Zune Marketplace Song Playback Issue?

[Aaron Roma]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=2451.0' target='_blank'>http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=2451.0</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>&quot;When I have headphones plugged in, I'd say once out of every 5 songs the Zune starts skipping. Pausing the song in and out. Most of the time it fixes itself after say, about 15 seconds, and continues on with the song.&quot; </em></p><p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=2451.0">http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=2451.0</a><br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=2838.0">http://www.zunescene.com/forums/index.php?topic=2838.0</a></p><p>There have been some reports over at Zune Scene&nbsp;of users experience playback issues with songs downloaded from Zune Marketplace.&nbsp; Particularly, the issue is the songs appearing to &quot;skip&quot; at the beginning of playback.&nbsp; This issue appears to only affect songs download from the Marketplace, not import or ripped tracks.&nbsp; Personally I've not seen this, but I've done very little downloading from the Marketplace.&nbsp; Check out the above links for the relative posts.&nbsp; Have any of you experienced this skipping issue?</p>

[David Tucker]

Every single one of my tracks is a download and I haven't seen this myself.

[Dyvim]

4th generation iPods have a similar issue that occurs when playing back Apple lossless tracks. I think it's because decoding the lossless tracks is so CPU intensive that sometimes it can't keep up with the playback. Since this is reported only with DRM-d tracks on Zune, it may be a similar type of issue - the device is having trouble decrypting the DRM-d tracks fast enough for playback.

[-james-]

Everything on my Zune is subscription content (i.e., Zune Pass) from Zune Marketplace. About 1700 songs. Every few songs, the Zune will start skipping at the beginning of the song during hard drive activity. At this time, the UI also becomes unresponsive/sluggish. Restart the song and it plays fine. The Zune is stationary when this is happening and it's battery charge level doesn't seem to matter.

I've called Microsoft twice, and their only suggestion is to replace the hardware. Replacement should be here today.

The Zune is apparantly based on the Gigabeat S. There are also reports of that device skipping with PlaysForSure subscription content.

[gshocker]

I found the same issue with my unit. It turned out that my first unit had a few other problems so I returned it to the store and got another one. All of the problems vanised except for this one. It does seem to be an issue that has nothing to do with the file itself since I can replay the file and it doesn't have any studdering.

Hope this is something that Microsoft looks into quick as it can be anoying. I do not have this problem with songs that I have ripped so it must have something to do with the DRM.

[bbell37968]

I have only subscription content on my Zune (my primary reason for purchasing it over other choices), and I am experiencing the skipping issue described by others. It appears only to occur when playing from one song to another (as in a playlist or playing through songs on an album), not when I initially select a song. It happens at least 50% of the time in this scenario. I have perhaps 5GB of subscription music on the device. I have not yet contacted Microsoft, but I suspect this is not related to a hardware failure, and am quite concerned hearing of the experiences of others in terms of lack of resolution.

[mds32767]

Problems I have during the first several seconds on playback (all my music is from Marketplace)

-Track time display counter does not increment
-Unable to adjust volume
-Unable to advance track
-If screen is off it will not come back on
-Interface generally not responsive
-Tracks skip like crazy

Usage Pattern:

-I always listen to music on shuffle mode.
-Again, all music is from Zune Marketplace
-Happened when I had 1GB on disk; happens with it full.

And it chokes when wireless is turned on. Seen a lot of reports of that but not as important as standard playback problems.

Haven't done a legit test yet but my battery life seems to be way under 10 hr estimate. All shuffle and no wireless. Screen on for say 60 seconds per hour of playback.

[Krishiqua]

Glad to know I'm not the only one... my unit shows the same exact symptoms as listed. I'm relatively certain it must be addressable with a software update. Sounds like an issue where the unit is having difficulty managing the DRM verification and decryption at the same time that it starts decoding and playback.

[doug.nelson]

As I have almost filled my unit, the playback skipping issue had progressively freezing the input on songs for as much as up to thirty seconds and it would do it on almost every song. Again, as stated before, this is only with Marketplace songs and is related to DRM decoding on the player.

But I came across a post that seems to have solved the problem.

Tune the backlight to always be on. This appears to have solved the playback isssue. I can not imagine why on earth this should matter to player what so ever. I have set the intensity to low on the back light to save the battery.

Could it be that with the background light on, the CPU clock speed is increased? Many portable devices will lower the CPU clock rate to conserve power management.

My battery life has not been stellar before and I have just tried this so I do not know how severely this well impact the performance.

My next purchase is going to be an AC adapter to be sure.

Other than this playback issue, the next thing that burns me about this device is why can't I play the device when it is connected to my computer. What could the designers possibly be thinking with this move? With my iPod, I would connect to my PC at work, eject the drive since I did not have iTunes on that machine and then I could charge and listen to my iPod all day long. No need for an AC adapter there.

[tomeppy]

Setting the backlight to always be on has fixed the track skipping for me. As much as I hate the idea of this, I'd rather charge it more than listen to skips... Thanks for posting this solution.

[Jason Dunn]

I'm curious to know if the new 1.2 firmware update fixes any of these issues around skipping...

[djosephs]

I actually experienced this very same problem on my old Creative Vision:M with DRM'ed tracks. Maybe this is not a hardware issue but a software issue with the Janus files? I have not experienced this with my new Zune. Dave

[LPD]

Other than this playback issue, the next thing that burns me about this device is why can't I play the device when it is connected to my computer. What could the designers possibly be thinking with this move? With my iPod, I would connect to my PC at work, eject the drive since I did not have iTunes on that machine and then I could charge and listen to my iPod all day long. No need for an AC adapter there.

You can use the Zune while connected to the PC. Just don't run the Zune software. The software, if running, automatically connects to the player which blocks you out for obviously good reasons.

[Jason Dunn]

You can use the Zune while connected to the PC. Just don't run the Zune software.

I think he means playing music directly off the Zune while it's connected, using it as a portable, PC-connected jukebox...which I believe you can do with an iPod, because it shows up as a hard drive.

[eufreka]

my zune still skips on subscription music after the firmware update.

[Jason Dunn]

my zune still skips on subscription music after the firmware update.

All I can suggest is calling Microsoft's tech support line and complaining about it - perhaps if they get enough calls, they'll issue a general recall for affected Zunes or something similar...