Update 2004-02-03: My ZVue has been recalled. More info here.
I placed an order for the Handheld ZVue back on December 6th, and am still having issues.
When I placed the order, the site was talking about how all orders placed before a certain date would be shipped via FedEx to arrive before Christmas. Which was cool because I thought it would be a neat toy to have around while I was on vacation and had time to goof with it.
One of the main problems with the ZVue as it currently exists is that it will only play Handheld's HHe format of videos. While it will display JPEGs and MP3s from SD cards (which my camera now supports with the help of an adapter), it decompresses the JPEGs very slowly. I have not tried MP3 playback yet, since I have an actual MP3 player that is smaller and explicitly tasked for that purpose.
The main shortcoming, as I was saying, is that it will not play back homemade videos. A software update is due sometime in January that might remedy this issue by unlocking MPEG4 playback. This would be a very cool feature, since quite a bit of home-grown MPEG4 could fit on an SD card. Perhaps entire shows. But I'm not holding my breath for this update for other reasons, the first being that my ZVue did not arrive before Christmas.
One of the big things to look at when you're buying a new gadget from a company is how their support handles problems. Handheld totally fumbled when it came to supporting the problems they've created. I called them on December 23rd to make sure that my unit would ship before the holiday. The guy on the other end of the line looked for and found my order (or appeared as if he had) and said that it would ship that evening for arrival on the 24th. Of course, it did not arrive on Christmas Eve.
I called them again on the following Monday to tell them that it did not come. The guy who answered sounded conspicuously like the same person I talked to before, but he admitted to being unable to operate their shipping software, and since the guy who usually did that was on vacation, he would have to call me back. I acquiesced.
Six hours later when I wasn't home, a woman called to request my shipping address. Berta thought that his was weird since if I had placed the order and they had enough contact information to call me, wouldn't they have my address? Very odd.
Anyway, Berta didn't give her our address, saying that I had better call them back and find out what was going on. I didn't bother calling them since we would be in New York for the rest of the week.
When we returned from the city, there was a message from work saying that a package had arrived. I stopped by to pick it up and it was the ZVue. Finally.
It's a small blue thing, just a bit bigger than a deck of playing cards, and just about as thick. The screen is about 2x1.5 inches, and has many controls underneath, including buttons for rewind, fast-forward, play/pause, menu, and a five-way directional control. Controls for brightness and volume on are opposide sides of the box. A plastic flip-cover protects the screen, and sports the Handheld logo - a good idea for something you can drop in your pocket with keys and other scratchy things.
There are a lot of ports on the ZVue, which was surprising. One of the good aspects of the device is that it has two headphone jacks, so two people can listen to the video at the same time. The instructions recommend using only the right-side jack if you're alone, which was kind of odd, but the unit comes with a pretty matching set of bud-style headphones.
There is an SD slot on top in the center with a particularly flimsy rubber cover. This is the worst rubber port cover I've seen on any device. I'm sure it will get accidentally torn off within a month just by putting the ZVue in my pocket.
The top also houses a port for DC power and USB, although none of the cables are supplied for them. I'm not sure why these ports are on the top either, since that doesn't seem to be a good place for them when you're watching. On the bottom is a port labelled "ACC" which looks like another USB port, but no mention is made of its purpose.
The ZVue came with only a sample card for playback, since the extra HHe video card I ordered ("Swing Swing" by the All American Rejects) was not shipped with the unit as it was supposed to be. The sample card contains only one video, "Naggin'" by the Ying Yang Twins. It's crap, but it demonstrates the player.
I'll take this opportunity to make comment on the selection of content for the ZVue. Looking through the available titles on teh HHeld website, I notice that there are a lot of rap and "white homey" titles. Monster trucks, skate parks, no-name rappers, and Jackass-style stunt folk. I wonder to whom exactly the Handheld guys intend to market their device.
About playback... This is where the money talks. Playback on the ZVue (for the demo title, at least) is rock solid smooth. Great audio sync. Crisp pictures and smooth motion. Only minor artifacting is discernable. The HHe format coupled with this device seems capable.
Control was alright considering all I needed to do was push Play. I wonder what all of the additional controls might be used for in the future. Games?
The video playback also let me do an A->B repeat, which was very confusing when I accidentally pushed down on the directional pad. Pressing the Play button cancelled the repeat.
Navigating among JPEGs was interesting, too. I used the directional pad to navigate through directories, then selected the JPEG to view with the center button. Left and Right controls moved to the next photo in the directory. The Menu button returned to the directory list and moved up to the parent directory. As I said, the JPEG decompression was disappointingly slow, and even though the screen on the ZVue is bigger than the screen on my camera, I think the camera is better because it's faster.
Ultimately, the ZVue is a fundamentally useless device until they release the MPEG4 upgrade. The titles that are available wouldn't seem to be of interest to folks that can spend the cash on the base unit, which really isn't that expensive for a device that does what the ZVue does.
It's not a very mature PVP, but it's a cool gadget. I'll report again when (if) I get the MPEG4 upgrade installed.
If your ZVue has arrived, please leave a comment with your experience. I have yet to find anyone on the web that got one that isn't affiliated with the company in some way. I may be the only owner!
A Complete Waste of Time and Money! Yeah, I got my Christmas Z but it was three long weeks after the big day. Yes it looks cool, but let me ask you a pivotal question. WTF good is a personal video players if you can't play any personal video? As the dude in their video said a hundered times, Huh? And don't be holdin' your breath waiting for MPEG4. Attention any class action lawyers out there reading this! We are now at the end of January and does anyone here see an MPEG4 player? I don't think so!
I ordered my Zvue on Dec 8th and received it a couple of days after Christmas. It plays MP3s very well but I am more interested in making my own video from my PVR. The video seems to play well. I agree that the top cover is flimsy and will prob fall off soon, I cannot view my pictures from my camera because they are 4 megapixels and I get a "too large" error. I would like either a converter to .hhe format or the .mp4 upgrade soon.
Patiently waiting....
I ceratinly don't want a converter to create HHE files. The main reason that I'm bothering with the ZVue at all instead of my Kyocera 7135 Palm/phone is becaue I don't like the idea of converting all of my existing videos to Kinoma. If I can compress my videos to MPEG4 for storage, I won't have to take extra steps to play them back on the ZVue.
I don't think I'm ready for class action, yet, though. After all, the software industry is riddled with delays. Of course if there was a class action suit, I would worry that HandHeld will go under before any of us could claim anything. I think it's best to wait at least through February, which is when their site now says the upgrade is scheduled for release. It might only be a week...
Well, the site says that the release of the MPEG4 firmware has been pushed back to February, which means it could be anytime this month. And this is a short month, so it's not that much longer to wait.
Incidentally, I forgot to mention that ZVue released a firmware upgrade for MP3 playback. I've noticed that certain MP3s cause the system to hang. I assume that the firmware upgrade was released to fix this issue. I have not tried upgrading yet, though.
Class action was a joke. The Z works fine for what it was sold for which is playing clips with a codec that was written for it. Now think about this. If everyone buys the Z for their own rips and it works as well as the HHe videos, the company makes zero money. So what does that tell you about the quality of what you are eventually going to see using MPEG4?
I'm not sure if you noticed the FAQ at the ZVue site, but there is a movie you can download there that should run on your ZVue. You'll have to copy it to an SD card and put that in your player. I have not tried it yet myself but it seems promising.
Don't bother, it is just another one minute clip in HHe. Hey Zpeople, give us some free feature films or hurry up with MPEG4!
OK, it's February and I haven't heard a word from zvue on when they are releasing MP4. The zvue is worthless without it does anyone know what's going on?
I have been to myzvue.com. It seems mostly like a propaganda site. Everyone else that has said anything about the ZVue construction and playback capabilities has complained to some degree, but not that guy. There seems to be some tie between him and HandHeld.
It's getting along pretty well into February, and there is still no MPEG4 upgrade. As soon as I get my hands on it, I'll write up something on my favorite way to convert to MPEG4.
Suffice to say, I'm not crazy about Dr. Divx, and hope that the solution it provides is not proprietary, as this would make irrelevant the reason I bought the ZVue in the first place.
I would like to see these guys do something with Dr. DivX and get the MPEG-4 rolling. Have any of you guys been to www.myzvue.com. Their is actually a discussion board link there. The discussions are few so far, but the are starting to get going. The direct link to it is My ZVUE! Discussion Boards
WilliamHung.net, (the guy from American Idol) is giving away two ZVUE!s apparently with video of his performance
Even though it's taking awhile, I think the MP4 upgrade will be worth the wait. It could really transform ZVUE into "An MP3 Player on Steroids."
"An MP3 Player on Steroids"?
The ZVUE is to big and bulky to be used as my main MP3 player. An SD MP3 player is only around sixty bucks. In 6 months, they will be $30. The ZVUE is a still born baby and at the moment completely worthless. I hear the xmas units have been recalled. What a nightmare! The ZVUE is not on steroids, it is on an oxygen pump and heart machine. It may die.
Show me an SD MP3 player for $60 bucks. In six months, that same player will also be broken. I also hear some of the Christmas units were recalled because of a manufacturing error, which is a manufacturing problem and not something the company did. Yes, it is a nightmare. Show me another $99 MP3 player that will run music for 12 plus hours and then run video for up to eight hours, which is about what an iPod does just on audio. Please.
I need to shop where "guest" does because my MP3 player was not that cheap. Nonetheless, I agree that the ZVue is not worthwhile as a primary MP3 player, and since that is not why I bought one, I never really intended to use it that way.
I had intended on using it as a video player for my MPEG4 files, and it seems that the release of this functionality may slip again. Without that upgrade, I'll soon be calling to request a refund. Without video playback (MY videos, not the short snowboarding and street racing ones) this unit is worthless to me. I bought mine on the promise in advertisement that MPEG4 would be released, and I wanted to support this upstart company that had vision seemingly synched with mine. Now I feel shortchanged.
If you bought the ZVue as your first MP3 player, then fine, it seems competent. But I already had one of those, and what I wanted from this was playback of my video, which is its touted primary function.
I don't think that the ZVue could withstand the jolting torture that I put my MP3 player through at the gym, anyway. Also, the battery life on my ZVue doesn't approach 4 hours, much less 8. It couldn't even play back my whole SD card worth of MP3s.
Publishing some news on the HandHeld site about the progress of the upgrade might go a long way toward appeasing its customers. I can only assume that they haven't said anything because they don't have anything good to say. (Ie. "It's delayed again." or "Nevermind.") The fact that the site design still looks like they're selling a fresh hot shipment of poorly supported tech from China off the back of a semi doesn't leave me with a good feeling, either.
"Show me an SD MP3 player for $60 bucks."
The NeuNeo is $62 on eBay
Build-in 128M memory. 16-512M MMC/SD card
MP3/WMA/FM Radio/Digital Voice Recorder
1 AAA battery (10-12 hours)
Purchase from manufacture online. Just like zvue.
My zvue battery door broke within a week.
RustedWally - Do you work for ZVue?
You are so quick on the positive spin trigger. I hear people are paid to post positive message board spin. Are you well paid? Are you paid for by the hour or spin?
This is the zvue suckage board. All you zvue positive people - don't post here - instead email the company and tell them what a great job they are doing. I'm sure the president and board of directors are dying to get ‘real’ positive consumer feedback.
If MPEG4 is not here within the week, I'm going to start the process of getting my money back through my credit card company. Fuck THEM. I'll wait with my money in my pocket instead of a worthless piece of crap!
Um. Ok...
This isn't the "ZVue Suckage board". "ZVue Suckage" is the title of the article on my website. My website where you are a guest both in name and in concept.
I don't generally mind people ZVue-bashing here because, well, HandHeld is not doing a good job with support and many of us don't feel like we're getting what we've paid for.
The NeuNeo seems like a nice MP3 player alternative ($115 new - cheap!), and it's a shame that you couldn't leave your comment at that.
I have my suspicions about RustedWally being associated with HandHeld, too. I honestly can't believe that anyone would get so excited about an American Idol loser giving away a couple of ZVues. But whatever.
Please keep the profanity and rage down to a minimum, though. I run a family site here, and besides, I don't want your trashtalking to start attracting more traffic than the porn I've got stashed here.
Owen - I am dying to ask - will your porn run on the Zvue? That would certainly give new meaning to the name Hand Held Entertainment wouldn't it? LOL!
Here is the latest event in my ongoing Zvue saga. A recall letter.
"The NeuNeo seems like a nice MP3 player alternative ($115 new - cheap!), and it's a shame that you couldn't leave your comment at that."
NeuNeo EBay Store is offering the SD MP3 player today for $59.95-$62.50. The companies motto is: "We are here to listen!" Check their EBay Customer Feedback
Owen – I apologize for my “mental malfunction” in the above post. You can delete anything you deem necessary that may offend FCC Chairman Michael Powell’s kids, NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s third wife or zvue owners under the age of 12. My frustration over broken promises and a defective Christmas gift to my 8-year-old daughter got the better of me and for this I am sorry. But, in my defense, misery does enjoy company and paid posters sprinkling f’in fairy dust around the net pisses me off. There I go again. I better just get my money back and wait for the video iPod.
Hey, I am not happy about this MPEG-4 thing either. I feel totally duped (again). I like the Zvue, and I want to put my own stuff on it, but I fear that without a little patience, too much slamming is going to make it go under.
And by all means, get a hold of your language there. People are entitled to their opinions even if you want to call it "fairy dust around the net." By the logic you are using, you are spreading around "fairy trash," which bothers me. I don't mind hearing the honest opinions or problems, but do it with some decency. I get tired of all the trash. So, what do we do? Let the opinions be.
{"Show me an SD MP3 player for $60 bucks."}
[The NeuNeo is $62 on eBay
Build-in 128M memory. 16-512M MMC/SD card
MP3/WMA/FM Radio/Digital Voice Recorder
1 AAA battery (10-12 hours)]
This is not $62, it is 62 pounds (GBP), which is $117 US. So, show me an SD MP3 player that is $60. (All this is aside from the Zvue talk. I just don't believe you can back it up that you can get a new mp3 player for $60 that isn't a total piece of crap.)
And yes, I agree, the main reason for the Zvue is not for mp3 it is for video.
I called Handheld (makers of the ZVUE) today. They said that the MP4 is in final stages of QA and should be out in about a week. You will need to by the $50 encoder software to convert your video to their format to play. The new players are goind to be $149 with the encoder.
check out:
www.myzvue.com
and
http://store.yahoo.com/svcompusicle/zvue-mp4.html
Hey would you believe a $20 MP3 Player with a slot for an MMC? CompUSA was selling the eBlitz Shuttle for $20 in December. I know - I bought five for the price of one Zvue and they work like a charm. It is made with cheap translucent blue plastic that actually looks cool, is about the size of a small box of matches and sounds great! I figured I would buy a bunch and throw them out as they stopped working. Guess what? I'm still on my first and thinking of giving the extra four to friends as birthday gifts.
This Zvue back and forth is interesting. I have a unit that is MPEG 4 ready.
The IPOD is selling crazylike, and yet it is the biggest hyped product to come around since the MAC.
60 GB hard drive. Who needs that much storage?
Numbers: 2 million IPODS sold, 30 million ITUNE down loads. 15 downloads per IPOD. Even with your own home made files your maybe 4800 to 9800 songs short of a full load.
What person would pay 99 cents for the 5,000 to 10,000 songs IPOD can store! That is $5,000-$10,000 bucs. I don't think so.
Load 100 songs and tell me the thrill you are having listening random juke box style to your IPOD. Some high. More like hype.
Video IPOD, next year, late next year, $600 low end. Visited IPOD lounge, an APPLE sponsered site discussing future product development.
ZVUE audio next to IPOD audio,(I'm a geek, I have both) equal in quality, I actually prefer ZVUE.
IPOD no video. NADA.
MPEG 4, (yes porn too, PARIS H., and John Long, Idol Cult Star) loaded on my MMC card, and I'm out the door.
256 MB plenty of mix n match audio and video for any day or night trip. I store on my hard drive, delete daily, reload daily, in no time.
HHe video is slightly better then MPEG 4 but until they get better content, I'm downloading.
Truthfully, if Handheld gets their act together, they might break big with mass appeal, think VIDEO WALKMAN.
Remember we are geeks way ahead of the curve, the general population is just becoming aware of the ZVUE, after they have worked out their kinks, listening to us pick them apart.
Come to think of it I feel we have been duped as a cheap means for product development and testing.
Oh well, taken again!
RPM
I have MPEG-4 on my zvue as well, and I agree with rpMcMurphy. Storing 40 hours of video is all hype. Batteries on most devices like that last a whopping 4 hours. Mine gets 7-plus on 4 AA's. I keep the content on my computer. Switch it in minutes when I want something different, and I am done. I don't care about 40 hours of content because I would rather watch 50 hours on a big TV. BUT, for a car trip or a plane ride, a few hours is perfect, and my batteries aren't going to die. If they do, I can get them at any gas station or store and I don't have to wait for a recharge.
zvue is now supporting OGG vorbis and WMA
ZVue is now (still) only supporting a 30 minute battery life and videos with a maximum length of 15 minutes.
You likely haven't been updating your software. http://www.zvue.com/support.aspx?cat=s
And, if you are having battery problems, it was likely something that was supposed to be recalled. There was a recall a while back... The problem was with the manufacturer, but it has since been fixed.
It's not the ZVue firmware that's the problem. It's the encoding software. It will only encode 15 minutes of video (actually, audio, since it's the Lame encoder that explodes) before it hangs. With a maximum movie duration of 15 minutes, the ZVue was a complete waste of my money, since it can't do what I wanted it for - watch long-ish movies.
My ZVue was recalled a while ago (the very first line of this post), and I have already received my replacement. I doubt that I have ever gotten a solid two hours of playback out of the ZVue. I would rate the battery life on a scale of 1(bad) to 5(good) as a 1. This new one is no better than the original.
I've had my ZVUE for two days now and dig it a lot. My original intent was to time-shift my 3 year olds videos for long car rides. I've done some, but also have done feature films (ones I legally own). So far, I've done Office Space, Best in Show, Airplane and a couple of others. I can generally fit two movies onto a 256MB MMC with the great compression from Forty-TwoDVD VXPlus. This is a Mac only utility that I purchased for $14.99.
The quality is great, considering the device, and playback has been flawless. I, too, store all my movies on a laptop and transfer as needed.
Now, some suckage... the card slot broke already. I think that when my wife changed the card for the first time she pushed too hard and something snapped... Not good, considering I want my three year old to use this. Additionally, what was Handheld thinking with that embossed hand on the cover? I'd like a clear screen so I can watch my movies with some protection!
The hand definitely needs to go from the screen protector. Get rid of it HandHeld. As for the guy who only gets like two hours out of his Zvue???? That is weird. I have never had that problem, and I have a couple of them.
Anyone out there having audio/video sync issues with videos longer than 30 minutes? Every movie I encode over 30 minutes drifts so the video is a couple of seconds after the audio.
someone had mentioned having a problem with it at this ZVUE user forum
www.scottmarc.com/zvue
RustedWally- Dude, you're a pimp! :)
RustedWalley does sound like a Zvue pimp doesn't he? Whatever he is he is also a registered forum member at myzvue.com!
yeah, I am a zvue pimp. Things are way better. You should check 'em out now. We got a whole slew of folks at myzvue.com/forum that are helping each other out with the zvue. new software updates (much better now).
You guys probably need to re-vamp your page, or at least the headline since it's over a year out of date and no longer applies. The Zvue is much different from what you encountered back at the beginning of '04, thank God. The player rocks now with MPEG4 support (Divx), picture support and support for several audio formats including MP3, WMA, OGG, more...
If you've done any sort of playing around with video editors, you've messed with Vdub and/or Vdubmod. Vdubmod is actually "Zflicks", so it's the perfect encoder match for this player. Plus, nothing on the market compares right now to the Zvue in terms of "bang for buck". Only qualms I have are of course battery consumption which is mediocre.
I love my zvue. Got it the other day for cheap. I've got 45 minutes worth of Star Trek Voyager, 7 minute of an eminem music video, 4 hours worth of radio, and 10 megs of my pet pictures all on a 128 meg card! Works great! I plan to get a bigger card soon so I can fit full movies on it. The zflicks software that converts works GREAT also. My cat already killed my ear buds, but i hate those things anyway. Watching a 1.5 hour documentary right now! Recommend to anyone!
Got a ZVue 200A for Christmas. I like it because it plays video and displays pictures, but even the videos that came on the card look pixelized, not totally smooth. I HATE the 128MB card that came with it, if you're using it just as much to play music as you are to watch videos it's not nearly enough storage. I plan on buying a bigger card, though.
Another thing I hate is the flimsy port protectors. I ripped them off on the first day, they wouldn't even close all the way anyway after opening just once.
I like the screen protector, although I agree that having the logo on it is stupid.
Another complaint - one of the reasons the iPod is so popular is that it comes in array of colors. The ZVue only comes in one boring color! Would it be so expensive to make them in different colors? Atleast have 2 or 3 color choices, I mean c'mon...
The layout for the menus on the Z is reminiscent of those old PCs from the early 90s with the "Press F1.. Press F2" menus. It'd be nice if you could atleast change the colors of the background and text, it looks so old-school.
My main complaint is that 128MB is not nearly enough storage, but it is cool that you can buy new cards for it instead of having to buy a new unit.
Also, does anyone here know of any way to hack things like the background color/text of the menus on the Z? I doubt it's possible, but it'd be nice if it was...
No You are not the only one who bought the player I also bought it. I went local walmart and got mine but since then I have not been able too get the USB to connect too the player and be reconized. I have called tech support many times each time them telling me a tech support rep would contact me and they update the records still no help and it makes no since without it connecting to USB no way to update firmware etc so far as I am concerned I just purchased a premedia object that does nothing but allows me to view what they have already installed on the hmm memory card if you have any solutions can you get back to me my e-mail is moonbear73@verizon.net and it would be greatly appreciated but I am not waiting 30 days and not be able to return this for a full refund lol
I don't understand all this!!!! I bought a zvue with the intent to play video on it and I also was very disappointed with the available software, however, have any of you guys searched for third party upgrades and programs to comvert to Zvue? I have and I have found a ton of things available for the Zvue and today I can convert anything to the Zvue and get beautiful playback. There are tons of converters that work very well with the Zvue but you have to set the video output to 160x120 XviD at 24FPS for the best quality, at this level I can fit a 2 hour movie on a 128 meg card and if you keep the brightness on the display and the volume at or below the default levels, a fully charged set of NmHi battery's will play the whole movie with ease.
I think you should stop complaining about the Zvue site and find the stuff that really works. I love my Zvue! And no I do not work for or ever would work for Zvue.
im sorry but the zvue is the worst form of music player. the fact that the sarter kit was only 128 mb???? i do not reccomend to anyone!!!!! when i got it it was 99.99 dollars andnow its like 30 dollars???? i was very heated....
AGAIN...
i do not recommend this "crap" to anyone!!!!! i wouldnt recommend it to my worst enemy....