After Show: A Creative Journey.

I had a Creative Zen V instead of an ipod and it lasted me well into me getting a smartphone so i never had an ipod, only recently began to appreciate them because of your videos

sashahenriksen

I kept buying Micros for some reason. I'd buy them, the headphone jack would break, I'd melt the jack trying to resolder it, and eventually break off the connector opening it, so I'd buy another. Curiously only the 5GB model suffered headphone jack issues and I recall burning a special copy of Windows XP specifically for flashing the firmware (something to do with service packs)

Making me super nostalgic for the Zen Touch. I sported one of those for years and it was a glorious player; I know the touch strip was comparable to the click wheel (unlike the Zen Sleek), and I actually did eventually get an iPod video for my 18th for comparison with it. Shame they never took off because the touch was probably the only legitimate competitor. I actually wonder if I still have it kicking around... I wonder if the pillow has went super spicy...

Ben

OHHHHHHH I SEE IT

i actually have a simi-working creative Zen, battery is also cooked but it does boot with the right power, came with a case too. but i also have a Zen Stone, a small one gig, pebble looking mp3 player. like the ipod little micro clip ones. got it brand new and still works to this day. no battery loss and memory stacked with odd music ive collected. love it to bits.

My dad had a Zen, but i think it's dead as it no longer powers on and it does not charge when the cable is connected :(

My dad had 2 of these. He used them to play backing tracks on gigs years ago. We called it "the iPod" because no one at the time could afford an actual iPod. One of them is still lying around somewhere packed full of music.

I had a zen in highschool. Was way smaller and weighed nothing. Build like crap too, loved it though.

my first mp3 player was the zen sleek photo, i used it for years, actually a really nice player

"creative" named after something they couldn't be..

My first player was Creative Zen Xtra, still have it. There are two fun things about it: first one is that the physical scrollwheel started skipping randomly just like the touchpad in the video. The second fun thing was the advertising. They have set up a guerilla marketing website saying that iPods suck because of the low-quality sound and that zens are much better cause they basically have more guts dealing with audio (I don't remember the details, but it was something like "Look, iPod is a system-on-chip and Zen has 4 chips to deal with sound only, let alone the interface and i/o chip").

amogus

When the nomad jukebox is sus ‼️‼️‼️👀😳😳‼️‼️🔥‼️‼️🦞👀

I had the Zen Micro and I loved the thing. It worked just fine for what it was, and had a few *small* features over the ipod honestly.

Yura

1:24 A M O N G U S

I love how so many aftershows include the Eeepeecee lol

I HAD A ZEN SLEEK PHOTO GOD ITS SUCH A NOSTALGIA TRIP

Mariner1712

I remember my brother had the Creative Zen Sleek Photo, and I had the Zen Vision M and goddamn I loved it so much. Would want to fiddle with it but its gone somewhere, probably playing music and photo slideshows in nugget heaven. iPods were very expensive in central Europe back then, so Creatives were common nuggets

I honestly love Creative mp3 players. My first was a nomad 128MB and was so in love. This makes me so happy seeing other players from their line.

Maybe the Zen's recovery mode works kinda like android's, where you use the volume up/down buttons to navigate the msnu?

Dank's just dang happy when it worked XD Back in the day, I got Creative first before I was able to eventually afford iPods. In college, I carried around a Creative MuVo that was eventually pinned down and deactivated by a stupid Windows virus. Rest in peace, Creative MuVo. You served me well.

you're gonna need a programmable power supply to AvE style recover the batteries in all these nugs. Probably if you could get some juice in most of them they'd wake back up

Late as anything to this but my dad had a Creative Zen Vision M 30GB. He loved it literally to death, because I accidentally killed it after he killed it a few years prior - his drink leaked over it and he kept using it until it died, revived it, then I took it apart to see if I could upgrade the hard drive and then it would never boot again - power light and nothing else. Shame as it was a fantastic player. Only thing I disliked about it was the USB, line-out, and AC charging port were all done through a dongle you had to shove in its arse, so you had to have it in basically permanently so you could charge it or plug it into an amp.

Aidan Rayner

I honestly thought nobody outside Singapore has even heard of the Zens. I saw ads of them everywhere growing up but never any in person funnily enough. Always wanted one though (still do).

Alex Leong

That plug has come a long way to you! 3 pin from the UK

I had a Dell DJ2...it was pretty darn good. Had a neat little scroll wheel.

My wife had a Zen because she didn't want to do the "in" thing and get an iPod and I thought it was a really good device. Not better than my iPod, but it had a UI that made sense and it was easy to get music onto.

I never had one of of those bootlegs but there where USB Stick like MP3 Players with a little screen on it and they where really nice.. or at least for that time. Everyone got one.

King Chungus. Well, he wasn’t lying.

The sad Zen is such a throwback for me! I remember being in hospital as a wee lad in 2004 and my cousin came to visit me. She had one of those at the time and my first ever MP3 player experience was American Idiot playing on that chungo!

Zen nx was amazing

Magnus Falch

The Zen Sleek was my favorite MP3 ever! loved that you could change to multiple color themes. 20-60gb (?) was a lot back then for the price. Still have it, but it hasnt run in ages </3 what id give to get it back up & running. Only player outside Ipod that i really really loved

Peep the AJR that was playing when the touch turned on, the owner had good taste

Oh man this made me nostalgic. My first mp3 player in high school was a Creative Nomad - it was basically a silver box with a little screen and a scroll wheel on the side. Big ol' 60GB though, pretty good for the early 00s. I was such an insecure teenager that I got self-conscious about how loud it was to look through my music on that scroll wheel. I filled that thing to the brim with everything Limewire had to offer that wasn't badly dubbed Russian porn. Good times.

My history with creative is long. I originally was supposed to get an iPod as a reward from my mother. But the stupid sales person at circuit city convinced my mom that when you buy an iPod you are only paying for the brand name and that creative was a good substitute. So I left with a creative Nomad Zen Xtra. This thing had a removable battery and hard drive via a release switch and that was its down fall. My friend was messing with it and fried it. So creative customer service was kind and I guess trying to keep me from going to apple they sent me a replacement, Zen sleek photo. The problem with this one was dust and dirt got in between the plastic and screen. After that one died creative customer service sent another Zen sleek photo and after being fed up with that and working my first job I bought an iPod nano 4th gen and never looked back.

Had that white Creative Zen, it carried me through half of college. When the drive died, I got the small Zen (mp4) that they sell to this day. Loved both of these. Moved on to an android phone after that. I live in Poland and very few of my friends had ipods, because they were really expensive- most people ran around with cheap iRivers.

Totem Pole

My first proper music player was a display model Zen Vision M from our local dick smith shop and it had the same touch slider that the sleek has, except I remember it being nice to use. Poor thing met the concrete and that was it for the drive. At that point you couldn't buy them and I replaced it with a Zen X-Fi, which clapped out all on it's own and was not a pleasure to use.

Favourite Worst Nightmare is my fav, but that one is good too.

Envalyd

In order to get rid of that screen flicker, you should try matching the fps on your camera with the refresh rate of the screen you're recording

Just going through your videos for the first time, so I don't know if you've touched on the Zen Vision: M yet, but that was my absolute favorite player. Got it in high school when my third gen iPod's hard drive kicked, along with a "Rhapsody2Go Subscription." Some of the worst days were leaving for school only to find none of my music playable, telling me the license for the song expired and I had to resync the DRM. UGH. I still thought it was the coolest thing, AND, the fact it had a custom EQ? *chefs kiss* Unfortunately somehow that beastly brick made its way into the washing machine, never to live again.

I was actually the first adopter of MP3 players in my school class in ,high school, i had a really cheapo pre-ipod mp3 player i could fit like an albums worth of songs on and my first bigger ones were Zens, I was also a similar brand of kid who thought it was cool to not have an Ipod, that stuck until the touch., because the prospect of having wicked games like DOODLE JUMP on me at all times was just too much for me to pass on.

Dave K

I literally had both those Creative Zen players when I was in high school. I was that kid who thought it was cool to not have an iPod. Then I got a Zune. Then after that started to crap out I got an iPod classic. Now that's dead and I'm super bummed about it.

to go up and down?

when the creative zen is in recovery mode did you try the volume buttons?

I had an iriver 30gb that I rocked forever.... it was decent and a chonky boy.

Adobe.

Nice pfp btw

What is it with the seizure inducing screen?

I had a Zen Micro Photo once...good solid build, all touchpad., powerful sound, external battery.

Seems most people did!

Totally in the books, I even have some cards ready 👌

I lost it at "acca dacca" :D

when in doubt, brute force the plastic off!

just ordered my first ipod a 5.5g classic

same mate

Best buckaroo I ever spent

Erik

This was the first thing I bought with my first pay check. It sucked. It would ‘skip’ playing WMA files. Like blips in the music. I tried two more Zens.. and the had similar issues. Weird, dumb things. I also had the Sleek. It was cool, but the first one I had showed two first tracks in every album. The second one had a dead battery after six months I went to an iPod and never looked back

ASBR

Bro! Way to go getting featured in PC Gamer!! That’s so awesome. Been here since the beginning and I’m loving how you’re actually getting sponsored and exposed!

https://www.pcgamer.com/apple-ipod-pc-ssd-mod/ O man we have a big shot now!! Lol. I saw the title i was like man they better not have ripped off this man. Opened it up and there he is the dank himself!!!

heres a random, completely clapped idea. Put the smallest CF card possible in an ipod and see if it will run on like 10mb of total space

knedit knedit

Thanks Gabi!

Cheers Nolan!

Your patreon is the first I've ever donated to and I'm geeked to watch all the secret videos!!

I read that some time earlier today. I love how they seem to suggest the iPod is falling apart due to his mistakes. They just don't understand the wondrous legacy of the legendary Shrekpod.

Vraeryn, Da Wigglin' Dragon

You are the first creator I've ever supported on Patreon!

Some tech website wrote about the SSD video lol https://www.pcgamer.com/amp/apple-ipod-pc-ssd-mod/

BTW on those old school creative players - ya have to let them charge for a while before theyll power up - ive got a couple zen micros - and they do that fading screen thing when they need to be charged for a while :^)

Totally Normal

i got a micrograbit screw extractor set on ebay for ~20 USD, worked like a charm on those awful tiny screws on the mini. might work on this nugget too?

monica morton

A USB B port on a portable device is outrageous to me😆. I finally bit the bullet and got on your Patreon, love your work. Your videos always put a smile on my face, and whenever I work or tinker on something now, I put on an Australian accent on.

Chef Oso

Cheers Davo!

"is my house just full of junk that doesn't work?" Lol i feel you there, my house is full of more original xboxes then I care to admit >__<

MobCat

Shame the screws are completely worn :(

Inter

In my circle people unwilling or unable to get an iPod bought these kinda jelly bean shaped things. I think they were Sansa Clips but image search isn't showing what I'm picturing in my mind. Anyway, they were cheap and plastic and people went through 2 or 3 of them before giving up.

Charles Petrosky

I loved my Creative Zen Micro and I recently bought one again and I think it sounds better than my 6th Gen iPod Classic

BardicRJ

I was totally ready to see the magic smoke be released when you tried to put 12v into it lol

knedit knedit

Oh too mad you didn't get it open. I had one of those creative, actually I think may still have it. And mine has a similar problem with the touch pad not responding. Then years later I got the Vision W which was a great machine... Until the hard drive got the sads. Still hoping to repair it someday and get it working again.

Hi new support here, I love all your YouTube stuff so now I've been paid I thought I'd chuck you a dollerydoo a month. Your after shows are pretty awesome, well worth the money. Keep up the great work. 😃

Arctic monkeys is my favorite ever band and that album will live on in my soul for all eternity. ❤️🎵🎶❤️ Matt Helders is my second drum dad

Diarmuid Crowley

😗

"looks better than an actual Nano", well beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose haha!

People say the iPod "died", it evolved into the iPhone. Apple were so close to fitting a clickwheel to the iPhone you have no idea! Heck the music app was the "iPod" app!

They sure were 🙌

They are annoyingly expensive! I have a whole pile of Rio's on the way but those just weren't worth their price to me! (at the moment at least)

Yup, Ive broken many an iPod testing what works/doesnt work...

Ha I got one of those too! It's HUGE. Hilarious time capsule of a device

Heh. Dude, get some work gloves for "that" iPod. I do cars and such and a good set of work gloves will save your hands Mate. Seriously.

Get the Zen Vision W. It's the bigger chungus

Ardimo Harsa

Sir Dank, I’d love to see your impressions of the Rio Karma. I absolutely adored mine back in the day, it had a bunch of unique features that none of its competitors of the era did, and was a joy to use.

Josh Dick

I actually bought a Zen Sleek Photo a few months back because it was sold with an iPod Classic and had to buy a new charging and syncing cable for it. Fun fact: Creative Zen and iPods use the same connector! Another fun fact: they’re not interchangeable because the pin outs are totally different! Unfortunately I never had the opportunity to play with the Zen: I put it to charge into one of my 5W adapters and it didn’t react. So I had a bright idea to plug it into my iPad 10W charger and it reacted... by popping and releasing the magic smoke. Apparently I burned that thing... and then completely destroyed it further by taking it apart to salvage the HDD.

Ilya Ryabtsev

ADD THE CLIP BACK TO SHREKPOD

I won a Zen Touch from one of those Stacker arcade machines when I was in high school. The touch pad was super janky. Then I accidentally left it behind on a school trip to Sydney, and I didn't like it nearly enough to launch an interstate retrieval mission. Got my first iPod a few years later and it blew the Zen Touch out of the water.

I'm still willing to send you a RioVolt SP250 for review.. those things were bonkers for the time, a real, serious iPod competitor in terms of price, performance and features!

Tktagmedia

I remember Creative really seemed to be spinning its wheels with their MP3 players once more makers got involved, at least in the UK. Sony's early digital Walkmans (and the Walkman Phone) just crushed them in the "want nice mp3 player but too poor for an iPod" market. Though I always liked Samsung's stuff, especially their Nano competitors.

Karen Sykora

I wonder if the charge and sync adapter works in the older model too? Maybe it would power it proper that way?

Back in college in 2003, someone had an iRiver and we thought he was from the future. You could listen to music and play videos!

Love your channel! You can also try a left Handed drill bit to back 'em out. Thanks for making the pandemic a little more bearable 😬

We had that model Creative Zen when I was a kid ... hated it.

GingerAnimator

Do you think there is a way to get the ShrekPod to see a full sized desktop HDD using weird connectors and stuff? Just thinking about how ridiculous you could get with it.

Did you try the volume and power buttons in the recovery menu? Lots of android devices wont have working digitizers during recovery mode and resort to using volume for up and down, and power for select. Granted, that's much older than android but still worth a shot? Didn't see in the video but doesn't hurt to mention it. Also love the content!

That Zen's gotta be completely baked. Part of me wants to see a dissection to see if any of the components melted, burst, or just knocked loose.

hyenatown

My dad actually had a thicc lad zen in the car with work stuff on it (so whatever show he was doing it was constantly on in the car at that time). It was ok tbf, but even newish the touch/scroll strip was crap 💩. I think he still has it, don’t think it lives tho...

BIGCHUNGUS BIG CHUNGUS B I G C H U N G U S

Soda Lord

And if that don't work, time to bust out the auld dremel and cut yourself a new screw head

Give the screw head a dab of glue, then stick on your screwdriver and let it set, then give it a lash.

Ever heard of the Meizu M3 Music Card? It was a Nano clone made by a current major phone manufacturer that legit looks better than an actual Nano. I've been trying to find one but so far no luck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lri681PwBWg

Travis Johnson

Have you tried the rubber band trick on those Zen screws?

You don’t have to watch the video first to comment

How fast did everyone watch the video? There are already comments.

My town was a bit behind the times and people were still buying CD players until the iPod nano was around. I knew one guy with a 32MB MP3 player. I had a Compaq iPaq and Dell Axim in school. But every else had a portable CD player and a cassette adapter in their car haha. Things started to change with the nano in 2006. And then the iPod touch in 2008. (But still attached to that tape adapter in the car haha) iPhone really was revolutionary in a bunch of ways. It took the place of their audio player, their camera, their computer. Oh, and their phone, yeah.

Charles Petrosky

🙌🤴🙌

How you doing Mr Pods 3rd month of buying your Patreon, you’re the only content creator I pay for to see extra videos because of the entertainment level

Love your content