Tag: Demonview

The GoPro Hero 13. At last, a true creator’s camera.

Posted on by DemonView

As you should all know by now the GoPro Hero 13 is going to hit the market on September 4th. The questions on everyone’s mind though at the moment is “Is this camera worth buying?”. The reason being that there’s been no reported update with the sensor, it’s the same basic overall design and now it turns out that people will have to invest in new batteries for this model. So will I even be purchasing this camera?

To purchase or not to purchase, that is the question!

The answer is simple. Yes, yes I most definitely will as I reckon GoPro have finally made a true “Creators” camera with this new GoPro Hero 13. Let me walk you through why I think this is going to be an amazing camera for creators.

New Lens Mods!

Lens modes are nothing new to GoPro, they’ve offered us the Max Lens Mod since the Hero 9, the Hero 12 supported the Max Lens Mod 2.0. However, the Hero 13 is offering us two extra lens mods, a Macro lens Mod and a Wide angle mod (with a reported 2:40:1 aspect ratio). Those are the two mods I’m most looking forward to as I believe these will really up the creator game. Here’s why.

When I film footage for myself or my channel, there’s time when I want to get close up shots of an item. Whether it be an accessory for my video channel such as this excellent video light from Ulanzi

Still rocking this amazing little light!

or even a set of premium spark plugs for my car.

Why use cheap spark plugs in your car?

However, as you know, the GoPro camera with its wide angle FOV, doesn’t do close up shots. This means I have to grab my Canon Rebel 7ti equipped with a Macro Lens to get the close up shots that I want. This means I’m using two separate cameras, two separate video files and now I have to spend extra time color matching the shots in post.

It’s still one of the best all rounders you can get!

Now with the Hero 13, I will be able to quickly and easily swap lenses on the fly. Use the regular lens for my presentation shots and then for the up-close shots, quickly swap in the macro lens mod. All shots in the one camera, no swapping around cameras, managing multiple SD cards and multiple file types. Even better, the GoPro Hero 13 has automatic lens detection!

That’s a huge advantage when it comes to quickly creating and outputting video content. At the risk of sounding like a TV infomercial, I’ll have to say “But wait, that’s not all….”

The Wide Angle Mod

This is the one I’m really looking forward to. Although the GoPro can easily manage a nice 16:9 widescreen output, it just didn’t seem…. cinematic. You would either have to film in 8:7 and then add black bars in post (therefore really just cutting into your resolution) or you could use a 3rd party Animorphic lens… which means you would have to turn off stabilization, film in a narrow FOV and the then de-squeeze the footage in post. So, it was a lot of work for the shots that you wanted to get (even if the results looked amazing with proper cinematic lens flare).

Still a great option for older cameras if you want cinematic style footage.

The fact that GoPro are releasing their own Wide-Angle Lens that will be supported by the camera natively is a HUGE advantage. Now creators can use their small form factor GoPro to create truly cinematic looking footage with just a lens swap.

So now that I’ve listed the some of the things I’m looking forward to, let’s talk about the other advantages of this new GoPro model.

Battery life!

The new GoPro uses a new battery design that offers about 17% more shooting times (resolution and frame rate dependent). Now some people have complained about this, after all, if you bought a Hero 12 just last year, you’re probably not happy about having to upgrade batteries for the Hero 13. However, be aware, the current form factor batteries were introduced with the Hero 9. The Hero 10 gave us the Enduro battery variant, and the Hero 11 and 12 used the same batteries. So, for a lot of people out there, it’s about time that GoPro updated the batteries. I doubt anyone is going to complain about longer filming times with these new batteries and I just hope that these GoPro batteries finally support fast charging options (the one thing a lot of people have complained about in the past).

These are the best and only batteries you should be using in your Hero 9, 10, 11 or 12!

Enhanced Audio!

This is a bit of a tricky one to address. If we look at the design of the new GoPro, a lot of people seem to think that the grill under the front lens is a heat sink to keep the camera cool. I actually believe this represents a new microphone for the GoPro that offers better wind reduction. GoPro’s actually have pretty good audio, however once the wind comes out, then you’ll need to use either a media mod (with foam windscreen) or use an external mic with a dead cat for premium audio. I think GoPro have been working hard on this one and we’re going to see better “in camera” microphone quality as evidenced by the new mic design under that front lens.

Bluetooth improvements?

Although Bluetooth audio was introduced with the Hero 12, it only supported HFP (hands free protocol) so you could really only use it with headsets (which usually have built in digital wind reduction which lowers audio quality massively). It looks like the Hero 13 may have upgraded the Bluetooth audio on offer (however I can’t confirm this at the moment) and if they have, then it’s yet another reason to purchase.

However, there’s the final reason I’ll be upgrade for sure and that would be one of my favorite ways to shoot and that’s slow motion!

Slow motion is one of the most underused features of a GoPro camera. They can currently shoot at up to 240FPS (10X slow motion). The ability to slow down time to get buttery smooth slow motion is amazing and GoPro have upgraded this feature too. Now they are offering an insane 13X slow motion at 320FPS! I simply cannot wait to have some serious fun with this one. This makes a perfection “Action camera” enhancement that will seriously rock your footage.

So with all of that in mind, am I excited about this release on September 4th? Yes, I am! I think this is seriously one of the most exciting models that GoPro have released in quite some time, and they put creators first and foremost with this release giving them a huge variety of tools to help up their game!

Roll on September 4th, I’ll be purchasing the GoPro Hero 13 for sure, and I cannot wait to review this exciting model camera for you!

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The Big USA Road Trip!

Posted on by DemonView

A DemonView Drives Adventure!

There are plenty of things I haven’t done since I moved from Ireland to the USA. I’ve never had chicken and waffles for instance. I’ve never queued outside of a store overnight on Black Friday waiting for some sort of sales bargain. I’ve never tailgated at a baseball or football game (mainly because I didn’t understand the rules and those things last for HOURS….). However, my biggest regret is never embarking on the great American road trip! At least, not until now!

This is how AI depicts “The Great American Road Trip”.

Allow me to explain why this is so important to me. In Ireland, you could drive coast to coast in about 3 hours (in traffic). I’m not saying Ireland is a small country, but they did consider hanging a mirror at one end to make it look bigger. The issue is that when you drove out the city or village you were in, within 3 hours, you’d end up at a nearly identical city or village. You were still (more or less) in the same place. Sure, the pubs were a little different and the locals would look at you like you were some sort of suspicious outsider, but you never really got the sense that you were really anywhere different.

AI was a lot nicer when asked to depict life in Ireland!

So how much bigger is the USA than Ireland? Well, let me put it this way, you could fit 116 Irelands inside of the USA! 116!!!!! I grew up watching American movies where people would hit the road, embark on a huge adventure, see different sights and make live changing discoveries along the way. Just not the type of thing that would happen in 3 hours on Irish roads. Each state seems to have it’s own identity, it’s own features and really is like a different country.

So, when my wife came up with the idea of treating me to a cross-country road trip in the USA, I jumped at the chance! (although it wasn’t a big jump…. I don’t like heights….). This would be my opportunity to hit the road, to embark on the adventure of a lifetime! To finally fulfill one of my American Dreams! However, this would be no sightseeing trip, we were going to be on a mission!

THE PLAN!

My wife’s family has a pretty interesting and diverse history, but “for reasons that don’t need exploring at this juncture” my wife’s father ended up in Canada in his younger years (there may be a prize if anyone can guess where that quote comes from!). When he left Canada, he left quite a few boxes of records with his relatives (which then became promptly forgotten about). These were recently re-discovered, and my wife and I decided we would go and collect them (mainly because it would they would be very expensive and far too delicate to ship!). So, the plan is this.

A: Fly from Portland Oregon to Toronto Canada.

B: Rent a car.

C: Collect the records.

D: Drive back to Portland Oregon, a 4200KM approx. road trip (or 2607 miles approx.)

This looks nothing like us, but it was the best AI would offer me on short notice.

Now like I said, this isn’t a sightseeing trip. We are planning to get this done as quickly as possible and as fast as (legally) possible all while being as safe as possible (see how much possibility there is?). Googly maps say this trip should take 38 hours. However, I’m pretty sure that doesn’t take into account the amount of coffee we’ll be drinking, the amount of bathroom breaks we’ll be needing as a result of drinking such copious amount of coffee, gas station stops etc. We plan to swap drivers every few hours, one sleeping in the back of the car while the other person does the driving. Having said that, if we reach a point where we are both tired or we feel unsafe to drive, we will be renting a hotel room.

Ok, AI is not exactly reassuring me about motels on this road trip….

There are a few routes that we can take on this trip, but I’m thinking it’s mainly going to depend on weather conditions, traffic conditions and how often I ignore the GPS directions and get us lost (a popular male trait I’m told). We will also be at the mercy of the rental car company, we booked an SUV for the trip, so hopefully we get something decent that doesn’t have mechanical issues.

One of the possible routes we will be taking! I stuck to Google Maps for this, AI was just scaring me..

The Camera Equipment!

Ok, so me being me, I intend to document this road trip as it happens. I’ll be trying to show YOU (yes you) how this adventure progresses, the up’s, the down’s and everything along the way. Hopefully it inspires (or warns) you about life on the road! So, I’ll be bringing with me the following camera’s I reckon.

1: The GoPro Hero 12 equipped with the Max Lens Mod 2.0. I find the MLM2.0 is a great wide angle lens to use when vlogging as it really does help display the full interior of the car and not just my face mashed into the camera. I’ll also be equipping the camera with the media mod to I can capture audio using the Rode Wireless Go II mics (still my favorite mic system).

2: The GoPro Hero Max. This will be for an additional camera for some 360 video or photo’s along the way. I may also use this as the dashcam (powered externally) for some shots. The ability to show the interior and exterior views at the same time is always fun.

When is it all happening?

Soon! Very soon! Flight tickets are booked, car is booked, all that’s left to do is get packed and hopefully make a plane as to what we’re going to do route wise etc. So, stay tuned for more updates and check out https://www.youtube.com/demonviewllc for more updates and details!

Want to be a DemonView Road trip Sponsor?

Now it’s your chance to be a part of the adventure! Have your website or business mentioned on this road trip adventure (time dependent, entries after the road trip takes place will get a shoutout in other later videos). Get a shoutout for being an amazing DemonView supporter! There are many ways you can help out on this adventure so just read the options below! Anyone that helps out will get the following!

1: A shoutout for yourself or your business during the road trip videos (time dependent, if you donate “after” the road trip has taken place, you’ll get a shoutout in a later video).

2: Credits in the video! Yes, I’ll be making a DEMONVIEW MOVIE all about this road trip and you will get a special thanks credit. You can brag to all your friends about how YOU (yes you!) helped out with this movie!

Keep the coffee cup filled and me awake!

BUY ME A COFFEE! Yes, you can buy me (or my wife) a coffee to help keep us awake on this long road trip! Just click on the picture above to take you to the site. Make sure you leave a message so I can give you a shoutout and say thanks!

DemonView Merch makes a great his and hers outfit for any important occasion…

BUY DEMONVIEW MERCH! The best way to support this channel and website is to buy some merch and show everyone the love! Heck, buy some for your family and friends and give them the gift of a cool website name with an even cooler logo!

The Amazon Road Trip List! (not to be missed)

THE AMAZON ROAD TRIP LIST! This is a list of items I reckon will help on the road trip and ensure my safety, survival and sanity! Check it out, make a purchase and include a message so I can give you a shoutout and say thanks!

The best YouTube channel on the internet ever…… according to me!

BECOME A DEMONVIEW CHANNEL MEMBER! With different membership levels available, anyone can help support this channel. Basic Members can connect on Social Media, Proud supporters get access to exclusive content, Producers get producer credits in all videos and even more exclusive content. Major Sponsors get all the perks as well as exclusive member only livestream access!

Be a pal, be a PayPal Pal!

MAKE A DONATION! Donations are always welcome and probably the fastest way to help out with this video production. Your donation may be used to help out with production costs, travel costs or medial costs (because honestly, there’s some crazy people out on those roads!). So even the smallest donation can help make a big difference.

Please note this article contains links to 3rd party websites selling goods or services. When you click upon such links and purchase such products or services, I get a small kickback which goes towards helping produce more video’s and content for DemonView.com and its associated YouTube channels.

A 3 hour battery for the GoPro Hero 12? TESTED!

Posted on by DemonView

Yes, you read that right. For those of you who want/need longer shooting times from your camera, this may be the battery that solves all your issues!

Presenting the Fitstill Extended GoPro Battery.

If you want to shoot for 3hrs in 5.3K 30FPS, here’s your solution!

So what is it and more importantly, does it work?

Here’s what it is!

The Fitstill extended battery pack for the GoPro camera is an extended battery that fits inside and around your GoPro camera. This is somewhat reminiscent of the types of extended batteries that you would see for professional DSRL or mirror-less cameras but scaled down for the GoPro Hero line of the cameras.

The design is pretty unique as it almost looks like part of the battery pack actually fits inside the camera (which it does) but it actually doesn’t use the battery contacts to power the camera. Instead, it actually connects to the USB-C port of the camera to provide power. The part that fits inside the battery chamber more or less acts as a guide to line up the USB-Port properly to avoid damage. So that’s actually a pretty smart design. This also means you still have full access to the touchscreen of the camera as the battery doesn’t block it in any way.

You can see the USB-C connection in this picture.

So does it work?

Well, this is where it gets interesting.

According to the Amazon Page, this product is designed for the Hero 10 camera, in fact, the wording specifically states “Only for Hero 10 black”.

Not my imagination, it clearly states “Only for GoPro Hero 10 Black”

However, when the product arrived, it clearly said on the Box “For the Hero 9 and Hero 10 camera”. Now I’m going to hazard a guess that this product (and packaging) was created before the Hero 11 and Hero 12 were released. So since fortune favors the bold (and the foolish alike) I decided to test this battery pack with the Hero 10, Hero 11 and Hero 12. The results were interesting. ( I recently gave away my Hero 9 to my brother in Florida).

Now please note, that all 3 cameras were running the GoPro Labs firmware and that the power checking requirements had been bypassed using the TUSB=1 command.

With the Hero 10…… the battery pack simply didn’t work. It did nothing. Nada. Zilch! I couldn’t get the camera to even show a sign of life. I thought that maybe I had damaged the USB-C port, but after attaching the camera to the media mod (and successfully detecting it) and connecting the camera directly to USB power (which worked) it seems there may be a compatibility issue. Maybe. It’s also possible that the USB-C port of the camera is damaged, but it’s odd that the media mod and external power still worked. So, Hero 10 owners beware!

With the Hero 11, when the battery pack was attached… there were no issues! The camera powered right up and stayed turned on. I even filmed a few clips without any issues whatsoever.

With the Hero 12, the camera also powered up and recorded. However at one stage the rear display didn’t work properly, but a simple reboot seemed to fix that issue. Odd, but a temporary issues.

I then decided to put the battery pack through its paces. So I set the Hero 12 up to record in 5.3K 30FPS and the results were…….. actually pretty impressive.

Please note the Hero 12 in all its glory filming away. I also included the Portland Oregon weather report!

I managed to shoot in this resolution and frame rate for nearly 3 hours! (about 2hrs 59 minutes if you want to be exact), so I was very impressed. Now since the camera was still and mounted on a tripod, I did have hypersmooth turned off (it wasn’t needed) and the bit rate set to standard (I simply didn’t need a high bitrate for this test). So, I would expect that 3 hours in 5.3K 30FPS was probably the most I would get out of the camera in these settings. I expect times will differ based upon resolution, frame rates and hypersmooth options.

Still, 3 hours……. color me impressed!

So all is good?

Well there are some issues to be fair.

A: This battery plugs into the USB-C port of the camera, if you use it, you’re not going to be able to connect a media mod or external mic to your camera (although with the Hero 12, you still have the option of using your bluetooth audio headset). So that’s unfortunate.

B: I wouldn’t classify the frame as particularly sturdy. It feels a bit cheap and flimsy. Remember, a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link. This applies to the frame that this battery and camera sit in. Although it has a nice wide locking mechanism at the top, the clip is simply held in place by two tiny pieces of plastic. Should one of those snap or break, your camera could easily end up falling out of the frame. I really wouldn’t have minded paying $20 for a sturdy aluminum frame.

C: It’s not waterproof or weatherproof, nor does it claim to be. I’m not sure how hard it would have been to put a rubber gasket around the edges of this battery pack, but if Fitstill had put such a gasket in place, this would have been a fantastic extended battery pack.

D: For the price, I doubt that it is cold weather compatible. Usually cold weather batteries are a lot more expensive. Unfortunately I don’t feel like throwing this in a freezer to find out (I don’t have that type of budget) but pretty sure this is a summertime battery only.

E: It powers off after about a minute or so of nonuse. This is hardly surprising, in fact most USB power banks to the exact same to conserve battery life. This does however mean that the battery pack isn’t suitable for schedule capture where your camera spends long times powered off.

Taking into account all of the above, is it still worth a purchase?

I think it depends on your need. If you want to film for extended periods with your GoPro Hero 11 or 12, then yes, this is well worth looking into. Only if you don’t need to use the media mod or external audio however…….. and you don’t need it to be weather proof or work in cold weather. I don’t think I would trust it mounted on an airplane or a car though for fear of the hinges failing. Then again, I’ve dealt with this design problem before with 3rd party knock off protective cases using the simple cheap hack of wrapping a rubber band around the outside to stop the case from opening.

Either way, for me, I’m pretty sure this battery pack will prove to be plenty useful over the coming summer months.

Please note that the article above contains links to Amazon. I get a small payment for any purchase made through these links and it’s a great way for you to support DemonView.com website and YouTube channels.

Still using Quik for desktop? STOP!!

Posted on by DemonView

Seriously folks, it bugs me to no end to be fielding questions or seeing people on the GoPro Forums complaining about “Why won’t Quik for desktop work?” or “I can’t get GPS stickers working on Quik for desktop with my brand-new GoPro Hero 11!”. It’s got to stop folks, it really does.

Quik for desktop, stop bloody using it!

Look, the simple fact is that Quik for desktop was abandoned by GoPro over 4 years ago at this point. The last camera it fully supported was the GoPro Hero 7. This means that in the year 2023, NO ONE should be using this software. What is the point of trying to use old, out of date, unsupported, discontinued that just plain doesn’t work at this point? If you are still trying to use this software, here’s the things you should know:

1: It won’t support GPS stickers on the GoPro Hero 8 or later. These GoPro’s were made after Quik for desktop was discontinued and these later cameras all store their GPS data in a completely different format. So Quik for desktop won’t be able to read GPS data for the Hero 8, Hero 9, Hero 10, Hero11 or Hero Max (or Hero Fusion for that matter as Quik for desktop never supported 360 media of any kind).

2: It likely won’t offload media from your GoPro Hero 8, Hero 9, Hero 10 or Hero 11. These GoPro’s were all made after Quik for desktop was discontinued and they use newer USB drivers that Quik for desktop was never designed to work with.

3: You’re likely to see the following error upon start-up “We have encountered an issue loading music, please restart application and try again“. This is because GoPro Quik for desktop music library had an expiry date of 2018 or 2019 (I believe, I’m not installing it just to find out). So therefore, if you try to install GoPro Quik for desktop now, the music licenses have all expired and Quik for desktop will just refuse to load.

4: Even if it somehow does load, GoPro Quik for desktop was never designed to support HEVC video and you’re likely to have playback and editing issues.

5: It’s not going to support your latest graphics cards, latest operating system or any of the hundreds of patches that your system has received since GoPro Quik for desktop was discontinued. So therefore, it’s likely to be prone to crashing and freezing.

Now, I do partially blame GoPro for this whole fiasco with Quik. You see, GoPro currently supports Quik for Android and iOS. It’s listed right at the top of GoPro.com under “apps”. However, problems arise when users wonder if there’s a “Quik” version for their PC or Mac, they do a search for “Quik for PC” and what do you know, suddenly a whole bunch of sites offer downloads for Quik for desktop. To make matters worse, even in the GoPro support forums, GoPro have very (unhelpfully) included a link to GoPro Quik for desktop under the title “Legacy software” and most users have no idea that “Legacy software” means “Old, out of date, discontinued, unsupported, software” and immediately go and download this software. They are then faced with the problem that Quik for desktop won’t work and won’t support their camera.

So what’s the solution?

Well, there’s good news on that front! There are many different free video editing software suites out there that users can choose from. For instance, among professional editors, the free version of DaVinci Resolve seems to be the most popular choice.

DaVinci Resolve 18 | Blackmagic Design

However, for those of you out there who prefer something much simpler, like a classic “Drag and drop” software suite, then there’s the open-source editor OpenShot.

OpenShot Video Editor | Free, Open, and Award-Winning Video Editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows!

This is actually very easy to use beginner software that’s also amazingly powerful and allows you to create stunning movies with very little editing experience or knowledge.

Then there’s the promise from GoPro themselves that there will be a new version of Quik for desktop being released this year. Of course, exactly “When” this year remains to be seen and I’m going to predict it will be the later quarter of the year.

In the meantime, if you really are desperate to edit video’s using “Quik” on a desktop PC. Then I suggest you buy a USB-C to HDMI cable, plug it into your phone (providing it supports this feature) and plug the HDMI cable into your monitor. Then just pair a Bluetooth mouse to your phone and edit away. Or if you have a Samsung phone (and the model supports it), download Samsung Dex for your PC and connect your phone to Windows. You can then run your Samsung apps (including Quik for Android) in a Windows emulation screen.

In the meantime, please for the love of all that’s holy, stop stop stop stop stop trying to use Quik for desktop. It’s old, outdated, unsupported, discontinued software that NO ONE should be using.

News Update!

Posted on by DemonView

With it being so close to 2023, I decided to share a bit of news early with my readers and YouTube followers. So, for those of you who have just bought a brand-new GoPro or received one for Christmas. I have now created a playlist on my YouTube channel specifically for you guys. We go all the way from Unboxing and Setup (Hero 10 and Hero 11) to troubleshooting common issues, reviewing some accessories and reviewing the GoPro Plus Subscription service. Make sure you check out that Playlist as it contains information that you NEED to know!

The essential GoPro Playlist for New Owners!

Also since tomorrow is the 1st of January 2023, I have a brand-new video premiering tomorrow. In this video I list the top 5 accessories that I use with my GoPro as well as the one accessory that I NEVER use (and it just sits on my shelf). You can check out that video when it premiers tomorrow!

If you’re interested in GoPro Accessories, you’re GOING to want to watch this video!

And finally, for those of you out there who may want me to review things, send me a greetings card or even a St Patrick’s day card, there’s now a mailbox for that!

DemonView LLC

3055 NW YEON AVE

PMB #12

PORTLAND

OR

97210

I’ll pretty much review anything that viewers send me, but please, no perishable goods, no liquids, nothing that makes a “ticking” sound… I reserve the right to give away review items, donate them to charity or bin them if they are unsuitable for the forementioned purposes. If you want the item back, then include a prepaid return envelope or label.

So, with that, I hope you all had a great holiday and are looking forward to what 2023 will bring!

Back Country Flying in a Maule M5 180C

Posted on by DemonView

In this latest video, to escape the wildfire smoke of Portland, MerryMunks and I flew to Central Oregon to land at a pretty remote location. Enjoy the sights and the soundtrack for this amazing flight! This video shows the power of using YouTube Creators licensed music in your videos as it really does level up your video game. The track featured “New Cydonia” by the awesome artist Starcadian.

GoPro Hero 11 shoots 4K 30FPS for over 8 Hours??? I apologize to GoPro!

Posted on by DemonView
Over 8 hours in 4K 30FPS without overheating!

In this video, I was challenged by a viewer to see how long I could keep my GoPro recording in 4K 30FPS without overheating. I managed to keep recording for over 8 hours before my SD card filled up! How did I manage this? Find out by watching the video! Stay tuned for a bonus clip at the end of the video too for the ultimate GoPro accessory to prevent overheating in strong hot sunshine!

DemonView Presents Retro Reviews!

Posted on by DemonView

Yes a brand new segment where I’ll be reviewing the latest and greatest… well… actually some of the oldest and earliest hardware and software out there. Some of this stuff will be rare, some of it you may have owned yourself and some of it, didn’t even make it past the prototype stage (and I was lucky enough to get my hands on some of these pieces!). So I hope you like these segments and enjoy the educational trip down memory lane.

First this first review, we’ll be looking at the Creative Zen Vision

These days your phone does just about everything. You don’t just use it to take or make calls, you use it to listen to music, watch movies, record video, play games, take photo’s, track your fitness, shopping, book a holiday…. it seems the modern cell phone can do just about anything…

…. but that wasn’t always the case. In fact, there was a time when you needed a separate device to do everything. Make or take a phone call? Use a phone! Take photos? Use a camera! Book a holiday? Phone a travel agent… yes kids, I assure you that was a real profession back in ye good olde days. Listen to music? Break out the disc man…

I admit, modern day discmans look a lot better than they did in my day….

So when mpg, divx, mp3, wmv, wma, avi became popular, our devices started to evolve. Suddenly we had mp3 players, we had personal media players, we ditched cassettes and our disc mans for this new fangled technology…

So, back in October of 2005, a company called Creative Labs decided to produce their most advanced personal media player yet. The Creative Zen Vision……….. and 17 years later…. I’m here to review it!

Hi there, thanks for returning to DemonView. I just wanted to do something a bit different this time and make best use of my collection of electronics that I have lying about. So I decided to have a bit of fun and do some retro technology reviews. It’s a good way to learn about some of the technological breakthroughs that we experienced as we moved from painting on cave walls to painting on a tablet.

Some of what I’ll be reviewing was a major success, some were major failures, some are extremely rare and some never even made it past the prototype stage. So, I really hope you like these videos and if you do, don’t forget to visit my YouTube channel and click on those like and subscribe buttons as it really does help out with the channel.

So for my first retro tech review, we’re looking at the Creative Labs Zen Vision, and this is it.

Yes, it’s awesome, it still works, it’s the Creative Labs Zen Vision…. and there’s one on Ebay for $99 at the moment if your interested.

This was touted as being the ultimate personal media player at the time.. With the ability to play audio, video, listen to the radio, sync with your outlook…this device was sure to dominate the market…… only it didn’t.

When this was first released in October of 2005, it looked like a fantastic futuristic buy. It’s screen was far larger than most of the competition and with a resolution of 640×480 and boasting a display capable of playing back 262,000 colors, it was certainly well ahead of the competition.

Then there was the storage… 30GB of storage to be exact thanks to an impossibly tiny hard drive located inside the player. Yes, you heard me, not a solid state drive or a memory card, but an actual mini hard drive. It also offered expandable storage thanks to the Compact Flash card slot.

But wait, that’s not all. This player could support a whole slew of formats including MP3, DRM WMA, WAV, JPEG, AVI, DivX, MPEG and WMV. Had a video file that wasn’t compatible? No problem, Creative bundled some video conversion software with their device to you could watch it on your new personal media player.

However if you wanted to share your video with friends, what would you do if you didn’t want them all looking over your shoulder? Simple! Use the “video out” option to plug the player directly into your TV. I mean seriously, how cool is that?

Then there was the added bonus of being able to purchase an optional remote control for your player. This meant you could easily use it as a jukebox when at a party or control the playback of video from the luxury of your own couch!

So it really does seem like this device offered everything that you could possibly want in an mp3 player of the future! In fact, I purchased this exact model in about… 2006 and I pretty much used it all the way up until 2012 or 2013. In that time frame, it was basically the device I’d carry with me when I was traveling abroad on an airplane just in case the in flight movies weren’t anything to write home about. Heck, even when I was traveling by bus to my job, it was nice to have the option of watching a couple of 30 minute TV shows.

However, there were a few niggling little problems with the device that really held it back from dominating the market and ruling the world in my opinion.

1st of all was the price. At the time, this brand new was $400. Back in 2005, that was a hefty chunk of change. That would be rough and tough $608 in today’s money accounting for inflation. So this wasn’t something that the average person would be able to afford.

Then there was the display… it may have offered one of the highest resolutions at the time, but the viewing angle was terrible. Even looking at it head on and perfectly straight, didn’t seem to help much at all. Also it was 4:3… which meant that if you were watching a widescreen movie on this device, you’d get those black bars on the screen making the picture even smaller and harder to see. Now in all fairness, creative labs would remedy this problem by releasing an upgraded Zen Vision W (the W stood for “Wide Screen”). The problem is that they released it just one year later in 2006. In fact just a number of months after I had bought the Zen Vision… which means I couldn’t justify spending another $400 on another Zen Vision with a slightly wider screen. I’m guessing a lot of owners felt the same way.

Then, there was the video conversion software. In short, it just wasn’t very good at all. In fact the highest resolution it would output to was 320 x 240 in WMV. So not only did the video software only encode at half the resolution the device supported, it also used a compression codec that frankly just looked terrible.

Ok, this webcam shot doesn’t do the screen justice, but you get the idea of how it worked.

Finally there was the audio… Look, a lot of reviewers at the time thought the audio on this sounded fantastic… I wasn’t one of them. It really just didn’t have any power and the bass was just lacking. Even if you used the equalizer, you just couldn’t seem to get a decent sound out of the thing.

Battery life also wasn’t the greatest, especially if you were flying abroad on a long journey. Remember, back then, most planes didn’t have power outlets you could use. Luckily there was the option of buying an extended battery, however that was another $70.

Still, for all those bad points, you know, I still think this device was pretty awesome. I mean, even looking at it now, I still think it’s kind of cool looking. The fact that I bought this in 2006 and it’s still going strong? I mean, wow… Creative Labs really made some very reliable hardware. This thing has traveled the world at this stage and the only thing that ever happened was a slight bit of distortion on the LCD screen from when it was stored next to a 10lb frozen ground beef chub.

Creative Labs (United States) | Sound Blaster Sound Cards, Super X-Fi, Speakers and Soundbars, Webcams, Headphones and Gaming Headsets

(Since I’m reviewing their product, I’m throwing in a link to Creative Labs so you can see what they offer these days).

So was this the best personal media player in the world for it’s time?

Probably not.

Was it the cheapest?

Definitely not.

Do I regret buying it?

Absolutely not.

In fact looking at this now and knowing how well it’s stood up to the test of time. I can honestly say that I’m still the proud owner of this Creative Labs Zen Vision. It was an awesome buy at the time and it still has a well earned place in my heart. It wasn’t just about what the technology offered, it’s about what it meant to me and this little player that could (and apparently still can!) was my daily companion. It’s got a few years and a few miles on it but it’s still going strong.

So that was my quick retro tech review and I really hoped that you liked it. Remember to click those like and subscribe buttons to help out with the channel and to help bring you more original content.

In the meantime, if you owned or still own a Creative Labs Zen Vision. Drop a line in the comments below or drop me an email. I’d love to hear about your experiences with these players and if you still have yours squirreled away somewhere waiting to be turned back on.

Until next time, Cheerio!