Does USB Work With Non-Ipod players?

If you are referring to the USB on a Nav Unit it should support any USB device including thumb drives. I have used those myself and also my Droid phone. The UI is kinda klunky and is disabled while the car is moving so has limited functionality.

 

First, all of the mp3's you want to play need to reside on the ZEN X-Fi's memory card. Then, do this (per your X-Fi manual):
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Transferring Files to and from Your Memory Card


The memory card in your player is considered a removable disk by your computer. This means that on your computer, you can use familiar Windows® operations to transfer files to and from your memory card.

1. In the main menu, select Memory Card.
2. Select Removable Disk.


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This is what makes your memory card appear the same as a USB Stick.
At this point, you should be able to connect to the USB port, and the NAV should be able to see the mp3 files on the memory card, and you can play them via the USB tab of the NAV......Theoretically.

Hope this helps.

 

I've experimented with this lightly, and so far, I would say probably not. It does work sometimes with my iPod but it seems to do something strange to the iPod. Instead of trying to work natively with it, it seems to put the iPod into an undocked state (safe to remove) and then it seems to read the file system directly. It doesn't actually let the iPod handle the access to the files. At least, that's my hypothesis right now. My cell phone is designed to mimic an iPod, but the car won't even recognize it through USB at all. So it looks like there's some proprietary meddling going on. Likewise, the iPad isn't recognized through the USB interface either, so I bet future generations of iPods won't have the same successes as the earlier ones.

I think it's safe to say that any mp3 player that has a proprietary encryption and/or filesystem (like the Zen) is likely to be a no-go on the compatibility front.

 

Interesting - If you can transfer files from Windows to the zen memory card having it appear like a removable drive, then it isn't a proprietary file system or encryption. Wonder why it doesn't work on your Zen? This method works with my other mp3 players as well as my phone, when I "mount" the memory card as described above. Sorry it didn't work for you - but I agree, the USB stick approach is simpler - that's what I do as well.