This has probably been posted to death but I was bored today and a lot of people over at Xbox.com are not so "in-the-know" as use here at XS so I decided to help them out a bit. This post is more so for clerical than anything. Just wanted to post where I made reference for consistency.
Here you have it:
Creative Labs is a company that at one point, only the coolest of the cool knew about when it came to gadgets. You want to talk cutting edge? How about a 20, 30, or 40GB MP3 player with a relatively sleek design, industrial build, and pretty high "wow" factor
4 years ago!
Lately, however, Creative Labs has since slipped to a 9.4% market share (as of September 2005) in the portable audio/video solution market. The advent of Windows Mobile Edition 2005 and the Apple iPod surely put a dent in the already teetering-on-lack-luster fame in a niche crowd that was the Creative portable entertainment line.
So what does this mean to the rest of us? If you're like me, you have either had one of two experiences:
1.) You're relatively older or were fairly independent at the time of the MP3 portability phase of tech trends and now have a nice shiny (or not so shiny) Portable MP3 brick sitting on your hands. We geeks love to have our tech fresh from the oven... they say hindsight is 20/20.
OR 2.) You're relatively young or more recently became independent in some sense and either purchased or received something along the lines of the Creative Zen Micro (or Zen Touch) or the ever present Apple iPod (in any shape or form).
Unfortunately for those of us included in reality #1, the insanely
fun MS Xbox 360 more than likely
does not support your beloved player. [
] Oddly enough, try popping that player onto a free USB port on your PC and watch Windows XP w/ SP2 attempt to at the very least utilize the drive as a detachable/removable drive. That's the way the cookie crumbles.
ON TO THE POINT! I'm here today to help every single last one of you Zen Micro, Zen Touch, and Zen Super-Duper MP3 Player SHAZAM! 2.05 users get your precious players to work with the Xbox 360!
Is this information new? No. Not yet.
Is this, however, intended as a all-in-one, comprehensive guide and tutorial that will finally make finding info on these boards easier than someone parroting off "DUDExor! I totally p0sted teh answor lke 4454545454545000000 postz ago! lollerskatez. [insert random link to not even the right post, here]"?
YES .
Let's get started!First, we're going to gather all of our materials, so let's have a <a href="http://www.ilovewavs.com/Effects/Music/DrmRll01.wav">drum roll</a>for materials, shall we?
What do I need? Creative Jukebox Zen Micro
or Touch
PC running Windows 98 SE or greater (pref. XP SP2)
One available USB port on your PC
20 minutes of your time
Patience
Enough space on your PC to store whatever is on your player
and some software/firmware!
What am I going to accomplish? 1. Your Creative Jukebox Zen Micro/Touch will function from here on out with your MS Xbox 360
2. Your music/files from your player will be backed up onto your local PC
3. Relief of stress caused by the anxiety over your player not functioning with your Xbox 360 and thus allowing you more time to focus on getting a girlfriend. Sorry, MS, I mean to say, "Focusing on getting more gamerpoints and rewarding yourself by adding more MS Points for being so awesomely great at PGR3!"
Let's get started!From this point forward, everything will be presented in a numbered step pattern, regardless of how redundant it may seem (steps included in this redundancy factor). This will allow anyone with questions to simply refer to what point they got up to and what point they are having trouble with (if at all).
1. The first thing we need to do is fire up that Xbox 360. Once its powered on and you have yourself logged in on your dashboard, go ahead and grab your Creative Jukebox Zen Micro or Zen Touch.
2. Power up the MP3 player of choice.
3. Attach the smaller end of (what should be included with your original packaging from Creative) the USB cable to your player and then the larger end of the cable to either the rear of the console, just above the Ethernet port, or on the front of the console where your wired controller would be attached.
4. On the Xbox 360, navigate to the Media blade. Once there, find "Music" on the center list. Enter that menu and then highlight "Portable Device" (or, in some cases, the actual device name will be listed as a location).
5. If you happen to see your device appear or you are able to navigate to "Portable Device" and subsequently select your device, you are all set and ready to go! Simply leave your device connected to the Xbox 360 and utilize the Xbox 360 Guide to enjoy your music while playing your games.
6. If you do
not see your player listed or cannot navigate to "Portable Device", we must forge onward!
7. Disconnect your player from the USB cable's smaller end as well as the larger end from the Xbox 360 console. Power down your Xbox 360 console at this time as it does not need to be on for a little while yet.
8. Power up your PC (if it already isn't... because well... how are you here? Weirdo.)
9. Attach the larger end of the USB cable to your PC via one of the required open USB ports (usually located on the read of the PC somewhere around where the purple colored keyboard end would be found).
10. Make sure your MP3 player is still powered up and attach the smaller end of the USB cable to the player.
11. If this is the first time you have ever done this, it is likely that Windows will try and install the device for you using a generic or "last known recommended" set of drivers for your player. If all else fails, Windows will attempt to utilize the device as removable storage. We need to
STOP this process by either simply clicking "CANCEL" when asked what we would like to do with the device (find drivers, etc. etc.) or uninstall it via Device Manager and then proceed. I will leave this open for questioning as this will be one area of trouble for some gamers, initially, so feel free to ask me anything relating to this step, at a later time.
12. Once we have put an end to Windows attempting to install its own drivers for our player, we can safely navigate to www.creative.com
13. You may either now navigate to "Support" and then "Downloads" from the main page or click on this link
http://www.creative.com/language.asp?sDest...pport/downloads14. Select your current country of residence (you illegal alien you) and language.
15. Click "GO!"
16. You should now be presented with a categorized list of product lines that Creative is responsible for unleashing upon our green Earth. Select
MP3 Players > ZEN > and then either
Zen Micro or
Zen Touch.
17.
ZEN MICRO USERS: Once you've selected Zen Micro from the list above, you will be presented with a few options to more precisely determine what sort of download you require for your player. At this point, simply choose your natively spoken language, the current operating system your PC runs, and leave "ALL" selected for File Type. Click "GO!. You will now see a few sections with a lot of text on the page. Never fear - this is just Creatives jumbled way of showing you what is available as a download for your player and for your PC in the form of software to use
with your player.
Drivers: Listed under this top-most section should be the latest driver for your player based on your current operating system. Simply
Right Click on Download Now and click "Open in New Window". You will be asked to
AGREE with the EULA for the software you are about to download. Click "AGREE" and a "Save File" dialog should appear with the file named
JB3MV2_PCWDRV_US_1_30_03.EXE (for Windows XP at least). Save this file to your desktop or some other easily navigated location on your PC. Once it is finished downloading, click RUN or OPEN and follow the directions presented to you on-screen. WELCOME BACK! You should now have the latest supported driver for your player installed on your PC which will be important very shortly. Repeat steps 12-16 until you get back to the beginning of 17. Only this time instead of focusing on the Drivers portion, we'll be taking a look at
Applications section.
Find and download the following two items: Creative Zen and NOMAD Jukebox plugin 2.00.19 for Creative MediaSource (CMS_PJB3_PCApp_LB_2_00_19.exe) and Creative MediaSource Player/Organizer 3.30.21 (CMS_PCAPP_LB_3_30_21.exe). Once these are finished, install the MediaSource app first followed by the Nomad plugin, second. After these are installed and ready to go, familiarize yourself briefly with MediaSource. The basic functionality would indicate that you have access to two panels: a left panel (local directory) and a right panel (remote or MP3 player directory). Simply navigate on the left panel to where you'd like your MP3 players music to be stored, on your PC and use the right panel to find, select, and subsequently move your players media to the left panel. You'll even notice two arrows, one above the other, pointing toward either the left or right panel. Simply click on the direction" in which you'd like your music stored (left arrow for your PC, right arrow for whatever is selected in the left panel to be sent to your player). Once you've completely backed up your music, you are ready to head back to the beginning of step 17 and locate, this time around,
Firmware: Just under "DRIVERS" is a section titled "FIRMWARE" under which should display two downloads, the top most download being newer than the one below it.
YOU NEED BOTH . Simply
download the following two items: Creative Zen Micro Firmware 1.11.01 (ZenMicroPDE_PCFW_LB_1_11_01.exe) and Creative Zen Micro PlaysForSure Firmware update 2.21.02 (ZenMicroP4S_PCFW_L16_2_21_02.exe). Now that you have both of these downloaded, run the Zen Micro Firmware 1.11.01 (ZenMicroPDE_PCFW_LB_1_11_01.exe) firmware update
FIRST. Remember, your player should still be connected to your PC at this point as well as all your media on the player now backed up onto your PC. If that sounds about right, continue with the update as prompted on the screen. This may take up to 5-10 minutes depending on the player version (size) and the amount you have/had stored on the player. Once this has been completed you will be notified on-screen and you should follow the directions given at that point. Your player should now be listed as having Zen Micro Firmware 1.11.01 installed. If this is the case, locate and run Creative Zen Micro PlayForSure Firmware update 2.21.02 (ZenMicroP4S_PCFW_L16_2_21_02.exe). Again, your player should still be connected and as before your media backed up on your PC. Follow the directions presented to you and wait for the process to finish. You will be notified when the update is complete. Follow any further instructions before proceeding to step 19.
18.
ZEN TOUCH USERS: Once you've selected Zen Touch from the list above, you will be presented with a few options to more precisely determine what sort of download you require for your player. At this point, simply choose your natively spoken language, the current operating system your PC runs, and leave "ALL" selected for File Type. Click "GO!. You will now see a few sections with a lot of text on the page. Never fear - this is just Creatives jumbled way of showing you what is available as a download for your player and for your PC in the form of software to use
with your player.
Drivers: Listed under this top-most section should be the latest driver for your player based on your current operating system. Simply
Right Click on Download Now and click "Open in New Window". You will be asked to
AGREE with the EULA for the software you are about to download. Click "AGREE" and a "Save File" dialog should appear with the file named
JB3MV2_PCWDRV_US_1_30_03.EXE (for Windows XP at least). Save this file to your desktop or some other easily navigated location on your PC. Once it is finished downloading, click RUN or OPEN and follow the directions presented to you on-screen. WELCOME BACK! You should now have the latest supported driver for your player installed on your PC which will be important very shortly. Repeat steps 12-16 until you get back to the beginning of 17. Only this time instead of focusing on the Drivers portion, we'll be taking a look at
Applications section.
Find and download the following two items: Creative Zen and NOMAD Jukebox plugin 2.00.19 for Creative MediaSource (CMS_PJB3_PCApp_LB_2_00_19.exe)and Creative MediaSource Player/Organizer 3.30.21 (CMS_PCAPP_LB_3_30_21.exe). Once these are finished, install the MediaSource app first followed by the Nomad plugin, second. After these are installed and ready to go, familiarize yourself briefly with MediaSource. The basic functionality would indicate that you have access to two panels: a left panel (local directory) and a right panel (remote or MP3 player directory). Simply navigate on the left panel to where you'd like your MP3 players music to be stored, on your PC and use the right panel to find, select, and subsequently move your players media to the left panel. You'll even notice two arrows, one above the other, pointing toward either the left or right panel. Simply click on the direction" in which you'd like your music stored (left arrow for your PC, right arrow for whatever is selected in the left panel to be sent to your player). Once you've completely backed up your music, you are ready to head back to the beginning of step 17 and locate, this time around,
Firmware: Just under "DRIVERS" is a section titled "FIRMWARE" under which should display two downloads, the top most download being newer than the one below it.
YOU NEED BOTH . Simply
download the following two items: Creative Zen Touch Firmware Upgrade version 1.01.03 (ZenTouch_PCFW_L4_1_01_03.exe) and Creative Zen Touch PlaysForSure Firmware 2.11.01 (ZenTouchP4S_PCFW_LB_2_11_01.exe). Now that you have both of these downloaded, run the Zen Touch Firmware 1.01.03 (ZenTouch_PCFW_L4_1_01_03.exe) firmware update
FIRST. Remember, your player should still be connected to your PC at this point as well as all your media on the player now backed up onto your PC. If that sounds about right, continue with the update as prompted on the screen. This may take up to 5-10 minutes depending on the player version (size) and the amount you have/had stored on the player. Once this has been completed you will be notified on-screen and you should follow the directions given at that point. Your player should now be listed as having Zen Touch Firmware 1.01.03 installed. If this is the case, locate and run Creative Zen Touch PlayForSure Firmware 2.11.01 (ZenTouchP4S_PCFW_LB_2_11_01.exe). Again, your player should still be connected and as before your media backed up on your PC. Follow the directions presented to you and wait for the process to finish. You will be notified when the update is complete. Follow any further instructions before proceeding to step 19.
19.
CONGRATULATIONS! You've just completed your upgrade to PlayForSure capability for your Creative Jukebox Zen Micro (or Zen Touch) player! You should now be fully compatible with the MS Xbox 360 console. Wanna try it out? LETS!
20. Disconnect your player from the smaller end of the USB cable as well as the larger end from the PC. Your player should still be powered on, even after connecting it to the Xbox 360 console. Read on!
21. Power on your MS Xbox 360 and sign in.
22. Attach the smaller end of the USB cable to your player and then the larger end of the cable to either the rear of the console, just above the Ethernet port, or on the front of the console where your wired controller would be attached.
23. On the Xbox 360, navigate to the Media blade. Once there, find "Music" on the center list. Enter that menu and then highlight "Portable Device" (or, in some cases, the actual device name will be listed as a location).
24. At this stage of the game, you should now notice you have the player available to you as a selection. REJOICE! If you are still unable to discover your player,there are a few tips to keep in mind: Make sure your player is on its root menu (meaning, as if it were displaying default items on the screen, you have navigated to nothing in particular.... freshly turned on awaiting your command). Make sure the player is on and it has a good charge, though the Xbox 360 should power the device through the USB cable. Check to make sure the USB cable is properly seated in both the console and the player. It has also been reported that some players do not become "available" until there is music on them. If all else fails, simply post here with any questions you may still have.
25. Since your player should now be available to you on the Xbox 360 console, you probably want to actually use it now! So let's go ahead and retrieve your media files from your PC!
26. Disconnect your player from the USB cable's smaller end as well as the larger end from the Xbox 360 console. Power down your Xbox 360 console at this time as it does not need to be on for a little while yet.
27. Attach the larger end of the USB cable to your PC via one of the required open USB ports (usually located on the read of the PC somewhere around where the purple colored keyboard end would be found).
28. Make sure your MP3 player is still powered up and attach the smaller end of the USB cable to the player.
29. Now, however, your PC SHOULD recognize the player as installed already and no new drivers should be required. In fact, you should hear a pretty nifty sound file play courtesy of Creative indicating the player is now attached and ready to use.
30. Open Creative MedaSource once more and simply browse to your backed up music/files we created earlier on, in the left panel. Choose your player in the right panel. Highlight everything you want transfered
back to your player in the left panel and then simply click on the
large arrow poiting to the RIGHT (or toward your player). This may take quite a while depending on the amount of music/files you have stored on your PC that you retrieved from the player, but in time, you will be finished restoring your music and be ready to move on to the last set of steps!
31. Once you've restored your music/files back to your player, simply disconnect your player from the smaller end of the USB cable as well as the larger end from the PC. Your player should still be powered on, even after connecting it to the Xbox 360 console.
32. Power on your MS Xbox 360 and sign in.
33. Attach the smaller end of the USB cable to your player and then the larger end of the cable to either the rear of the console, just above the Ethernet port, or on the front of the console where your wired controller would be attached.
34. On the Xbox 360, navigate to the Media blade. Once there, find "Music" on the center list. Enter that menu and then highlight "Portable Device" (or, in some cases, the actual device name will be listed as a location).
35. You should now notice that your music is completely available to you including your own playlists and album/artist/track grouping! Wasn't that easy?! AND FUN?!?!
WRAP IT UP!
So what did we accomplish today?
Discovered what was needed to allow interoperability of our Zen Micro or Zen Touch player and the Xbox 360
Performed a full backup of all media files on our player
Performed a PlayForSure capable firmware update on our Zen Micro or Zen Touch
Confirmed the interoperability of our Zen Micro or Zen Touch player and the Xbox 360
Restored a full backup of all media files on our PC to our player
Realized that doing this is much easier with a guide than plodding through tons of posts
Most importantly, realized the striking need for female companionship or MS Points. (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)
I understand that some gamers will still have questions and I can fully appreciate their desire to get the most out of their MP3 player of choice. That is why I encourage anyone with any feedback or questions to post without shame! Everyone had to start somewhere - funnily enough, if you dig, you'll discover that even those giving
you a hard time now were, at some point, asking the same questions (if not with some higher level of ignoramous attached to their namesake).
I really can't take any responsbility for any problems you might encounter - this is just intended as a comprehensive guide to how I and many others I've helped have gotten their own players to work with the MS Xbox 360 console. Feel free to let me know if you're pissed though if something did happen.
I'm a long time member of Xbox-Scene (.com) as you'll discover many of my other tutorials under my handle "K-Naledge" (Unfortunately, some guy named Curt Lee in Michigan registered my handle on the original Xbox Live service [Knaledge] and I have had to resort to a more.... Xtreme! version KnaledgeX) and this guide comes as a memento to that crew - a holiday gift from us to you here at Xbox.com (though no one here at Xbox.com or MS endorses or even had a part of what I created and posted here [and there] today).
GOOD LUCK AND HAPPY LISTENING!
- Greg
Please contact me if you would like to repost this anywhere else - at the very least, be cool enough to give credit where credit is due. This post has been edited by K-Naledge: Dec 18 2005, 08:30 PM
Author
Topic: Zen Micro & Zen Touch Guide For 360 Use! (Read 137 times)