Creative Zen Portable Media Center review

Features
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. The majority of content on the device can mirror your PC, therefore, 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 device, allowing 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 320 x 240 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 categorise 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 ten 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 fast-forward in advert-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.