Microsoft Zune

WindSock

Whats the story with these? They look fairly fruity, but only seem to be available in the UK. I haven't seen an advertising campaign at all, which seems strange before Chrisitmas.

lafors

WindSock wrote: »

Whats the story with these? They look fairly fruity, but only seem to be available in the UK. I haven't seen an advertising campaign at all, which seems strange before Chrisitmas.

Only available in the US.
They just released the second generation of them in November.
Very good device, I've a Zune 30gb (the 1st gen), and its excellent.
I played with the Zune 80 last week and its a great player too, I was thinking of getting one but decided for an ipod touch (don't really need 80gb cos I use my psp for movies).

So they're worth it if you can get one

ironictoaster

I also have a 30gb. Nice product exept for the software. My God almighty, I thought it couldn't of gotten worse than creative's software.

pleasant Co.

I read the new software was "better than itunes" (some crave bloggers words, not mine)

Fighting Irish

creggy wrote: »

I also have a 30gb. Nice product exept for the software. My God almighty, I thought it couldn't of gotten worse than creative's software.

creative is drag and drop

BanzaiBk

New software is supposed to be fantastic, don't think it has been released for the older Zunes yet but I'm open to correction.

Dman001

So is it worth selling the old iPod 80GB for the new Zune? What is the video playback like?

pleasant Co.

Dman001 wrote: »

So is it worth selling the old iPod 80GB for the new Zune? What is the video playback like?

meh, they're much of a muchness... both are crippled... the Zune sounds better and has a bigger screen but the ipod is slimmer and has longer battery life....

griffdaddy

is there anywhere i can pick up a zune 80gb in Dublin? failing that where would be the best place to get one online? my long serving 40gb Zen was stolen recently, what a piece of kit that was, served my for almost 6 years without ever having any problems, probably serve that scumbag for another 6 too:(

Fighting Irish

griffdaddy wrote: »

is there anywhere i can pick up a zune 80gb in Dublin? failing that where would be the best place to get one online? my long serving 40gb Zen was stolen recently, what a piece of kit that was, served my for almost 6 years without ever having any problems, probably serve that scumbag for another 6 too:(

ebay

but the zen vision m > zune

you can buy the zen vision off creatives site for €140

eclectichoney

Was really interested in getting an 8GB zune as well. The reviews look great and it is thinner than the zen (I run a lot so size is quite an issue tbh) is there any reputable site to get one from rather than ebay? I presume the warranty isn't valid outside the us so you're screwed if it breaks?

griffdaddy

Fighting Irish wrote: »

ebay

but the zen vision m > zune

you can buy the zen vision off creatives site for €140

yeah but i want more than 60gb storage this time, there's a few things i don't like about the current creatives either, it pisses me off the way the light stays on if you don't lock the player, a few of my friends say it's a real pain and wastes the battery quickly. I also find that scroll thing to be a bit fidgety. I can get an 80gb Zune delivered for €250 from ebay, think i'll go with that. does anyone know what the sound quality is like on the Zune? my old creative sounded great and had no trouble powering my Sennheisers.

pleasant Co.

griffdaddy wrote: »

does anyone know what the sound quality is like on the Zune?

Supposed to be one of the bestest

Mossin

Bro got one off ebay before Christmas, I'll get him to stick up his view when he gets a chance.

Nice piece of kit tho from what I've seen.

kida

can anyone recommend any ebay sellers?

Fighting Irish

griffdaddy wrote: »

yeah but i want more than 60gb storage this time, there's a few things i don't like about the current creatives either, it pisses me off the way the light stays on if you don't lock the player, a few of my friends say it's a real pain and wastes the battery quickly. I also find that scroll thing to be a bit fidgety. I can get an 80gb Zune delivered for €250 from ebay, think i'll go with that. does anyone know what the sound quality is like on the Zune? my old creative sounded great and had no trouble powering my Sennheisers.

:rolleyes:

Fighting Irish

I got mine from this guy

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZnianyue

Shipping was quick as well

kaimera

Love it.

Got the 80gig from ebay for chrimbo-ish.

Lovely bright screen, very easy to use, not too big, 'squircle' is a fantastic touch, doesn't get irritating.

Dont have an ac adapter so usb charging for me.

The firmware was updated automatically to 2.3, no sw update yet afaik.

Had some initial issues with synching. Fixed by removing and then plugging back in the player. Synching was grand, drag and drop to the zune icon at the bottom left in the software.

Haven't tried video yet but I have to transcode my avis to wmv to play them and I just haven't got around to doing that yet.

Audio playback is great. No equaliser on it but I'm not really missing it.

On the battery, got it fully charged when I got it but it was half charged anyway. Didn't have a problem with leaving it it standby [push and hold 'play' button].

Had to google how to actually turn it off [hold down on squircle and the back button till it shuts off]

All in all, well happy with my purchase. I only use the software to synch stuff so I've no real complaints about it. Looks very nice and easy to use. Suits me.

Unpacking pics

pleasant Co.

Nice box :P

I'm constantly tempted by the Zune, but it will not wok on Mac so I can't get it... damn MS!!!

griffdaddy

Fighting Irish wrote: »

:rolleyes:

What's that look for? if you forget to lock it the back display never turns off, and that destroys the battery, it's a minor complaint, granted, but i like to have my player in my pocket with the entire library on random and just flick til i find a song i wanna listen to, i don't wanna have to take it out of my pocket and lock or unlock it every time i wanna skip a song. My complaints about the scroll interface are hardly unique to me?
Anyway, i ordered an 80gb Zune and i'm just waiting for delivery. Does the Zune software re-encode videos if you transfer them over or do you have to use a separate app first? hopefully there'll be a way to play avi's and divx on it soon anyway, the last one was hackable to that as far as i know

kaimera

Seperate app afaik.

There was an app you could use for the 360 before it got divx support that works grand for the zune.

Boggles

Fighting Irish wrote: »

ebay

but the zen vision m > zune

you can buy the zen vision off creatives site for €140

Where on the creative site, can't find it? Thanks.

Fighting Irish

Boggles wrote: »

Where on the creative site, can't find it? Thanks.

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055140698

Gran Hermano

kaimera wrote: »

Seperate app afaik.

There was an app you could use for the 360 before it got divx support that works grand for the zune.

Try Super:
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

griffdaddy

thanks for advice everyone. The seller i bought it from, everythingdigital4u, was great to deal with, he dispatched the Zune on Friday and it arrived just a minute ago, i'm still setting up the software but i'll give my thoughts on it after i walk around St Enda's park a few times with my dog, first impressions are good though, it certainly looks tasty.

kaimera

Try Super:
http://www.erightsoft.com/SUPER.html

Thank you kind sir

griffdaddy

very happy with the player, only problem is the software divides up compilation albums into sections based on who the artist is, it's pretty annoying cause if i wanna play, say, a Perfect Breaks mix album, i have to manually leave each 'album' and play the next one, even though the album name is identical. anyone else had this problem?

kaimera

Create a playlist

Stuff like that tho makes me just use it for synching music.

Gran Hermano

griffdaddy wrote: »

very happy with the player, only problem is the software divides up compilation albums into sections based on who the artist is, it's pretty annoying cause if i wanna play, say, a Perfect Breaks mix album, i have to manually leave each 'album' and play the next one, even though the album name is identical. anyone else had this problem?

Have a look at Tagscanner.

It's a free and powerful small app that will let you easily edit the
ID tags on your music. You can just browse to the folder and batch
edit the artist tag so it reads like "Compilation Album Name - Artist Name".
(It's also great for using tags to change the file name and vice-versa.)
It'll also allow you to easily add or change album art so all your songs are tagged
with the correct album cover.

BrianD

I got a Zune for Crimbo and must say I'm pretty impressed (though it is the first digital music playrer that I have owned). Main plus is that it has a FM radio with RDS.

Out of curiosity - how does everybody ID3 tag their various artists compilations? Do you use various artists as the artist name or the the actual artist?

griffdaddy

that tag scanner is dead handy, nice one for that.
I love my Zune too, the sound quality is great and it has no problem powering my Sennheiser px100's. I'd love if it had a search function though, like even some of the older ipods had, surely wouldn't be that hard to implement? might see it in a future firmware

pleasant Co.

BrianD wrote: »

Out of curiosity - how does everybody ID3 tag their various artists compilations? Do you use various artists as the artist name or the the actual artist?

Actual artists and then create a playlist of the compilation

griffdaddy

have to say i'm loving the zune now. I have it hooked up to my laptop speakers and just have my laptop on mute, it's a good way of checking out the bass on it, which is really really nice and wholesome, not stuttery at all. I'm using logitech x 230's which arent the best speakers, but the difference in sound quality between the laptop and the zune is very noticeable, the zune is better sound by a country mile.

alienhead

i want a zune

kida

seriously thinking of gettign one - few questions first

Can you drag and drop music onto it or do you have to synch?
Is the radio decent quality?

pleasant Co.

kida wrote: »

seriously thinking of gettign one - few questions first

Can you drag and drop music onto it or do you have to synch?
Is the radio decent quality?

You have to use the Zune software, no MTP, no UMS.

Radio is supposed to be top notch.

MiCr0

BrianD wrote: »

I got a Zune for Crimbo and must say I'm pretty impressed (though it is the first digital music playrer that I have owned). Main plus is that it has a FM radio with RDS.

Out of curiosity - how does everybody ID3 tag their various artists compilations? Do you use various artists as the artist name or the the actual artist?

completely off topic - but winamp 5.51 does autotagging of badly tagged tracks very well
in about 10 mins i went from having 100's of "various" and "various artist" tracks to having none
:-)

kaimera

kida wrote: »

seriously thinking of gettign one - few questions first

Can you drag and drop music onto it or do you have to synch?
Is the radio decent quality?

I think I read somewhere about a hack to use the new zune as a portable hdd. Not willing to chance it myself really.

pleasant Co.

kaimera wrote: »

I think I read somewhere about a hack to use the new zune as a portable hdd. Not willing to chance it myself really.

nope - not the new Zune...

youcancallmeal

Reading up about the zune has also made me tempted.
Strange question but how is the volume changed? Would you be able to do it if you weren't looking at the player?
Also does it come with a case or does anyone have any recommendations for a case with a belt clip?

Gran Hermano

The click-pad on the Zune supports both touch and clicking, so
unlike the itouch you can easily operate it if it's in a pocket without
taking it out to look at it.

It doesn't come with a case. I ordered a selection from Amazon US
and Zuneone.net and hope to have them over the next week.

The only feature it's missing is drag and drop otherwise its an A1 player.

kaimera

Ordered a case from ebay last week, didn't cross my mind to try amazon.

Press/Flick up/down for audio when in play mode; otherwise up and down thru menus

youcancallmeal

One question, can you designate whichever folders you want with regards to syncing up wirelessly or does it only look in the "My Music" folder in "My Documents"? I have all my music stored on a separate drive to my primary c: drive and it would be a pain to have to move it.

kaimera

Same as WMP, you choose in the zune sw settings which folder(s) you want to add to the library.

Whatever is then in the lib can be synched over wifi. Haven't tried it myself yet, usb cable does me grand cos I'm usually charging it at the same time.

kaimera

http://www.engadget.com/2008/02/20/games-for-zune-details-hands-on/

Not sure how much I'd use them tbh; got a DS for games but nice to see them do something.

Pity the zune marketplace isn't available in IRL; I used to be able to login with my xbl account but not since I updated the zune sw. Shame.

LegacyUser

Fighting Irish wrote: »

ebay

but the zen vision m > zune

you can buy the zen vision off creatives site for €140

Bull****, the new zune is a masterpiece compared to the zen vision...

The new zune is better than the ipod features wise and sound quality wise.

MusicGirl1

Hey everyone! I am new here - this is my first post. I'm not technically challenged. I have been in the IT field for 15 years, so don't think I am crazy or unknowledgeable when I say this...I had a 30Gb Zune and I hated everything about it. Six months after I bought it (read: yesterday) the HDD crapped out on me. I would NEVER recommend this device to anyone. I was smart enough to get the 2 yr product replacement plan with it and I'm getting a full refund from Best Buy. I will never buy another. Now I am looking at the 32Gb Zen.

pleasant Co.

MusicGirl1 wrote: »

Hey everyone! I am new here - this is my first post. I'm not technically challenged. I have been in the IT field for 15 years, so don't think I am crazy or unknowledgeable when I say this...I had a 30Gb Zune and I hated everything about it. Six months after I bought it (read: yesterday) the HDD crapped out on me. I would NEVER recommend this device to anyone. I was smart enough to get the 2 yr product replacement plan with it and I'm getting a full refund from Best Buy. I will never buy another. Now I am looking at the 32Gb Zen.

Unlucky... HDD as you know aren't the best option for a portable device...it could have happened with ANY hard drive based DAP, not specifically the zune.
From what I have read the SQ is really highly regarded and I love the GUI videos I've seen.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, I definitely recommend you do some research on the ZEN before you buy it, or you may well be recommending people to stay away from that too...best of luck with what ever you do buy.

MusicGirl1

Mactard wrote: »

Unlucky... HDD as you know aren't the best option for a portable device...it could have happened with ANY hard drive based DAP, not specifically the zune.
From what I have read the SQ is really highly regarded and I love the GUI videos I've seen.

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, I definitely recommend you do some research on the ZEN before you buy it, or you may well be recommending people to stay away from that too...best of luck with what ever you do buy.

Thanks Mactard - it wasn't just the HDD issue that turned me away from loving this thing. That was the icing on the cake. It was all the issues with their software AND the issue with the HDD that had me throw the towel in. Maybe in 5 years I'll change my mind about it, but for now, it's just way too quirky for me.

LegacyUser

True...the first generation Zune i.e. the zune 30 was **** apparently...

The new 80gb is the second generation version and is a far better mp3 player than the old zune and the new ipod in my opinion.

Go to google.com and get zome zune 80 reviews...you won't be dissapointed.

pleasant Co.

The first and second gen zunes both use the same GUI and software now, so... take what you will from that...