[kiwi]

nice packaging...

So I Finally DL'd some movies (Snowboard ones) to my Ipod video.. to watch in the gym. I fear the screen will be too small to really watch it..
I've watched movies on my PPC and PSP before and the screens are watchable.

How does the Zune compare?

I will be looking forward to an Ipod DAP with a larger screen.

b

[kiwi]

nice packaging...

So I Finally DL'd some movies (Snowboard ones) to my Ipod video.. to watch in the gym. I fear the screen will be too small to really watch it..
I've watched movies on my PPC and PSP before and the screens are watchable.

How does the Zune compare?

I will be looking forward to an Ipod DAP with a larger screen.

b

[Darius Wey]

Originally Posted by pmradio

BTW, Darius....repeat after me, ZuneThoughts....ZuneThoughts. I know many of us have lots of crossover in the ThoughtsMedia Empire.

I... um, uh... I'm going to edit my welcomes before my head explodes.

[Paul Martin]

Did a little editing myself. Keep up the good work, Darius! BTW, has the Zune made it there or is it just a US release at this point?

[gshocker]

Thanks for the great info.. This certainly gives anyone looking into a Zune a good article to check out. Much more detail than many others that I have seen so far. Keep up the good work.. So far I am loving mine.

[mrozema]

I set up the Zune software yesterday and attempted to add my music collection. I've got somewhere around 30GB of MP3s and it took at least a couple hours during the afternoon to add it all. That amount of time just seemed ridiculas. And it actually bogged down my system too.

[Aaron Roma]

I can clear up a little bit of the confusion concerning the Zune Tag. There are really two different names involved here. (Jason might have created a slight bit of confusion from his screenshots when he actually tried to use the same name, Kensai, for both.) First you have to give your Zune a name. This name can be whatever you want; it does not have to be unique. This is the name other Zune users will see when they search for nearby Zunes. This would be the equivalent of your computer's name, or the device name on your PocketPC. The other, unrelated name, is your Zune Tag. This is basically your account name for the Zune Marketplace. (Think of it as your login to Zune Marketplace.) This is where your Microsoft Points are stored. This Zune Tag is really synonymous with the Xbox Gamer Tags. So, yes, this name does have to be unique not only to Zune Marketplace, but also to Xbox Live. Again, consider the Zune Tag as your login or user id for the Zune Marketplace.

Does that make a little more sense?

Also, I plan on posting about my own first experience with the Zune very soon. (This weekend at the latest.) Fortunately, my experience went much better than Jason's.

[Paul Martin]

Originally Posted by Aaron Roma

Does that make a little more sense?

Nope, makes a LOT more sense! Thanks for clearing that up. I didn't realize there were 2 "names". Thanks!

[Darius Wey]

Originally Posted by pmradio

Did a little editing myself. Keep up the good work, Darius! BTW, has the Zune made it there or is it just a US release at this point?

Unfortunately, it's just a US release at this point.

[Darius Wey]

Originally Posted by Aaron Roma

Does that make a little more sense?

Good explanation. Although the question remains: can you keep your Zune offline (that is, set up a Zune without a Zune.net account / Passport)? I would have to think so, since there are bound to be Zune users without an internet connection.

[mcsouth]

Sounds like it was definitely not a Zen-like experience with your Zune? ( the install, at least?)

I must admit that this is discouraging - after all of the build-up to this launch, I really was expecting a better "initial experience". Given that you are a pretty experience person with this type of gadgetry, I hate to think of what the average consumer would think after the first five hours of their experience going this way. As someone else mentioned, this has the potential to drive some product returns due to dissatisfaction "out of the box".

This will probably sound like a dumb question, but humour me please, since I have never purchased a large capacity MP3 player in the past. Does the software assume that you will want your entire music collection installed? What does it pick as the default conversion rate? If you have 100GB of WMA lossless music, it is obviously going to have to downsample it - is the software going to give you any choices of bitrate, or ask you to choose which music to sync if it all can't fit?

Maybe sounds foolish, but I don't WANT all the music on my PC on my MP3 player - that is because it is the family jukebox - my music, my wife's music, my kid's music - it is all on my PC. I don't need my daughter's kiddy pop music, or my son's head-banging music. Why can't I choose what to sync?

I agree with you about the movies and pictures as well. I just checked My Pictures folder, and there are 8GB/4500+ photos there. I wouldn't need or want all of them there - I would want to select the pictures to sync, or maybe set up a dedicated folder to sync to, much like the PocketPC/ActiveSync software does. Video? 150+ files for over 18GB - again, I would not want all of them installed. Since most of them are in Divx format, maybe the Zune software would ignore them? (or maybe worse yet, it would attempt to reencode them all!)

Maybe this is the way all of the HD-based MP3 players act, but I personally don't care for it. Jason, I hate to say this, but this article has basically turned me off from being interested in the Zune to deciding that I maybe need to sit back and wait. I have enough frustration in my day to day job, without inflicting any more on myself with an ill-conceived install process.....