e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[Tinroad]

Well, austonia; lets see how the pros do MP3 file management shall we? ...

"I got a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox for Christmas - you know, one of those MP3 players that holds a lot of songs? Those babies aren't cheap. Amazon lists it for $235.

Last week I tried to connect it to my Windows XP/Home machine. (Hey, I've been busy. What can I say?) I plugged it into a USB slot on the PC, brought up the Windows Media Player, and... nothing. Zip. Nada. Neither WMP nor WinXP even "saw" the Nomad.

Oh boy. Driver time. I hopped over to Creative's Web site. "Creative has released Microsoft Windows XP-compatible drivers to enhance your digital entertainment experience. By leveraging on Windows XP's reliability, performance and integrated digital entertainment features, Creative products now offer you new levels of simplicity and enjoyment. Although Windows XP already includes built-in support for most of the NOMAD digital audio players, Creative has further optimized the drivers to take full advantage of the new Microsoft operating system." Oh boy.

To make a very, very long story short...

I downloaded and applied the firmware updates.

I downloaded and installed the Windows XP drivers. They worked! Yipppeee! Windows Media Player actually saw my Nomad. I got one song transferred from my PC to the Nomad Jukebox, when I suddenly discovered that WMP couldn't do anything with the songs on the Jukebox. It couldn't set up playlists - didn't even recognize the playlists I already had. It couldn't delete tracks on the Jukebox. It couldn't transfer songs from the Jukebox to the PC. It couldn't do squat, except transfer individual tracks from the PC to the Jukebox.

I contacted Microsoft. Guess what? The Nomad uses an incompatible file structure. Nobody at Creative figures it's important enough to make the Nomad Jukebox work with the Windows Media Player. Nobody at Microsoft figures they should be writing drivers for Creative.

So I installed Creative's software for the Nomad from the CD that came with the player. It's called PlayCenter 2, and the CD that came with the Jukebox included version 1.01.71.0. That should've tipped me off, right there. Can you imagine a version 1.01 driver that's gone through 71 updates? Anyway, I installed it, double-clicked on the icon, and Creative PlayCenter 2 informed me that I needed to upgrade to version 2.50 from the Creative Web site before I could work with the Jukebox.

So I went back to Creative's Web site, downloaded and installed the version update for Windows XP. Hours later, I double-clicked on the new, improved PlayCenter 2 icon - and PlayCenter froze; the splash screen wouldn't even budge, and it hid the PlayCenter itself.

I found myself, days later, juggling with the original version of PlayCenter, a set of updated Windows XP drivers, an update to PlayCenter - and no indication of which package needs to be installed before the others. Every way I tried, Creative's software locks up Windows XP. The whole thing's a mess. And I have a $235 Nomad Jukebox that doesn't work worth beans.

I've been struggling with Creative's lousy software since the days of the first 8-bit SoundBlaster. I've probably lost weeks, in total, to all of the Creative Labs driver screw-ups I've wallowed through in the ensuing ten years.

Now I'm mad enough to throw the Nomad Jukebox out the window."

http://www.woodyswatch.com/winxp/archtemplate.asp?2-n07


Hmmmm... On my $179 Classic XP3 10 GB jukebox (designed by e.Digital), I simply let MusicMatch & CDDB label all my tracks, cut 'n paste the artist and album names into the player's directory before downloading to the player (takes all of 30 seconds), then load 'em up. And navigation is a breeze, since the 3 levels of info (all of which are displayed whenever the player is on) allow me to zero in on a particular track without having to scroll thru a bunch of other tracks. Still, the playlist option (as well as the exclusive voice nav feature) might make me want to move up to the Odyssey.