iPodge - The Nomad Jukebox 3

Clearing out some cruft from a drawer the other day I came across a Creative Nomad Jukebox 3. This was not a surprise; I knew I had one; I used it daily on my commute by train to London and it helped pass the hours during the disruption of the West Coast Mainline upgrade works.


'A week is a long time in politics', as Harold Wilson may have said and a year is an age in consumer technology development. Before the iPod became the generic term for a portable music player Creative, who were a big player in the computer sound market with their SoundBlaster cards, also sold a range of Windows compatible mp3 players. The Jukebox 3 was introduced in 2002, about the time the 2nd generation iPod made its debut, so Creative no longer had the PC market to itself.

Creative Nomad Jukebox 3 - Won no beauty prizes

At 23mm x 130mm x 35mm and 289 grammes (without batteries) pocketable it was not; the case that was bundled with it (in European markets) had a belt clip on the back, but attaching it to your belt could result in your trousers being dragged down to your ankles. In contrast the iPad was sleek, small and oozed chic.

The Jukebox 3 did have a number of features that made it stand out, notably a 30Gb hard drive (other sizes were available); two line out sockets (in addition to a headphone socket) allowing up to four speakers to be connected and, most importantly as far as I was concerned, an optical / line in socket. This last feature enabled me to record digitally some of my collection of vinyl albums so I could listen to them on the Jukebox. I think Creative had one eye on the (semi) professional recording market as the Jukebox was a convenient way to make recordings and then edit them in a digital format, with all the benefits that provided. Certainly I used an editing program to remove some of the worst clicks and pops from my vinyl recordings.

Later, Creative sold a remote control that contained a microphone to promote the use of the recording functionality. This attached to a proprietary connecter and the headphone socket and also featured an FM radio.

Jukebox 3 Remote - Including mic and FM radio

Transferring files to and from the Jukebox was achieved using Creative's PlayCenter and File Manager software and either the USB or Firewire sockets. The USB socket was only v1.1 and sloooow; the Firewire socket was really fast but I suffered from connection problems, a common issue apparently. Creative's software was clunky and I started using a product called Notmad (now long gone) that was browser based and provided a music streaming function.

When I moved from Windows XP to Windows 7 these problems vanished: the Jukebox's drivers simply wouldn't work at all with 64 bit Windows 7 and so rendered it completely useless. By then my head had been turned by new shiny-shiny and I was in a relationship with an Archos 605, so this wasn't a setback.


The Nomad Returns

Having rediscovered this gem I wondered if would now be possible to get it to work again. Luckily the PSU had been nestled beside the Jukebox in the drawer so I plugged it in, pressed the on button and, after clicking and whirring from the hard drive, was pleased to see it boot up and display the main menu.

That was the easy bit. Making the Jukebox talk to the Windows 7 PC had proved insurmountable in the past and I wasn't too confident it would work now. However, after some Googling I had found references to some users who had achieved this, so I thought I'd have a go.

The key seemed to be to use updated MediaSource progam, plugin and driver software that were available in the support section of the Creative website. I downloaded the Creative MediaSource Player/Organizer 5.10.38 and Creative ZEN and NOMAD Jukebox Plugin 5.00.22 for Creative MediaSource 5 Player/Organizer (phew) files, but found I already had a copy of the Creative ZEN and Jukebox Driver 2.01.00 file so ignored it.

Figuring I would need the drivers I installed them first, followed by the MediaSource Player/Organizer, then hit a problem: MediaSource wouldn't install without the Jukebox being attached. I plugged in the Jukebox and Windows started its process to install drivers then complained it couldn't find the drivers. Frustratingly Windows knew there was a Jukebox attached, it just didn't want to talk to it.

Wondering if the driver had been changed, even though the version number of the driver I used was identical to that on the website, I downloaded a new copy. As soon as I plugged in the Jukebox its display changed to show it was connected and Windows completed the driver install process. Retrying MediaSource this now detected the Jukebox and installed itself, leaving just the plugin which also installed without a hitch.

After rebooting the PC to complete the install I noticed a short white line at the top of the screen. When I moved the mouse pointer over it a small MediaSource panel dropped down.

White line becomes drop down panel

This provides access to the Creative website and MediaSource programs: Audio Converter and Player. Clicking on the Player button opens an application with the standard display and control buttons.

Player 1 to start

The only way to transfer files to and from the Jukebox is via MediaSource Organizer and to access this requires a click on the icon on the bottom left of the Player.

MediaSource Organizer. Lots going on here, isn't there?

The Organizer software dates from the early / mid 2000's and shows it - never mind the quality, feel the width. The somewhat busy(!) interface was initially bewildering but with a few experimental clicks I was able to copy some files to and from the Jukebox.


Jukebox Jive

After this success, what now for the Jukebox 3? Well, nearly all of my vinyl collection has now been digitised, mostly by the aforementioned Archos 605 with post processing done in Sony Sound Forge Audio Studio, so I'll not be needing it for that. My mobile listening is catered for by an excellent Fiio X5, using FLAC files that the Jukebox can't handle. However, perhaps its main shortcoming is its inability to act as a USB mass storage device, which prevents it from being connected to other audio and video devices' USB ports and simply being a music file repository.

Back in the drawer, then. I'm certain it will come in useful one day...