AfterDawn: News

New Creative MP3 player targets video iPod

Creative Technologies is soon going to launch its alternative to Apple's latest iPod player, which has video playback capabilities. The new player, the Vision:M, is not going to be announced until tomorrow but the Japanese division of the company gave details away already, The Register reports. The new player has music, video and photo capabilities with its 2.5in, 262,144-colour, 320 x 240 LCD screen. The player measures 10.4 x 6.2 x 1.9cm and weighs about 166g.

It includes a 30GB Hard Disk Drive and a rechargeable battery that can play video for 4 hours (compared to Apple's 2 hours) and music for 14 hours according to the company. It's audio support includes the MP3 format (of course), Windows Media Audio (WMA) and WAV audio. Windows Media DRM-protected tracks are also supported. The Vision:M will play MPEG 1, 2 and 4, WMV 9, Motion JPEG, DivX 4 and 5, and XviD video files.



Creative has also equipped the player with a connector, hoping to encourage the creating of accessories for the player like those you can find for iPods. The Vision:M will go on sale in Japan in mid-December and will cost ¥39,800 ($329). It will come in either black white or green.

Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 7 Dec 2005 10:37

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• 12 comments

• evilh0ly

  this is actually some good stuff, but the price i think it's the only setback, another setback might be the battery life of the video playback although it's 100% better than ipod but i still think that 4hr is nothing.

  7.12.2005 10:54 #1

• wheelman7

  I'll probably get this instead of the Zen Vision, I only wish it came with an optional 60GB HDD.

  7.12.2005 12:25 #2

• McKeva

  Creative all the way. I have a Zen Touch. Admittedly it is quite big but it has 24 hour battery life, better sound quality than an ipod and has a reset button (unheard of on the ipod when this mo3 player was released). think i might wait until some players come out with better battery life

  7.12.2005 13:16 #3

• punx777

  lol, it seems all the ipod haters and creaive lovers (like myself) are always the first to post,
  
  hey, so what if we dont want to be like everyone else, and spend less money doing so....

  7.12.2005 13:33 #4

• shdwzclan

  IPODS are overrrated. Creative and other brands make equal and better products for less. And they dont make a big deal out of them being colorful.... lol

  7.12.2005 16:15 #5

• Rikoshay

  Damn right we post first! Creative all the way!
  The thing I like about this the most is the playback for DivX/XviD videos. Plus I kinda like that shade of green. :) But yeah, only hope they go down in price, get a slightly bigger HDD, longer battery life, and do it all sounding way better than iPod.

  7.12.2005 19:03 #6

• sackingz

  i would agree creative mp3 players sound much better then the ipods...since i am a ipod owner, i have to say the ipod video is cool but battery wise, it SUCKS.....
  

  P4 2.4 ghz
  80gb
  Pioneer 8x Dvd r/w
  512mb ram
  Windows XP SP2
  
  http://gratispsp.notlong.com
  Help me get a Free Sony PSP..THANKS
  
  BUY GOOD MEDIA!!! Buy TDK or Verbatim DVD+R!!!
  "Peace In The Middle East"

  8.12.2005 05:41 #7

• cueca

  Everyone that comes into work askign for an iPod, I always show them the Creative Zens that we have, and thankfully 2 out of 8 people do end up buying the Zen. Lately a big thing has been the Zen Micro 6GB, it goes about the same price as the 2GB iPod Nano, and since we usually sell out of Nanos, everyone that comes in I show them the Micro and most buy it. I think it's good Creative is coming out with something like that ^^^. Should be interesting.

  8.12.2005 14:11 #8

• m_towell

  It's funny, in a way, that Creative and Apple are only just bringing out portable video players. I've had mine for two (or three, can't remember) years now. It's made by Archos, 20GB HD, plays mp3, AVI, jpg, simple pps presentations. The latest version of it can even play games of it.
  
  Just seems Apple and Creative are a little behind the times...

  9.12.2005 10:11 #9

• sixpackat

  Thats Right creative rocks they have the best sond and bat. life I glad I made the right choice it supports the most video formats but It would even be better if it would suport Mpg4's by the way does any body have a converter for Mpeg4 to any of these formats Asf,Dvr-ms,AVI,mpeg1,mpeg2,mpe,m1v,mpg,mp2,wav,au,or snd I would like the best format thats possable that I can use my Windows media player 10 to convert to my player ,Thanks (Sixpackattack1)

  9.12.2005 17:20 #10

• sixpackat

  Thats Right creative rocks they have the best sond and bat. life I glad I made the right choice it supports the most video formats but It would even be better if it would suport Mpg4's by the way does any body have a converter for Mpeg4 to any of these formats Asf,Dvr-ms,AVI,mpeg1,mpeg2,mpe,m1v,mpg,mp2,wav,au,or snd I would like the best format thats possable that I can use my Windows media player 10 to convert to my player ,Thanks (Sixpackattack1)

  9.12.2005 17:20 #11

• Ofnir1

  If only more people would stop trying to 'fit in' and shop smart, I swear we would have better shoppers later on in life and Apple wouldn't be as 'out there' as it is.

  9.12.2005 21:57 #12