# Zunes



## MarcusWolf (Feb 4, 2009)

I was wondering if there is any forum goer here who has a Zune. I'm on the verge of buying one but I'm unsure. Is there anything bad about them that I should know about?


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## lilEmber (Feb 4, 2009)

Nothing bad at all, they're better than a iPod because they have more features for about the same price, it comes with a warranty so anything defective in your model (if that happens) will be replaced free of charge, so no worries about that.

Honestly the Zune right now is my personal choice for a music player, I had a iPod and I recently parted with it and will be getting a Zune in the future at some point.


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## Raithah (Feb 4, 2009)

The Zune is, by and large, the best DAP for its price range ... evar. <3 /fanboy

Granted, my experience is rather limited in this field: the sum of my experience with its alternatives amounts to a Creative MuVo nine years ago - so perhaps my opinion isn't the greatest to buy by. But in case its a deal breaker for you, the Zune can only be synced from its eponymous client (without a little hacking); I personally love the software, but you may not.

Edit: Link removed, the software was identified as adware at 14.29% by [VirusTotal].


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## ToeClaws (Feb 4, 2009)

One major bad thing: They're made by Microsoft. 

I don't like them personally - too much fluff instead of simplicity.  I prefer the Sandisk Sansa series, which just got upgraded:

http://www.sansa.com/players/sansa_view

Or you can still find lots of the previous gen, which is what I have:

http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa...7?ie=UTF8&s=audio-video&qid=1233760116&sr=1-7

They're solid state, so no spinning hard drive that can up and die if it gets too big of a thump.  You can also expand them with micro SD cards if you need more storage (though for me, 8g is more than enough to store my favourite music out of my 40+ gigs of music).


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## X (Feb 4, 2009)

sandisks are great.
the memory is on the small side, but they are nearly indestructible from my experience, simple to use, relatively cheap, and durable.

i have had three so far, the rhapsody screwed my 4gig e200 up, and my 1gig sansa clip ran out of space. so i got a 4 gig connect, absolutely no problems.

none have physically broken from normal use, i have dropped and bumped them (unintentionaly) and they still work fine, the only problems are little nicks and scratches on the screen from dirt and rocks, but you can get a screen protector to prevent that. if you dont have more than 8 gigs of files then you should consider a sansa.

otherwise, a zune is an exelent choice.


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## Grimfang (Feb 4, 2009)

I guess I have to be the downer.

I used to love my zune. I was all about it, but over time.. the experience wore on me.

*The software*
I hope you have a very capable computer. The zune software library (itunes equivalent for the zune) is unintuitive, laggy, dysfunctional. It completely fails as a media player.







It's terrible.

*Z2K9*
December 31st, 2008, 12:01am -- Microsoft proves it fails at everything it tries to do. Please make a product that _works_!
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/01/01/zune.player.failures/
I was one of the zune owners whose zune didn't just _automatically fix itself_.

There are other issues like zunes randomly turning off from static shock (although Microsoft says it's due to corrupt song files..). I dunno.. I could rant on forever. In the end, Microsoft has made me into someone who prefers an Apple product over a Microsoft product. I wish I still had my ipod.

I recommend going with an ipod/iriver/creative player. Microsoft products are consistently poorly designed and under-tested.


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## ToeClaws (Feb 4, 2009)

Ahhh... software, I forgot to comment on that.  That's yet another thing I like about the SanDisk stuff because it's really not software dependant.  It'll work if you hook it up to Windows, MAC OS, Linux, or BSD.  The only thing it uses the software for are converting videos to it's native format, if you want to watch videos on it.

As for space: Do you really need more than 8 gigs?  Seriously - I know it's nice to just dump all your music onto a player, but how much of that do you _really_ listen to.  I have like 42 gigs of music, but I've so far only managed to find about 3 gigs worth that I listen too often enough to warrent putting on my player.

To put that into perspective, back when I was a teen and the only portable music option was a walkman, I had a tape in it, and maybe a tape or two in my backpack or coat pocket - I didn't carry around my entire cassette library just in case I wanted to hear something in it.


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## net-cat (Feb 4, 2009)

The Zunes themselves are alright. I haven't really seen anything special about them, though. (Yeah, they supposedly have WiFi and such, but that's only for trading songs that lock you out after a while. Or maybe they've changed this.)

My major complaint with them is that they are locked into their software even more than iPods are locked into iTunes. They don't even have a "disk mode" that you can use to hold files. (Well, they do. But it requires the Zune drivers and some registry hacking to make it work.)


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## Irreverent (Feb 4, 2009)

ToeClaws said:
			
		

> As for space: Do you really need more than 8 gigs?


:shock:

That's it, hand over your IT card buddy...... :razz:

Ok, 8gigs of music might be excessive, but the other 8gb of encrypted storage on my RIM (truth be told, the Blackberry 8830 is a decent, passable media player ) I use as a usb drive.  Actually, its probably closer to 4gb music, 12gb data.  Contracts, mops, diagrams, dr plans, all goes with me.  Cell phone, PDA, internet terminal and usb drive all in one.  The RIO software does suck, but only needs to be used if converting formats for video playback.

Back on topic, the Zune does have a couple of esoteric software bugs, some of which are described here http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/25.50.html#subj2.  Might not be an issue, I've never kept one longer than 4 years anyway.


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## MarcusWolf (Feb 4, 2009)

My main concern was durability. As of now I'm 3 for 4 broken Ipods and Im just getting sick of it.


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## X (Feb 4, 2009)

MarcusWolf said:


> My main concern was durability. As of now I'm 3 for 4 broken Ipods and Im just getting sick of it.



im not so sure about the zune's durability, but unless you throw a sandisk off of an office building/cliff/waterfall, into your pool,  or run it over with your car, its not going to break.


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## ToeClaws (Feb 4, 2009)

Irreverent said:


> :shock:
> 
> That's it, hand over your IT card buddy...... :razz:



Eeeep!  I mean in the music player!  I got 1.3 terrabytes elsewhere.   *yoinks back IT card*


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## lilEmber (Feb 4, 2009)

Well they can also play flash media, record audio, built in FM radio, larger screen, can sync wirelessly with your PC or another Zune, even the 360, and the software isn't needed, you can simply use Windows Media Player or drag and drop the audio files manually.


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## dietrc70 (Feb 4, 2009)

I bought one of the 80GB models for my father when it first came out a year ago.  He loves it, and since I set it up for him and convert movies he wants, I think it's terrific too.  If I needed one I would buy one for myself, definitely.

I actually use the Zune software as my media player, even though I don't have a Zune.  I'm sure there are better ones, but I think since version 2 it's been quite good.  You can turn off advanced graphics if you have a slower computer.

I agree with Raithah, I think it's among the best of the portable media players.

Two nice features are that it can play lossless WMP files (which is how I rip all CD's), saving conversion hassles, and it plays files converted for Ipod video MP4, for which I use Nero Recode.


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## Horrorshow (Feb 4, 2009)

Well, I got a 30gb Zune for under 100 dollars, so I like it. It's really cool because it holds songs /and/ plays them! Amazing!

In regards to the software for it, I don't use it to actually play music, rather than just adding more music onto my Zune.
But it's not like I use iTunes for music either, I just use it to add music to my iPod, so neither of these are really an issue.

But again, this is a first gen Zune, and have not been familiar with a Zune 2.


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## Irreverent (Feb 5, 2009)

NewfDraggie said:


> Well they can also play flash media, record audio, built in FM radio, larger screen, can sync wirelessly with your PC or another Zune, even the 360, and the software isn't needed, you can simply use Windows Media Player or drag and drop the audio files manually.



It that's true, i should take a closer look.


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