Zen Firmware 1.21.01

[kurei_86]

This download contains an improved version of the firmware found on your Creative ZEN™ player. It improves your player's playback performance of WMA (.wma) files. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.



Added Features or Enhancements:

• Improves your player's playback performance of WMA (.wma) files.

So in the end,there is no Integrate SD card into the main library.........

wat a great disappointment....

[CrowdAds]

[Buzzkill]

Originally Posted by kurei_86

This download contains an improved version of the firmware found on your Creative ZEN™ player. It improves your player's playback performance of WMA (.wma) files. For more details, read the rest of this web release note.



Added Features or Enhancements:

• Improves your player's playback performance of WMA (.wma) files.

So in the end,there is no Integrate SD card into the main library.........

wat a great disappointment....

How old is this firmware? It is not the last update I hope.

[viewguy111]

Thanks for the update, got it up and running on my 32GB ZEN on the second try. First flash completed but it was giving me a firmware error on the player and giving me the "Reboot/Clean/Format" screen... I ran the cleanup on the player UI and did a reinstall and everything seems to be working fine (a couple of settings like my player name/wallpaper/EQ needed to be redone).

Unsure if this was just bad luck or a typical flashing experience. I noticed that the support page only lists the 4/8/16GB Zen but this firmware has to be right since there is no other Zen listed on the page, and my previous version was the one that used to be posted.

[viewguy111]

Originally Posted by Buzzkill

How old is this firmware? It is not the last update I hope.

According to the support page it was just posted today (2/28)

[Valdr]

Has anyone tried WMA playback yet? No more clicking?

[thetawaves]

Has there been any official response to why they won't include SD card integration with the main menu??

[Cloud Strife]

I have three questions regarding that new firmware:

1. Is it wise to upgrade the firmware to 1.21 this early (given the firmware's 2/28 release date)

2. Has anyone else upgraded their f/w's yet? Stability issues?

3. It took Creative about 2 months++ for another upgrade ... so why just a single improvement? I was under the expression that there are still other bug issues to be addressed? I can do without the SD card main menu integration but it would be nice to have less freezing issues or increased video reliability (for a conversion issue I have that would cause the player either to hang at a fixed point during the movie or go black 2 seconds before the movie ends -- usually requires me to reconvert and transfer the movie again).

[Einstazella]

so has anyone noticed any improvements ?

[Nickel II]

Originally Posted by thetawaves

Has there been any official response to why they won't include SD card integration with the main menu??

Think about it. They are in the business of selling MP3 players. If they made a player with unlimited expansion, guess who would profit? The sd card makers!!!!!

By keeping the sd card not in the main player database, they still get you to upgrade 1-2-3 years down the road to have one continuous group of XXX gb of memory.

Sandisk does the same thing. They have a micro sd slot. Guess what? They limit how large of a microsd card it will take. My e280 will take a 2gb card. Why limit it? First sandisk wants you to by microsd cards because they make them!!! and limit it so you will by a sandisk view, and then a 4-8 gb microsd card to expand that memory!!!

Its a business. Not here to give you the ideal player. You think Apple is here to give you the best player? No, they want you to always be wanting more.

[Woembah]

Originally Posted by Cloud Strife

I have three questions regarding that new firmware:

1. Is it wise to upgrade the firmware to 1.21 this early (given the firmware's 2/28 release date)

2. Has anyone else upgraded their f/w's yet? Stability issues?

3. It took Creative about 2 months++ for another upgrade ... so why just a single improvement? I was under the expression that there are still other bug issues to be addressed? I can do without the SD card main menu integration but it would be nice to have less freezing issues or increased video reliability (for a conversion issue I have that would cause the player either to hang at a fixed point during the movie or go black 2 seconds before the movie ends -- usually requires me to reconvert and transfer the movie again).

1. Creative has probably tested this firmware version, so I think there shouldn't be any problem with upgrading.

2. I have, no stability issues here, but I haven't used it much since the upgrade

3. Creative usually doesn't mention all of the improvements that have been made. Bugs have probably been fixed too, but as they are 'small problems', they don't mention them in the release note. I found 1.20.02 to be already pretty stable though.

[Valdr]

I had problem updating ... Zen has restarted and said there was an error in firmware taking me to Recovery Mode - I cleared firmware and load it once again, I lost my settings but now the player works. Since no one else reports such problems I think I was a bit unlucky with the first try.
And it's quite important update for me even though I mainly use mp3 playback, now WMAs also work ok.

[Buzzkill]

Here is the logic behind Creative not fully integrating the SD card. They would not sell as many 8, 16, 32 gig models if they do. It's way cheaper to buy a 2 gig Zen, then plop a memory card in rather than pay for the higher memory models. They would be hurting themselves.

I would settle for a more reliable OS. Less glitches, blinks, restarts myself.

[kurei_86]

maybe it their last firmware,Creative might not have the intention of integrate the SD card,even after so many response............

[Valdr]

I also think it may be their last firmware update and they'll concentrate on a new player. WMA issue was one that really needed to be fixed (because they advertise Zen to support wmas). Of course there are some minor things (apart from SD integration) that still could be tweaked in firmware like option to turn off the screen without locking but Creative is probably not aware that such options would be handy for some users.

[Buzzkill]

Originally Posted by Valdr

I also think it may be their last firmware update and they'll concentrate on a new player. WMA issue was one that really needed to be fixed (because they advertise Zen to support wmas). Of course there are some minor things (apart from SD integration) that still could be tweaked in firmware like option to turn off the screen without locking but Creative is probably not aware that such options would be handy for some users.

I hope they are not done with the firmware updates. Why would they stop so early in a products life?

I know Apple updates there players firmware for a long while after being introduced.

[Valdr]

It is all a matter of response, Creative was too much "attacked" with SD integration demand and they may be not aware of other users needs.
P.S. Does the Zen wake up faster from standby mode with this firmware (no more than 2 seconds)? ... but they didn't mention it in update list so maybe it's really just my subjective feeling.

[BobbyRS]

At first, I thought that the lack of SD card integration was just a big overlooked mistake (or was too late to implement when they realized it was expected), but there has plenty of time since its release and numerous firmware updates that they could have corrected it if it was. So, now I am thinking they are just either having a real hard time getting it to work correctly or they have some other stubborn plan behind their reasoning.


I don't think they are done with firmware releases either (at least I will be extremely disappointed if they are). Like Valdr mentioned, there are too many smaller issues or tweaks that can be corrected or improved on.

[Valdr]

Yeah, but I wonder how to inform them of our suggestions. I've tried to contact customer support, but they're not helpful. Just asked a lot of pissing and unnecessary questions. I read that some posts from official forum were sent to firmware developers (like the one looong thread about SD integration).

[BobbyRS]

Originally Posted by Valdr

Yeah, but I wonder how to inform them of our suggestions. I've tried to contact customer support, but they're not helpful. Just asked a lot of pissing and unnecessary questions. I read that some posts from official forum were sent to firmware developers (like the one looong thread about SD integration).

Emailing support..... Posting in their official forum..... I'm hoping they at least read their own forum threads if they don't read ones here. I'm sure they also can't ignore many of the reviews done on the Zen that basically all mention lack of SD card integration.

[xjjjay]

i doubt they'll integrate the sd card within the next year... They're clearly worried that they'll sell less of the higher internal memory models (16, 32) if they integrate it now. They might consider putting it in later when sales for this die down and they want something to kick up interest..

Creative can easily do this now if they wanted to, they just don't.