i've had my creative zen ... 60 gig (largest they had) vision m for 7 years now and it still works beautifully. use it everyday at work (steel factory ... dirty, oily) have a good leather protective case and screen protector. was $240 back when it came out though. software is easy to navigate ... hard disc that came with it (didn't have to download from internet), supports many file types. as this is an old model now (don't make it anymore, but you may find it at amazon or ebay ... maybe), not sure how the newer ones for creative are. i believe 32 gig is the largest they make now. headphones suck though, had to buy better ones.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Creative-Technology-ZE...=item2a03cefced this is from e-bay used for $149 buy now ...
http://www.amazon.com/Creative-Zen-Vision-...4460&sr=1-5 amazon used $274
more than I paid new ..... but still a very good mp3 player ........... not sure on videos: use mine strictly as mp3 player
had a 40 gig zen before that for 4 years until i dropped a bar stool on it
i like my zen better than ipod (bought the classic 160 gig) just because I needed the space for my cd collection. nice slim design though ... don't care for the software or itunes
i've also used the zune 120 gig (i believe it was around $160) liked it better than ipod also ... not sure how durable it is though as it's my nephews. fairly good software though as far as use (have to download from the internet ... like ipod)