We've been Zune'd (and happy about it ;)
Santa's assistant (who happens to be named "Dad" ) brought by son an 80GB Black Zune for Christmas... (Full Disclosure: I've been playing with it as much as he has. ;)
All in all, I'm going to get one for me and I'll likely get a flash based one for my wife. It's a very solid product...
Some randomly ordered thoughts;
Software
The software is both cool and not. It's really a v1 (The real v1 version was a Media Player interrogation implementation). It has a very cool sugar coating, but the insides are not quite there yet.
Some things are really easy to do and intuitive. But when you need to delve a little deeper, that's where its v1'ness shows. Like editing the music ID tags. The Find Album and Advanced Editing feature in Media Player 11 is something the Zune software really needs.
The Zune Marketplace integration is nice in how seamless it is. I actually like that it uses MS Points. This makes it easy to give my son Points he can use on the XBox or for the Zune. We haven't signed up for a Pass yet, but we likely will.
Besides the tag editing (which we can work around by using Media Player) I think my biggest issue is the Search feature. I swear I must be stupid cause it just doesn't seem to work for me. Yes, it finds stuff, but not what I want it to find.
Much of the Zune software is context based, what happens when you click on stuff depends on "where" you are, in the Collections, Device, Marketplace, etc. For example, if you click on Device and then the Settings link, you get Device related settings. Click on that same link when you are in the Collections, you get Collections related settings.
Okay, that's cool...
But why doesn't searching work the same way? When I am in Collections/Pictures and I search, that should mean I'm searching within my pictures, right? When you're in the Marketplace/Entertainment you'd think searching would let you search just there (and its subcategories)?
Nope and nope.
Search is not context based, nor does it seem to search anything but music. Not Pictures, videos, podcasts, etc. Nor does there seem to be a way to filter the search results (like with "pictures:" or something).
For example, it was having a problem sync'ing a couple pictures. And while it would give me the name of the pictures, it wasn't providing me a link to them. Okay, let's search on those file names. Nope. I don't want songs from the Marketplace named "stupidcat," I want a picture with a filename of... Sigh. I had to find them in Windows Explorer and THEN look at them.
It also kind of irks me that DVR-MS format is listed as supported, but isn't. I spent a few hours downloading and playing with a number of Zune converter products (HAVE to have those recorded Southpark's on it... ;)
[Note to Self: Convert videos to MP4 format. When converting to wmv, the Zune software will transcode it during the sync, thereby taking much longer. MP4's are just copied and also take much less room on the HD.]
Oh and it bugs me that the playlist formats between Media Player and Zune are different. Come on...
The Podcast support and integration is very cool. It's the definition of seamless. This feature and implementation is one that may finally draw me into the podcast world (about time isn't it? lol).
Again, great sugar coating but the insides need some work still. BUT I believe the inside goodness will come (at least I'm keeping my fingers crossed.) MS needs a major software update in the first or second quarter of 2008... or a steady stream of incremental updates, and not just bug/security fixes, but feature additions too, ala XBox Dashboard updates.
I know I sound down on it, but the software does work and does "just work, no muss, no fuss". It's cool looking and does a good job. Its multitasking/multithreading is VERY cool and smooth. It seems to be a solid foundation for future revisions. I just want more. ;)
What I really want is a supported API so I can build my own shell... :)
Hardware
Very nice. VERY nice. (Though I want a touch screen... I know, I know... please no iPod comments).
The wireless sync'ing is extremely cool.
The video is smooth and clean.
The UI is simple and easy. While there can be some improvements here too, but it feels more v2 than v1 (which in this case is accurate).
Battery life seems good (remember to turn off wireless if you're not using it though... )
Again, all in all, I like it and am happy with it and the value that I, and of course my son, have received. It's a keeper.
Posts
6 comments:
I too received the 80Gb Zune for Xmas. One reason I was excited was to download my Media Center content to it. I have been able to sync with the DVR-MS files on my Vista MCE. I haven't tried it on my XP MCE yet though. I did notice that it takes an EXTREMELY long time to do the conversion (like as long as the show is, so an hour for an hour long episode). What version MCE are you trying to sync with?
The DVR-MS files were recorded on a XP MCE.
That machine has since died, so I moved the HD with the files to another XP Pro machine, which is where we have the Zune software.
Now I did read something that Vista does have better DVR-MS support (such as in Movie Maker, where you can open the DVR-MS files and save as WMV... Which is one way MS suggests getting them over).
In any case, I guess I have to eat my words (at little anyway) about the lack of DVR-MS support. It appears there are some circumstances where it DOES work.
And the performance issue you mention is likely due to the transcoding of the video, the conversion from DVR-MS to the native MP4 format. Sync'ing a WMV file is also pretty slow...
Anyway, THANK YOU for taking the time comment. It helps a good bit actually and gives me a direction to look in...
Thanks again and Happy New Year...
I got a Zune 80 GB on launch day. And I have to say, the easiest way I've found to sync movies is to first convert them to WMV through Windows Movie Maker in Vista. I tried Movie Maker in XP but it likes to split every movie I try to import into a huge series of clips whereas Vista does it in one chunk, which is what I want. I have Vista Business so I don't have MCE but Movie Maker still works fine.
When you publish it, just choose DVD Widescreen Quality (3.0 Mbps) and it will work perfectly. Then the syncing should be relatively quick and the Zune software does not have to transcode anything. A program to convert into MP4 that is free and open-source is called WinFF. Just Live Search it and you'll get it. It can also convert to WMV but I wouldn't recommend using it for that since it only converts to WMV 8 with WMA 7 so it's not all that good but if you choose H.264 High Quality, it's excellent. This program is also useful for converting FLV files you may have lying around from YouTube videos. But even then, I would still recommend Movie Maker over WinFF in most cases because if you get to H.264, the Zune software will transcode it regardless. Anyways, my two cents.
Great that you are enjoying your Zune. Hopefully you can squeeze a bunch of music and videos onto it.
Nice... Thanks for that Eric.
Right now I'm using PQC Zune Video Converter (from PQDVD.com) and it's okay (but not free). Of the 4+ packages I tried, it seemed to provide the best output. It's not the fastest nor does it have batch support, but the output, once on the Zune seemed the best.
I'm keeping XP on that machine for a while longer, so I'll have to give WinFF a try now too... ;)
I also dig that WinFF is OSS. And since it's a wrapper for FFMpeg, I can write my own frontend to FFMPeg if I get the want too... muhahaha ;)
Thanks again for the tips... Happy New Year!
Just FYI: When you are in the collections tab, just type, NOT IN THE SEARCH BAR, just type while your looking at your collection and it'll filter search.
Nice... Thanks Michael.
Post a Comment