Creative Zen MX User's Guide
Introduction
This User Guide details the features of your Creative ZEN® MX. Creative ZEN MX is a music and
video player, alarm clock, recorder, and radio*, all rolled into one. To increase your player's
data-storage capacity, insert a memory card in the SD Memory slot.
For setup and installation instructions, refer to the printed Quick Start leaflet that comes with your
player.
*The FM Radio feature is available on selected models only.
Page 1
Your Player at a Glance
This section introduces your player and its parts. Click the numbered labels for more information.
Page 2
Turning Your Player On and Off
To turn on your player, press and hold until the display screen lights up.
1.
To turn off your player, press and hold until the Shutting down... message appears.
2.
Page 3
Selecting Menus and Options
Your player has several menus and options from which you can select an item.
Menus are categories for contents, features, or player information. Examples of menus include Music
and Settings
.
Options are actions you can perform on a menu item. Examples of options include Play and Seek To
.
Click each screen on the diagram below for more information.
Page 4
Navigating a List Quickly
When you have a long list of items, the alphabet bar helps you to move quickly from one part of the list to
another.
Use the Direction Pad
to move the cursor along the alphabet bar, and
to switch between the alphabet bar and the track list.
The alphabet bar appears in selected menus.
Page 5
Locking Your Player
Locking your player temporarily disables the functions of all buttons on your player. This feature is useful
when you do not want to accidentally activate functions on your player, such as when your player is in
your pocket or bag.
To lock your player
Press and select Lock from the options. The Lock
icon appears on the top right corner of the display.
To unlock your player
When your player is locked, press any button and select Yes
to confirm.
See also Enabling Auto Lock
.
Page 6
Playing and Managing Media
This chapter tells you how to obtain, play, and manage different media files on your player.
Ripping Music
Transferring Files into Your player
Creating Playlists
Playing and Managing Music Tracks
Playing Audible Files
Listening to the Radio
Recording with the Built-in Microphone
Viewing and Managing Photos
Playing and Managing Videos
Reading and Managing eBooks
Reading and Managing RSS Feeds
Page 7
Ripping Music
When ripping tracks, make sure that they are
tagged properly. See Tagging Your Audio
Tracks.
If you are connected to the Internet and have
registered with a music information provider,
album information will automatically be retrieved.
When you rip music, you convert music tracks (often from CDs) into a format suitable for playback on
your computer. You can easily rip music with applications such as Creative Centrale
or Windows Media® Player.
Make sure the audio CD you want to rip from is placed inside your CD drive.
1.
Start Creative Centrale on your computer.
2.
In Creative Centrale, click the Rip button. Follow the instructions on the screen.
3.
For more information, click the Help button.
3.
Page 8
Tagging Your Audio Tracks
Every audio track (MP3 or WMA file) has a set of properties that contains information such as song and
album title, artist name and genre. Using these properties, your player organizes your music library into
categories such as albums, artists and genres, enabling you to browse your huge collection of audio
tracks quickly and easily.
If an audio track contains inaccurate properties, such as unrecognized characters or incorrect details, you
may not be able to perform accurate searches on your player.
For a better experience, make sure your audio tracks contain correct properties.
To automatically tag audio tracks
While connected to the Internet, use Creative Centrale to rip audio tracks from audio CDs. Creative
Centrale uses MusicID
from Gracenote® to automatically retrieve information about your audio CDs and create track
properties.
To manually tag audio tracks
You can use Creative Centrale to fill in audio track properties manually. For information , click the Help
button in Creative Centrale.
SM
Page 9
Transferring Files to Your
When you connect your player to a computer,
the computer recognizes your player as a
removable disk drive. You can use Windows®
Explorer to perform familiar operations such as
Copy, Cut, or Delete.
If a memory card is inserted in the player's SD
Memory Slot, Windows Explorer recognizes the
memory card as another removable disk drive
apart from your player. See alsoTransferring Files
to and from Your Memory Card.
Player
You can use Creative Centrale to transfer files to your player. Make sure that the files you want to
transfer are located in folders that are specified in Creative Centrale's Watch folders
.
For more information, refer to the application's Help file.
Warning!
Avoid disconnecting your player from your computer while file transfer is in progress.
To avoid data loss and damage to your player, disconnect your player properly. Click the Safely
Remove Hardware icon on the Taskbar, click Safely remove USB Mass Storage Device
.
Page 10
Creating Playlists
A playlist is a set of selected tracks.
On your player, a playlist first resides in the Selected Music view. You can keep a playlist in Selected
Music
view indefinitely, but the playlist may become too long and unmanageable. To better manage your
playlists, save your playlists and create new ones periodically.
To create a playlist in Selected Music view
On the main menu, select Music.
1.
Select any submenu with audio tracks, for example, All Tracks.
2.
Highlight a track that you want to be in the playlist.
3.
Press and select Add to Selected.
4.
Repeat the above procedure until you complete your playlist.
4.
To save the playlist, enter the Selected Music submenu. See Entering Selected Music View.
5.
Press and select Save as Playlist. Your player's keyboard appears.
6.
Use the Direction Pad to select characters to name your playlist. Press for additional character
6.
sets and symbols.
Select OK on the keypad and press the OK button. The playlist is stored in the Playlists
7.
submenu.
Page 11
Entering Selected Music View
On the main menu, select Music > Now Playing.
1.
Press OK. In the Now Playing view, the progress bar changes to a rating bar.
2.
Press OK.
3.
If an Album Art is available, it will be displayed on the screen. Press OK again to enter the
4.
Selected Music view.
Else, if no Album Art is detected, the player enters the Selected Music view immediately after
4.
Step 3.
To exit, press OK.
5.
Page 12
Playing and Managing Music
For effective searches, tag your tracks properly.
See Tagging your Audio Tracks.
To easily navigate a long list of tracks, use the
alphabet bar. See Navigating a List Quickly.
Tracks
You can search for music tracks by album, artist, or genre.
If you have combined tracks from various albums, and saved them as playlists, you can also search your
tracks by playlist. See Creating Playlists
.
Press and hold to return to the main menu.
1.
Select Music.
2.
Select a category, such as Albums or Playlists.
3.
If you want to search by track title, select All Tracks.
3.
Select the track you want, and press .
4.
Page 13
Adjusting volume
To limit the maximum volume level on your player,
see Enabling Volume Restriction.
While a song or video is playing, the volume bar appears when you press or
to adjust the volume. It disappears shortly after adjusting.
Page 14
Shuffling and Repeating
You can also access Play Mode by pressing
while playing a song.
Tracks
Set the Play Mode to specify the playback sequence of your music files.
In the main menu, select System > Audio Settings > Play Mode.
1.
Select one of the following items:
2.
Normal
Plays your selected tracks in sequential order.
Repeat Track
Repeats the current track.
Repeat All
Repeats all selected tracks.
Shuffle
Plays all selected tracks in random order, once only.
Shuffle Repeat
Plays and repeats all selected tracks, in random order.
Track Once
Stops playing after the current track ends.
Page 15
Searching for Similar Tracks
The Lookup Artist option is also available from
the Entering Selected Music View.
While a song is playing, you can do a quick search for other song titles from the current artist. Press
and select Lookup Artist
.
Page 16
Rating Tracks
Rate how much you like a track, so your player's DJ (see Being Your Own DJ
) can automatically play your favorite tracks. Choose from one to five stars.
On the main menu, select Music > Now Playing.
1.
Press OK.
2.
In the Now Playing view, the progress bar below changes to a row of stars.
2.
Press or to rate, then press OK.
3.
Page 17
Removing Tracks
On your player, to remove tracks means removing from the Selected Music view only. The tracks are
still on the player and can be accessed from submenus like Artists or Albums
.
To permanently remove tracks, use the Delete Track function. See Deleting Tracks
.
On the main menu, select Music > Now Playing.
1.
Press OK. In the Now Playing view, the progress bar changes to a rating bar.
2.
Press OK again. The Selected Music view appears.
3.
Press or to select a track.
4.
Press and select one of the following:
5.
Remove... > Remove Track
Removes the current track from the list.
Remove... > Remove All
Clears the list.
Page 18
Deleting Tracks
This action permanently deletes tracks from your player.
To only remove tracks from the Selected Music view, see Removing Tracks
.
On the main menu, select Music > All Tracks.
1.
Press or to select a track.
2.
Press and select Delete Track.
3.
Page 19
Using Bookmarks
A bookmark marks a point within a track, so you can return to it at a later time.
For example, if you are listening to your recording of an interview, insert a bookmark if you need to stop.
When you want to continue listening from where you left off, go to this bookmark.
You can use up to 10 bookmarks at any one time.
To insert a bookmark
Play the track you want to bookmark.
1.
In the Now Playing view, while the track is playing, press and select Set Bookmark.
2.
Select a bookmark number.
3.
If all 10 bookmark numbers have been assigned, clear an existing bookmark. In the main menu,
3.
select Music > Bookmarks. Press and select Clear Bookmark.
To go to a bookmark
On the main menu, select Music > Bookmarks.
1.
Select the bookmark that you want.
2.
Page 20
Searching Within Tracks
Within a track, you can specify where you want to begin playing, even up to the exact second. For
example, if you want to start playback one minute into the track, you can 'seek to' the one minute
position and then begin playback from there.
While a song is playing, press and hold to return to the main menu.
1.
Select Music > Now Playing.
2.
Press and select Seek To.
3.
Press or to move back or forward within the track.
4.
Press OK.
5.
Page 21
Being Your Own DJ
Instead of selecting tracks yourself, let your player's DJ pick out tracks for you.
On the main menu, select Music > DJ.
1.
Select one of the following:
2.
Album of the Day
o
Plays any album.
o
Random Play All
o
Plays all tracks in random order.
o
Most Popular
o
Plays frequently played tracks.
o
Rarely Heard
o
Plays rarely played tracks.
o
Highly Rated
o
Plays tracks that you have rated highly.
o
Yet to be Rated
o
Plays tracks you have yet to rate.
o
Press OK.
3.
Page 22
Playing Audible Files
You can search and play Audible files the same way you search and play music tracks. See Playing and
Managing Music Tracks
.
In addition, you can also skip sections within Audible files.
To skip sections within an Audible track
If you are not in the Now Playing view, press and hold to return to the main menu, then select
1.
Music > Now Playing.
Press OK until the progress bar is divided into sections.
2.
Press or to skip sections.
3.
Page 23
Listening to the Radio
This section applies only to ZEN MX players with the FM Radio feature.
Players with the FM Radio
feature can store up to 32 predefined FM radio stations called "presets."
The FM frequency range on your player is set to "International" by default. Most regions in the world
receive FM broadcasts in this range.
If you are using your player in Japan, make sure you have selected "Japanese" as your player's default
language before selecting your FM region.
On the main menu, select FM Radio.
1.
Press and select Set Region.
2.
Select the FM Region for Japan.
3.
Page 24
Performing an Autoscan and Autosave
Connect your earphones to your player.
1.
The earphones function as antennas and must be connected to your player for signal reception.
1.
In the main menu, select FM Radio.
2.
Press and select Autoscan.
3.
When prompted to start autoscan, select Yes.
4.
Page 25
Performing a Manual Scan
Connect your earphones to your player.
1.
The earphones function as antennas and must be connected to your player for signal reception.
1.
On the main menu, select FM Radio.
2.
Press to go to Manual Scan view. On your display, the word 'preset' disappears.
3.
Press and hold or to scan for the next available radio station.
4.
Press or to fine-tune the frequency.
4.
Press and select Save as Preset.
5.
Page 26
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