Is there anyway that you guys know of to allow me to watch videos from my Zen on my D3? Audio goes through no problem with a standard male-male headphone plug, but there isn't any video. If I didn't hate iPods I wouldn't be having this problem obviously, but I do so I'm left to "suffer" without the ease of its connectivity.

Any help is much appreciated.

you need a 3 pin headphone plug with video if i am not mistaken. That front output is for video and your plug must have 3 bands on it.

you need a 3 pin headphone plug with video if i am not mistaken. That front output is for video and your plug must have 3 bands on it.

no clue what that is man. a google search left me with cables for mic/monitor systems.

if your zen has video out capabilities (I use an ipod so i wouldnt kno...) there is a cord you can buy which fits into your normal head phone jack and has rca outputs... you can find it at your local radioshack in the ipod section but should work for your zen.... you plug those rca's into the harness of you d3 and you've got video you cant plug it into the front aux input on the d3 thats audio only....

if you are having trouble getting one which i doubt you will i have one i have no use for.... if you pay for shipping u could have it

im having the creative zen player issue as well with displaying any pictures and or a video/clip from it. I do have the right cables which are connected to the rca input jacks in the back of my d3 to the headphone jack of my player. audio works fine, just nothing gets displayed. i know that there is no creative interface, but i would expect that at least the images or video can show. is there an extra step im missing. appreciate any help

there are options in the system settings that allow you to diplay vide, audio and video and audio, try that look for it under system settings, or input controls,ill try to go mess around with mine to find the root to the option but just play with the settings its in there some where, also if you are trying to watch the vid while actually moving make sure the d3 is bypassed, its on here some where just look for it

thanks man...yup it's already bypassed and the only system settings that seem changeable are choosing whether the av1 or av2 are "EXT" or "Video." i dont know if there are any other settings somewhere else and whatnot.

you cant plug it into the front aux input on the d3 thats audio only...

Not true. The front input is for audio AND video, you just have to have the right cable. A 4 PIN 3.5mm male to male cable will work for that.

Unfortunately, it seems the zen has a somewhat different pinout setup than most portables, so it might not work for it without some work. You can see here: http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2006/04/zen-vision-m-video-cable-other-4pole-35mm-pinouts.php that the ground/video/audio channels on the zen is different that with ipods and other sources. So a standart 3.5mm AV cable might not work.

But to hook your Zen to the rear AV inputs, you need a cable like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Zen-Vision-Video-Cable/dp/B000ELSVOM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=generic&qid=1204231604&sr=1-1 which has the correct pinouts. If you just get a standard 3.5mm to RCA AV cable, it might not work properly due to the non-standard pinout configuration.

thank you for that information...looks like i wasted some money on the cable i got then. I was actually going to order this creative one from creative itself but spotted a similar looking one at walmart (which is actually for the ipod). didnt know that they would actually be different despite how close they resembled in appearance. (it just doesnt have that cylindrical tubing towards the male end as the creative one). i read through some of the comments on that website and thinking what the chances are if i switch the cables around, that it may work. only one way to find out, back soon ...

Yeah, that should work fine, if you look at the pinout diagram in the link I posted you should be able to figure out which cable does what. Or just trial and error, of course.

But for plugging it into the front jack you would have to buy a 3.5mm male to male AV cable and cut and splice the wires to get it to work.

still nothing and i've tried so many combinations..even switching the settings of the player as well. going to order that creative cable then. But does anyone know what should be the video out setting of the creative zen vision M be in this case either "Auto (PAL)" or "Auto (NTSC)" ?

Should be NTSC.

I'm having the same problem and mine came with the proper cables.I did get a video for a split second once that's it.I have the Zen W 30gig.I also have an Eclipse unit so it's not a D3 issue

Just figured it out. If you look on the left side of the Zen there's a rubber flap covering the AV port. Lift up ,swing out ,plug in audio/video cord. That's it !

which zen do you have? mine has no flap (zen vision: M). instead i have an adapter to plug in the bottom of the player with multi-ports (usb 2.0, dc in, and a/v out). so wait, i've been using the headphone jack when i was testing with the other cable i have. do you think maybe if i plug into the a/v out instead that it would make a difference??

Well yeah... headphones don't have video, so the headphone jack probably doesn't output video. Give it a shot!

haha got really excited and went out there to give it a try right away. well although it didnt work, it was almost like a teaser because it would seem like I would almost have it switching the around the cables in every possible combination through trial and error but still no clear display of the video that i was using as a test. it's definitely the cable itself though because i even tried testing it using a television (which go figure i should have just done so beforehand instead of unscrewing and screwing my dash). nonetheless, the creative cable is needed guys, or well at least i really hope so because i have just ordered it ...

I have the W. Did you by pass your D3? It will not show a picture unless it is or the car is stopped and emergency brake applied.

yup, as posted before, it's already by-passed and again im not using the right cable...besides i dont think id be attemtping to play with wires and whatnot all while driving lol...bottom line = creative cables (hopefully being the only case)...

I just reread your thread and if it wouldn't show a picture on your tv then its your cable.Mine came with a cable.

I'm curios as to what type of cable you're using. If you're using an audio cable it will not work because the one eighth plug isn't setup for video.You need an one eighth plug to red/white/yellow end cable.

Well obviously, or the cable he's using wouldn't have a video output to hook up in the first place...

You got me on that one. I had to laugh at myself when I reread my entry!

I plugged my Zen Vision W into the AV1 input on the rear of the unit and hid the cable under the center console. (I used the AV cable that came with the unit). Works great.