Resuming... what does it play?

[SayanOri]

After reading a lot about the fabulous Microsoft Zune player, I have yet to ask all of you (as noob-ish as this may sound) what does the Zune play?

Am I limited to listening to songs that I bought over Microsoft's Marketplace(s) and/or iTunes or can I also use the MP3 songs downloaded from the internet from let's say free offers or ripped from CDs?

The tracks I, for instance, ripped from my Linkin Park Reanimation album, have no metadata since I ripped that with some fuzzy freeware program. Can I still upload that to my Zune and listen to it?

What about my own MP3 recordings? I have a small home studio, can I listen to those songs?

Basically, is there any difference from the iPod to the Zune when it comes to playing files? Because that DRM and whatnot discussion is really confusing. What formats are supported??



That's for the music, for the video I have pretty much the same questions. What formats are supported? Can I put my DVD-Rips which I flawlessly view on my PSP on my Zune too?

That's basically it.

Guidance and answers are very well appreciated.

Greetz,
SayanOri

[nook]

the Zune will play mp3, wma, wmv, and mpeg out of the box. You can find converters that will convert pretty much any other type of file to a file that will play on the Zune. Hope I was some help. :0)

[Jason Dunn]

Am I limited to listening to songs that I bought over Microsoft's Marketplace(s) and/or iTunes or can I also use the MP3 songs downloaded from the internet from let's say free offers or ripped from CDs?

You can listen to ANY MP3 or WMA file that you have, regardless of where it came from - the one limitation is that if the WMA file was downloaded from MSN Music, Napster, or a similar PlaysForSure service, it will not work. But if you ripped it from a CD into MP3 or WMA, it will play fine. The early "reporting" about the Zune claiming it would only play songs from Microsoft's music service was completely false.

The tracks I, for instance, ripped from my Linkin Park Reanimation album, have no metadata since I ripped that with some fuzzy freeware program. Can I still upload that to my Zune and listen to it?

You can put it on the Zune, but you'll have trouble finding it because without ANY metadata at all, the Zune software will have trouble. Metadata is really, really important. Here's what I suggest: use a free tool like MediaMonkey (http://www.mediamonkey.com) to batch-edit in Metadata, or use a commercial tool like FixTunes (http://www.fixtunes.com) to...fix your tunes. ;) You'll find that things work a LOT better when you have accurate metadata.

What about my own MP3 recordings? I have a small home studio, can I listen to those songs?

Absolutely - if you want to put big fat 320 kbps MP3s on there, they'll play without a problem.

Basically, is there any difference from the iPod to the Zune when it comes to playing files? Because that DRM and whatnot discussion is really confusing. What formats are supported??

The DRM is really mostly about the beaming of files to others - if you send someone an MP3 or WMA file, it will time out on their Zune after three days or three plays of the song.

That's for the music, for the video I have pretty much the same questions. What formats are supported? Can I put my DVD-Rips which I flawlessly view on my PSP on my Zune too?

WMV is the only format that's supported natively on the device. The Zune desktop software will convert H.264 and MPEG4 videos into WMV format, which should include the PSP files you have. Problem is, you'll see a drop in quality because the files are being re-encoded. You may or may not notice it though - some people are more sensitive to it than others.

Hope these answers helped! :D