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Interface & Features
The Vision:M has an excellent graphical user
interface that is user-friendly and easy to navigate through. The main
menu consists of the following submenus: Music Library, Photos,
Videos, FM Radio, Microphone, Extras and System menu. Let's have a
thorough look at each of these...
Music Library
The Music Library menu will give you easy
access to your music collection, playlist, recordings and playback features.
You can browse your collection by artist, albums, genres or view all tracks.
There are a total of three Now Playing screens
that you can easily switch to by tapping on the vertical touchpad. If
you use WMP 10 to sync your music, you will see the album art displayed here
as well. Very similar to the Ipod, you have a menu that will allow you
to rate your music using the touchpad.
Creative has done an excellent job when it
comes down to navigating through a large collection of music. For
example, you can scroll through the list of artists or use the button next
to the touchpad to get to the row of letters you see above. This will
allow you to quickly jump to the artist name or track you want to play.
This is certainly one of the best features of the GUI and will help when
browsing a large collection music files.
The recording menu will give you access to
both microphone or FM recordings. The bookmarks menu allows for a
total of ten bookmarks based on your playlist menu.
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As far as playback features go, the Vision:M
does offer plenty to satisfy. The DJ menu has some playback options
and the "Album of the Day" is pretty cool and works well. Now, on top
of the DJ menu, this player has excellent playlist support. When you
set your sync settings properly
in WMP 10, you can create playlist based on ratings, music you haven't heard
in a while, videos you like the most, best pictures, etc. The Vision:M
also
support "on-the-fly" or "on-the-go" playlists. However, it is
important to note that it doesn't function like their older players.
For one, I don't like the fact that when selecting to play one file it adds
the rest of the tracks automatically to the current playlist. This is
exactly what the Ipod does and it is truly irritating. Second, you
need to make sure you clear your playlist before attempting to create a new
on-the-go list. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the on-the-go
playlist feature does work well and unlike the Ipod, you can add tracks
while listening to a tune.
Photos
I don't particularly care for picture viewing
on these devices but they do look great on this amazing screen. You
can setup slideshows using the Media Explorer and browse thumbnails or full
pictures from the Vision:M with ease.
Videos
The Video Menu basically allows you to browse
through and playback your video collection. Considering video playback
is this product's main feature, I will cover this in detail in the
performance section of this review.
FM Radio
Another advantage this player has over the
Ipod is the built-in FM Tuner. It is important to note though that
your headphones will act as an antenna and they must be plugged in to get
reception. Also note that the bundled earbuds have a built-in antenna
and does have excellent reception. This was a bit concerning at first
because I thought you were forced to use their earbuds. However, I did
test with two other high quality earbuds and can confirm that you can use
your own headsets and still get good reception. You also have the
ability to record from the radio and the files will be automatically named
and stored in the recordings menu for playback. The autoscan works
good and basically sets all available stations as presets.
Microphone
The Vision:M does have a built-in microphone
that allows for voice recordings. Note that you can adjust the volume
in order to cut down on background noise. Sample recordings are
available in the performance section of the review.
Extras
The Extras Menu gives you access to your
calendar, tasks and contacts, all of which you can sync from Microsoft
Outlook. One nice feature here though is the Removable Disk option
that will allow you to set a portion of the drive as removable storage.
This is done directly from the player and you can set a partition from 512MB
up to 16GB. Super handy for those who will like to use the Vision:M as
a true portable storage device.
System
Finally, we have a look at the System Menu
which provides a number of options to customize the Vision:M. Audio
Settings include play mode, equalizer settings, smart volume feature and
bass boost. The smart volume feature is a feature I like to see and
will be useful for those who do not normalize their entire music collection.
Photo/Video settings include slide transition interval settings, transition
effect and video output format (NTSC/PAL).
Display Settings allow for brightness control,
backlight timer, wallpaper reset and theme selector. Yes, the Vision:M
does support themes and there are a total of six color themes to choose
from. A nice touch! And yes, you can even set a picture on your
player as your wallpaper.
From the Player Settings menu you can set the
idle shutdown time, sleep timer and even manage protected content. The
touchpad will take some time to get used to but if you have difficult with
it, you do have the option of disabling the clicker as well as adjusting the
sensitivity.
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