Users of Creative Zen Vision:M and GB-PVR

[FirstTeamOPS]

I'm looking at getting a Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB portable player and use it mostly for watching programs I've recorded with GB-PVR on the road. I have a Hauppauge WinTV PVR-350 NTSC using GB-PVR (obviously).

Has anyone had problems watching the MPGs recorded with GB-PVR on their Vision:M? Any problems using different quality settings?

I'm thinking most of the time I'll just straight copy the recorded file from my hard drive to the player. About how long does it take to copy a one hour program at medium quality (~1.7 GB using USB 2.0)? Does anyone have a tip on software or a method that will compress the video files down? Just in case I decide to put alot of music files on the player.

I'm also hoping there is a fast forward feature on the player since most seem to have one. One that will let me fast forward through commercials on the device, that feature is a must! Does the player have one?

Thank You.

[SniperDude]

I have the unit prior to the one you are talking about... the programs have played on my unit with no trouble... my 2 year old is thrilled bout all his shows that I have on it... Good for restraunts LOL

It takes approximatly 4 minutes to copy over that size... but I generally rip them down to even smaller with another program... my 1/2 hour shows that he loves take bout 300-400Mb ... I havent used the transcode feature/plugins yet as I am really happy with the results of my other program... (which is very fast) ... I am not sure how Sub feels bout advertising other programs so I wont name it just now..

My player has a fast forward feature but I never really need it, as I use comskip to remove the commercials before ripping down to the PMC

-Tim

[FirstTeamOPS]

Thanks for the info Tim. I did decide to order one and their running a special on it.

[FirstTeamOPS]

Well I got my Vision:M in and my initial thought is: very disappointing.

None of my GB-PVR files work on the player. Probably because it probably sees them as a proprietary file type. Is not a standard MPEG A/V file. I try to use Creative's own utility to convert them and it says "conversion is unsuccessful." I tried converting the files using 3rd party conversion/transcode software and it takes just as long to convert as it did to record. The player must have any video larger than ~352 X 240 downgraded as well. This is definately not the "copy and go" player I was looking for.

I'll keep looking for a solution for a few days but this is probably going to end up on E-Bay soon.