Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX 20GB

Reviews: Multimedia

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Nicholas Hart
Kurtis
TheTechLounge
Feb. 23, 2004

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Using the NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX

First off let's go over the menu options available to you and their functionality:

Music Library -- This is the main interface by which you will select the songs you listen to. This option brings up a submenu allowing you to choose to browse your music library by viewing a list sorted by song name, album, artist or genre. This data is pulled from the ID tags embedded in the mp3 files so the quality of your naming conventions will directly impact your ability to find what you are looking for. You can also choose to play all music in your library (in order) or randomly with the "play any' option. If you are looking for a specific track but cannot recall one of the key identifiers you can use the "Find' option. Simply choose to search by artist, album, genre or title and use the scroller to choose one letter at a time. With each letter you enter, it will weed out those items that do not match the sequence you are providing until eventually you pinpoint exactly what you are looking for or at least have a list of manageable size.

Selected Music -- Displays the songs in the current playlist or if an album is selected, displays the songs in the album.

Now Playing -- Lists information for the song you are currently playing.

EAX -- The Zen NX supports Creative's EAX technology. EAX on the Zen allows you to modify your music to suit your tastes. You can set "Environmental Effects' such as "Concert Hall,' "Jazz Club,' or even "Garage.' There is a four band equalizer for manual adjustment or you can choose one of the presets such as "Jazz' or "Rock.' One other, and perhaps the least useful, EAX function available on the Zen NX is the "Time Shift' feature. In addition to the standard advance button you have the option to permanently decrease or increase the speed of your music by up to one-half. What practical application this has I don't know, but more features are good features right?

Play Mode -- Most of the time you will be listening to the Zen NX in the "Normal' mode. But you also have the option to repeat an individual track, repeat all tracks, shuffle playback or shuffle repeat.

Settings -- Allows you to change basic settings such as display language, time and screen contrast.

Lock Buttons -- Pretty self explanatory, gives you the option to lock the player buttons so they aren't accidentally pressed.

In order to use the Zen NX as a portable hard drive you must first download the appropriate driver and the File Manager software itself from NomadWorld.com. With the software installed you will have a new icon in 'My Computer' called 'Nomad Jukebox 2/3/Zen'. Double-clicking on the icon will bring up a standard windows folder view of the Zen NX hard drive. The hard drive in the Zen NX is setup as two different storage areas; one for data and the other for the music library. Copying files to the Zen using the File Manager software will put them on the data portion. If you copied music files, you can right-click on them and select 'Add to Music Library' and it will copy them to the music library portion of the drive. They will still be on the data portion and you can leave them there or delete them.

One quirk that will frustrate Zen users is that you cannot copy files from the music library portion of the drive onto the data portion using the File Manager software. You cannot even view that portion of the drive at all. This means that you cannot copy files from the Zen NX onto a computer with only the File Manager software installed. To do that you will need to install MediaSource which is only available on the CD that accompanies the player.

Creative's MediaSource software comes bundled with the Zen NX. You can use it to manage your music collection both on the Zen and on your PC. It supports CD ripping and will encode files in both MP3 and WMA format. MediaSource is also a media player with support for MP3, WMA, WAV, Audio CD, MIDI, AC3 and NVF audio and will playback AVI, VCD and MPEG-1 video as well. If you need to listen to music away from your Zen, MediaSource can burn your mp3s to CD or convert them to a standard Audio CD.

When you open MediaSource you are presented with a multipane window showing your music sources (PC Music Library, Audio CD, Nomad Jukebox and My Computer), a list of the songs in the currently selected source and a 'Now Playing' pane listing the currently playing song. You can add panes to show artist and album listings to make it easier to manage your music. There is also a find feature in case you can't locate it manually.

For managing files between the Zen NX and your PC you use the 'AudioSync' feature. This allows you to automatically copy all files from your PC music library to the Zen NX, from the Zen to your PC, or both. If you don't wish to copy all files you can choose to manually sync the files allowing you to select artist, album or individual songs to transfer.

I encountered some trouble when attempting to rip a CD using MediaSource. According to the help file I simply select 'AudioCD' in the 'Sources' window and click 'Rip' on the toolbar. Sounds easy enough but I spent 10 minutes trying to figure it out... What I didn't realize is that the 'AudioCD' listed under 'MyComputer' in the source list is not the same as 'AudioCD' under the 'PC Music Library' source. Either would allow me to play the CD but the 'Rip' functions only appear if you click the correct 'AudioCD' icon. Another issue I have with MediaSource's ripping function is that you have to use the Gracenote CDDB database. This means you must register to create a username and password and on the registration window it openly states that they collect information about your listening habits for all to view.

All-in-all MediaSource is a very effective tool for cataloging the music on your PC and AudioSync is a snap to use for keeping your Zen up to date. MediaSource will suffice if you currently lack an audio ripping/encoding/playback application but I don't expect many of those who already do to switch. You will most likely find your current setup to have many more features and be more intuitive to use.

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Page 3 of 5

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: First Impressions & Taking a Closer Look
Page 3: Using the NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX
Page 4: Quality Check & Obligatory iPod Comparison
Page 5: Conclusion

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2 User Comments

1 - Posted by Guest on December 25, 2004 - 7:22 pm

I found this review very comprehensive and explanatory. It provided just the kind of information that I (as a newbie and prospective buyer) needed. Great job!

2 - Posted by Guest on June 20, 2005 - 12:27 pm

I'm guessing that the setting for speeding up or down play speed is for audio books.

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