and the software supplied looks good. Creative Media Source can be used for quite a few things other than interfacing with the Zen. The video looks good, but the formats supported are pathetic. In days gone by I might have spent many geeky hours trying to work out how to get TV programmes onto the machine, but these days I'll just shrug my shoulders and watch the programme via some other interface. hell, I can always by a portable DVD.
The maximum volume is a bit wimpish compared with the Rio.
The radio works well, even though it is only FM.
The interface takes some getting used to. I accidentally taped some radio broadcasts and I couldn't work out how to stop it recording. Moving around the menus isn't intuitive, but I was climbing the steep learning curve quite quickly.
The small proprietary plug-in which you need to recharge/interface with computer looks like it could easily get lost.
The screen is large and well-cool. If only I coud get TV programmes onto it, it would be great for catching up on stuff. It might be possible to podcast the BBC news from the web. I might give that a try.
++++
Spotted yesterday mnorning at Oxford Circus; a cartoon king with a crown stickered onto one of the escalator advertisements. I wonder who could have done that?
++++
I meant to write something on private equity, but time's running on. Perhaps at the weekend.
I played around with the machine a bit last night. First impressions. The ripping is fast (and in MP3, rather than the WMA default on the Rio Karma) and the software supplied looks good. Creative Media Source can be used for quite a few things other than interfacing with the Zen. The video looks good, but the formats supported are pathetic. In days gone by I might have spent many geeky hours trying to work out how to get TV programmes onto the machine, but these days I'll just shrug my shoulders and watch the programme via some other interface. hell, I can always by a portable DVD.
The maximum volume is a bit wimpish compared with the Rio.
The radio works well, even though it is only FM.
The interface takes some getting used to. I accidentally taped some radio broadcasts and I couldn't work out how to stop it recording. Moving around the menus isn't intuitive, but I was climbing the steep learning curve quite quickly.
The small proprietary plug-in which you need to recharge/interface with computer looks like it could easily get lost.
The screen is large and well-cool. If only I coud get TV programmes onto it, it would be great for catching up on stuff. It might be possible to podcast the BBC news from the web. I might give that a try.
++++
Spotted yesterday mnorning at Oxford Circus; a cartoon king with a crown stickered onto one of the escalator advertisements. I wonder who could have done that?
++++
I meant to write something on private equity, but time's running on. Perhaps at the weekend.