Creative NOMAD

From Free net encyclopedia

The Creative NOMAD was a digital audio player (MP3 player) series created by Creative Technology, discontinued in 2005. Two different kinds of players exist: solid state memory (no moving parts) which were sold under the brand name NOMAD and NOMAD MuVo and hard disk based players sold under the brand name NOMAD Jukebox. The NOMAD Jukeboxes later forked off into a device series known as the Creative Zen line.

Creative's activity in the MP3 player field began with the Creative NOMAD which was actually a value-added reseller product, a rebranded Samsung Yepp YP-D40. The Creative NOMAD II also features an FM radio.

The compact MuVo models use the USB mass storage device class so that the device appears as a file system (keydrive) on the host system, while older devices, and all Jukebox models use a custom protocol named PDE (Portable Digital Entertainment) that require special USB drivers. Future versions in the Creative Zen line exclusively uses Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol (also known as "PlaysForSure"), and some legacy devices have been supplied with firmware upgrades to support MTP. The first NOMAD (Samsung) and the first NOMAD Jukebox use their own-defined protocols, neither PDE or MTP. The first jukebox uses the OASiS operating system whereas later NOMAD jukeboxes use Creative's own firmware. Most jukeboxes use a Texas Instruments TMS320 digital signals processor as their sole CPU. Most jukeboxes support some version of Creative's environmental audio extensions (EAX).

Image:Creative Nomad Jukebox (DAP).jpg The Nomad line was discontinued in 2004. Creative flash and hard drive MP3 players now fall exclusively under the MuVo and Zen lines respectively.

1 NOMAD (MuVo) models
2 NOMAD Jukebox (Zen) models
3 Related Software
4 Troubleshooting
5 Technical performance
6 See also
7 External links

[edit]

NOMAD (MuVo) models

Image:Nomad2.jpg

Creative NOMAD (the original, from Samsung Yepp YP-D40, IEEE 1284 parallel port connection, custom protocol)
Creative NOMAD II and Creative NOMAD IIc (USB 1.1 connection, custom protocol)
Creative NOMAD II MG (USB 1.1 connection, custom protocol)
Creative NOMAD MuVo
Creative NOMAD MuVo2 (USB mass storage device class)
Creative NOMAD MuVo2 X-Trainer
Creative NOMAD MuVo2 FM
Creative NOMAD MuVo NX
Creative NOMAD MuVo TX
Creative NOMAD MuVo TX FM
Creative NOMAD Muvo Micro V200
Creative NOMAD Muvo Micro N200

[edit]

NOMAD Jukebox (Zen) models

For more detailed information on Zen models, see the Creative Zen main article.

The Creative NOMAD Jukeboxes have appeared in different shapes:

Creative NOMAD Jukebox, also known as Creative Digital Audio Player (DAP) in Europe (USB 1.1 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox 2 (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox 3 (USB 1.1 and FireWire (IEEE 1394) connections)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen (USB 1.1 and IEEE 1394 connections)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen USB 2.0 (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Xtra (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Touch (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Micro (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Neeon (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen 20Gb (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Sleek (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Micro Photo (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Nano Plus (USB 2.0 connection)
Creative NOMAD Jukebox Zen Vision (PVP)" (USB 2.0 connection)

A variant of the NOMAD Jukebox is also sold as an OEM product by Dell under the name Dell Digital Jukebox (Dell DJ), a USB 2.0 device. The Second Generation Dell DJ and Dell Pocket DJ 5 are also OEMs from Creative.

[edit]

Related Software

Beside the Creative Labs included NOMAD Explorer program that is use to transfer music and data, there are other transfer and track/file management programs:

Free software:
- For the first players:
  - The NOMAD Manager Project is a program to control the original NOMAD player under Linux (homepage)
  - The Nomad II Linux USB driver is for using the Nomad II under Linux (homepage)
- For jukeboxes:
  - libnjb is the driver underlying most of the following programs (homepage)
  - Gnomad is a Jukebox Manager for Linux (homepage)
  - Neutrino is another Jukebox Manager for Linux (homepage)
  - XNJB is a Jukebox Manager for Mac OS X (homepage)
  - Nomadsync is a Jukebox synchronization tool for both Microsoft Windows and Linux (homepage)
  - Creative Nomad Jukebox KIO::Slave is an integration driver for KDE (homepage)
  - JBHTTP is a webserver interface to Jukeboxes (similar to what Notmad Explorer provides) for Linux (homepage)
Proprietary software:
- Notmad Explorer by Red Chair Software (homepage) is a transfer program for Microsoft Windows. This program includes a file streamer and it can convert your MP3 player into a file server that you can access over the Internet.

Image:NomadNenNxBattery.jpg

[edit]

Troubleshooting

MuVo
- file system error - This problem has been reported in several user forums. Some users say they've resolved the problem by reformatting the drive. If the device will not mount at all, however, a more drastic solution -- upgrading its firmware -- may help. To install the firmware the device has to be in recovery mode. Just press the play-button when connecting the device to the computer and release it after the "New hardware"-dialog appears.

[edit]

Technical performance

An independant test site shows the Nomad 3 to have excellent performance, with a flat frequency response (20Hz-20kHz +/-1.25dB) and lower noise than the iPod (-64dBAL ITU-R 468 weighted). The best CD players achieve around -67dBAL 468-weighted.

[edit]