Creative Zen X Fi User Manual

How to use this manual

This document has been designed to provide you with complete product knowledge. You can resize the document window, print this document, access linked web sites and get information from specially prepared graphics.

To jump to a linked topic or a web site, click the underlined blue text, or the hand symbol whenever it appears.

To show a short description (tooltip) of an object, move your mouse cursor over it. A tooltip appears after a few seconds.

You can choose to print portions of this document:

1.On the Contents tabbed page to your left, click a topic heading.

2.On the menu, click the Print button.

3.In the dialog box that appears, click the option to print one topic only, or all topics under a heading.

Page 1

Introduction

This user's guide details the features of your Creative ZEN™ X-Fi. Creative ZEN X-Fi is a music and video player, alarm clock, recorder, and radio, all rolled into one. Increase your player's capacity anytime by inserting a memory card.

For setup and installation instructions, refer to the printed Quick Start that comes with your player.

Page 2

Your Player at a Glance

This section introduces your player and its parts.

		Part
1.		On/Off/Lock
2.		Power LED
3.		Earphone jack
4.		USB port
5.		Reset
6.		Microphone
7.		SD Memory Slot
8.		Speaker

What's It About

Push towards and hold until display turns on or off.

Push towards to disable all buttons.

Glows at intervals when player is charging.

Connect earphones when listening to FM radio.

Connect the USB cable to this port.

To reset player, insert the tip of a thin object, such as a straightened paperclip, and press gently.

Place this built-in microphone as close as possible to the source that you are recording.

Insert a memory card into this slot. See Inserting and Ejecting a Memory Card

Press and select the option to

Page 3

9.		Display
10.		Menu/Back
11.		Options

12.		Volume/Direction Pad

	13.		OK
	14.		Play/Pause/Record
	15.		My Shortcut
Notes

switch the speaker on or off.

See the notes below.

Press and hold to go to Main Menu.

Press to return to a previous menu.

In any menu, press to view the options applicable to that menu.

Enables you to select menu items or options. Press the side of the bar that you want to move in the direction of: left , right , up or down . To move quickly, press and hold. See Selecting Menus and Options During playback, press and hold or to rewind or fast-forward a track. Press or to adjust the volume.

Press to confirm or select. May perform other functions, depending on menu opened.

Press to play or pause playback. To record audio, select the Microphone menu, then press and hold this button.

Provides quick access to a favorite menu. See Assigning Menu Shortcuts.

Factory default: Shows the X-Fi menu options.

In the process of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) manufacturing, instances of one or more pixels appearing in a dark or fixed color, or in an unchanging state, may occur. These appear on the screen as spots and may be fixed on a particular colour, such as, white or red.

In line with industry standards and based on Creative's screen manufacturer's technical specifications, there may be occurrences of fixed spots and these occurrences are considered acceptable if they do not impair display quality.

If, however, you notice fixed spots on your display interfering with your use, contact Customer Support Services (www.creative.com/support).

Page 4

Turning Your Player On and Off

1.To turn on your player, slide the On/Off/Lock switch towards and hold until the display lights up.

2.To turn off your player, slide the On/Off/Lock switch towards and hold until the Shutting down... message appears.

Page 5

Selecting Menus and Options

Your player has many menus and options from which you can select. This section explains the difference between menus and options, and how to access them.

Menus are categories of content or player information. Examples of menus are Music and Settings.

Options are actions you can perform on a menu item. Examples of options are Play and Seek To.

When you turn on your player, you see the main menu. The main menu on your player leads to secondary menus called submenus. Submenus themselves can lead to other menus. Every menu has options.

To View

1.		Main Menu

2. Submenu

3. Options

Do This

Press and hold .

In a menu, press or to highlight an item, then press OK. To return to the previous screen, press .

In any menu, press to view the options applicable to that menu. To exit, press .

Page 6

Selecting an item

1.Press or to highlight a menu or option item.

2.Press OK.

Page 7

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

when moving within the alphabet bar, and

when navigating between the alphabet bar and the list you are navigating.

Notes

The alphabet bar appears in selected menus.

Page 8

Locking Your Player

Locking your player disables the functions of all buttons on your player. Locking your player 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

Slide the On/Off/Lock switch towards the Lock icon. On your display, the Lock

icon appears on the top right corner.

To unlock your player

Slide the On/Off/Lock switch away from the Lock icon, back to the middle position.

Page 9

Playing and Managing Media Files

This chapter tells you how to obtain, play and manage different media on your player.

Ripping Music

Transferring Files to 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

Playing ZENcast Content

Page 10

Ripping Music

When you rip music, you convert music tracks (often from CDs) into a format suitable for playback on your computer. You can rip music easily with applications like Creative Centrale or Windows Media® Player.

1.Make sure the audio CD you want to rip from is placed inside your CD drive.

2.Start Creative Centrale on your computer.

3.In Creative Centrale, click the Rip button. Follow the instructions on the screen.

3. For more information, click the Help button. Notes

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.

Page 11

Tagging your Audio Tracks

To tag an audio track is to add descriptive information to it, so that you can distinguish the track from among others later. 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 fill in properties automatically

While connected to the Internet, use Creative Centrale to "rip" audio tracks from audio CDs. Creative Centrale uses MusicIDSM from Gracenote®

to automatically retrieve information about your audio CDs and create track properties. For more information, refer to the application's online Help.

To fill in properties manually

You can use Creative Centrale to fill in audio track properties manually. For information on how to do

this, click the Help button in Creative Centrale. Under the Search tab, enter 'Tagging Media Files Manually' in the text box and click

List Topics. Tips

Purchase Creative Media Toolbox to automatically update and rectify audio track properties for your entire music library. Creative Media Toolbox also contains other additional features that enable you to conveniently manage, enhance and organize your music library.

Page 12

Transferring Files to Your player

You can use Creative Centrale to easily transfer files into your player. For information on how to do this,

click the Help button in Creative Centrale. Under the Search tab, enter 'Transferring Media Files to Portable Players' in the text box and click

List Topics. Notes

To transfer files to a memory card, use Windows Explorer. For details, see Transferring Files to and from Your Memory Card.

Page 13

Creating Playlists

A playlist is a group of tracks that you select.

On your player, a playlist first resides in the Selected Music view. See Entering Selected Music View. You can keep a playlist in

Selected Music view indefinitely, but the playlist may become too long and become unmanageable. To better manage your playlists, save your playlists and create new ones periodically.

To create a playlist in Selected Music view

1.On the main menu, select Music.

2.Select any submenu with audio tracks, for example, All Tracks.

3.Select the track you want.

4.Press and select Add to Selected.

5.Repeat the above until your playlist in Selected Music view is complete.

6.To save the playlist, enter the Selected Music submenu. See Entering Selected Music View.

7.Press and select Save as Playlist. Your player's keyboard appears.

7.Use the Direction Pad to select characters to name your playlist. Press for additional character sets and symbols.

8.Select OK on the keypad and press the OK button.

8. The playlist is stored in the Playlists submenu.

Page 14

Entering Selected Music View

1.On the main menu, select Music Now Playing.

2.Press OK. In the Now Playing view, the progress bar changes to a rating bar.

3.Press OK a second time. Any Album Art you have is displayed on the screen.

4.Press OK a third time. The Selected Music view appears.

5.To exit, press OK.

Page 15

Playing and Managing Music 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 Navigating a List Quickly

1.Press and hold to enter the main menu.

2.Select Music.

3.Select a category, such as Albums or Playlists.

3.If you want to search by track title, select All Tracks.

4.Select the track you want, and press .

Tips

For effective searches, tag your tracks properly. See Tagging your Audio Tracks.

For long lists of tracks, use the alphabet bar. See Navigating a List Quickly.

Page 16

Adjusting volume

While a song or video is playing, press or

to increase or decrease the volume. The volume is adjusted and the volume bar disappears after a short while.

Notes

To limit the maximum volume level on your player, see Enabling Volume Restriction.

Page 17

Shuffling and Repeating Tracks

You can shuffle or repeat your list of selected tracks by selecting a different play mode.

1.In the main menu, select System Audio Settings Play Mode.

2.Select one of the following items: o Normal

o Plays your selected tracks in sequential order. o Repeat Track

o Repeats the current track. o Repeat All

o Repeats all selected tracks.

o Shuffle

o Plays all selected tracks in random order, once only.

o Shuffle Repeat

o Plays and repeats all selected tracks, in random order.

o Track Once

o Stops playing after the current track ends.

Tips

You can also access Play Mode by pressing while playing a song.

Page 18

Searching for Similar Tracks

If you like the song you are playing now, you can do a quick search for other titles by the same artist. While the song is playing, press and select

Lookup Artist. Notes

The Lookup Artist option is also available from the Selected Music view. See Navigating a List Quickly.

Page 19

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.

1.On the main menu, select Music Now Playing.

2.Press OK.

2.In the Now Playing view, the progress bar below changes to a row of stars.

3.Press or to select a rating.

4.Press OK.

Page 20

Removing Tracks

On your player, to remove tracks is to remove them 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 function. See Deleting Tracks

.

1.On the main menu, select Music Now Playing.

2.Press OK. In the Now Playing view, the progress bar changes to a rating bar.

3.Press OK again. The Selected Music view appears.

4.Press or to select a track.

5.Press and select one of the following: o Remove... Remove Track

o Removes the current track from the list. o Remove... Remove All

o Clears the list.

Page 21

Deleting Tracks

This action permanently deletes tracks from your player.

To only remove tracks from the Selected Music view, see Removing Tracks

.

1.On the main menu, select Music.

2.Select any submenu with audio tracks, for example, All Tracks.

3.Press or to select a track.

4.Press and select Delete Track or similar, depending on what you are deleting.

Page 22

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 halfway through. 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

1.Play the track you want to bookmark.

2.In the Now Playing view, while the track is playing, press or to go to where you want the bookmark placed.

3.Press and select Set Bookmark.

4.Select a bookmark number.

4.If all 10 bookmark numbers have been assigned, clear an existing bookmark. In the main menu, select Music Bookmarks. Press and select Clear Bookmark.

To go to a bookmark

1.On the main menu, select Music Bookmarks.

2.Select the bookmark that you want.

Page 23

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.

1.While a song is playing, press and hold to enter the main menu.

2.Select Music Now Playing.

3.Press and select Seek To.

4.Within the progress bar that appears, press or to move backward or forward within the track.

5.Press OK.

Page 24

Being Your Own DJ

Instead of selecting tracks yourself, let your player's DJ pick out tracks for you.

1.On the main menu, select Music DJ.

2.Select one of the following: o Album of the Day

o Plays any album. o Random Play All

o Plays all tracks, including your recorded 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.

3.Press .

Page 25

Purchasing Tracks

With your player, you can easily purchase subscription-based tracks through Windows Media Player.

1.While a song is playing, press and hold to enter the main menu.

2.Select Music Now Playing.

3.Press and select Purchase this.

4.Synchronize your player with Windows Media Player. You will be linked to the purchase page of the track that you want.

Page 26

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 skip sections within Audible files. To skip sections within an Audible track

1.While an Audible file is playing, press and hold to enter the main menu.

2.Select Music Now Playing.

3.Press OK until the progress bar is divided into sections.

4.Press or to skip sections.

Page 27

Listening to the Radio

Your player saves FM radio stations as 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.

Tips

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.

1.On the main menu, select FM Radio.

2.Press and select Set Region.

3.Select the FM Region that you want.

Page 28

Performing an Autoscan and Autosave

1.Connect your earphones to the Headphone jack. Your earphones act as an antenna and must be connected to your player for radio reception.

2.In the main menu, select FM Radio.

3.Press and select Autoscan.

4.When prompted to start autoscan, select Yes.

Page 29

Performing a Manual Scan

1.Connect your earphones to the Headphone jack. Your earphones act as an antenna and must be connected to your player for radio reception.

2.On the main menu, select FM Radio.

3.Press to go to Manual Scan view. On your display, the word 'preset' disappears.

4.Press and hold or to scan for the next available radio station.

4.Press or to fine-tune the frequency.

5.Press and select Save as Preset.

Page 30