Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[ILikePie]

I'm looking to buy a high quality media player, and MS's Zune and Zune Pass look like something I could use. Before I purchase it, I'd like to know a few things.

A. What do you guys think of the Zune HD? (Please don't take this to the iPod touch vs Zune place)

B. Does the Zune marketplace work outside the US and Canada, can you download music, videos or both?

Hopefully there are enough zuners out there to answer my questions.

[Zironic]

I have a Zune HD, but I don't subscribe to the zune pass. The main issue I find is the lack of apps that make an iphone or itouch so useful. Microsoft basically has no one developing them on their end and the amount of independent developers is low.

[Jay]

The main issue I find is the lack of apps that make an iphone or itouch so useful.

He's looking for a high quality media player.
The apps of the iPod Touch are a gimmick designed to draw attention away from the TERRIBLE audio quality.
(This is based on actual market research.  With the proper input track, there are entire instruments missing on the iPod.)

If you care about your music, you go Zune.

Let's get away from the iPod debate though.
I can't comment on how the marketplace works outside of the US, since I obviously live in the US.
I can say that my 32gb ZHD was well worth it.
The OLED display is just incredible.

[Zironic]

The music quality is superb, and I even have some nice sony head phones (although the zune HD's head phones are quite nice). The reason I mention the apps is there are some incredibly useful ones out there (like hand held 3D graphing) that the zune is completely capable of doing, but it lacks that core developer group.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I have an old 30gb Zune, and it has served me well. It's built like a breeze-block and the sound is pretty good.

[Jay]

old 30gb Zune.......It's built like a breeze-block

Yeah, the first generation was blocky.  I have one as well.
The HD is tiny comparatively.

[ILikePie]

The main issue I find is the lack of apps that make an iphone or itouch so useful.

I'm not looking for a GPS, a calculator, maps, or street fighter iv, just M&Ms (That's music and movies).

So, anyone of you Zune HD owners lives in Europe or has tested the marketplace out of the US?

[ILikePie]

*Ahh-Chooooo*

[Jay]

So, anyone of you Zune HD owners lives in Europe or has tested the marketplace out of the US?

Neither personally, but they do have a webpage for that.
It'd seem that, no, it does not work outside of the US.

If you don't live in the US, well, if you have your own way of obtaining the music or movies you desire, the Zune is still the best option...

[Blacken]

The apps of the iPod Touch are a gimmick designed to draw attention away from the TERRIBLE audio quality.
(This is based on actual market research.  With the proper input track, there are entire instruments missing on the iPod.)

Mythical. I've done A/B tests with knowledgeable listeners (music production enthusiasts) and randoms (people I know), and there's no significant difference between the iPod Touch, the iPod Classic, an iPod Mini I had lying around from their first release, and the sound device on an Intel Centrino laptop board.

If you care about your music, you go Zune.

If you care about your music in the feeble sad audiophile sense, you don't buy an MP3 player at all, because--GASP--THEY DON'T DO FLAC OMGOMGOMG.

If you understand that reproduction will not be perfect, but can be pretty good, you'll buy whatever happens to be reasonably priced at a given time.




The Zune HD is a decent media player. It lacks applications, and it's being supplanted by Windows Phone 7 (misleading; it may or may not be installed on phone devices), but for purely media playing, it's alright. It's not the second coming like the squeeing fanboy upthread would have you believe, but it is a solid grade B/B+ media player. The problem with it is that it doesn't really excel anywhere. From a technical/product perspective, regardless of what you want, there are better choices that better fulfill that need on the market.

If I'm just playing music, I want more space than Flash provides. The iPod Classic has something like 160GB of space, compared to 32GB for the common big-name Flash players. If I want applications, the iPod Touch is the only real solution, because it wins on actually having applications. If you only need 8GB or so, are cost-conscious, and don't care about applications, I might look into the Sandisk line - I have an e250 flash player that does nicely and it only ran me about $75, with a microSDHC card to store more music.

In any case, licensing music off of Microsoft's infrastructure is kind of dumb. They only provide WMA, and it's time-bombed to boot. No thank you; I want music to work wherever I take it. Amazon sells only MP3s (my preferred vendor) and iTunes has the option to seamlessly convert.

[Jay]

In any case, licensing music off of Microsoft's infrastructure is kind of dumb. They only provide WMA, and it's time-bombed to boot

My MP3s off the Zune marketplace beg to differ.

As for the sound tests, you're testing several devices with the same problem against an inferior quality soundchip on a laptop.
Put a Zune and an actual soundcard in your tests, and I'll start to care.

[ILikePie]

Neither personally, but they do have a webpage for that.
It'd seem that, no, it does not work outside of the US.

Well that sucks. Oh Bill... If we ever meet it ain't gonna be pretty.

Ma says hatred ain't good for you, so I'll just put it all aside for now. Do you guys know of a good media player that plays my m&ms?