Zune screen orientation

[cinder]

I spoke to a rep from microsoft near christmas and he showed me how you could turn the zune 90 degrees any direction and the picture/video would follow. He was playing a bicycling or skateboarding video. He pointed this out as a very NICE option that no other player had. Well I just got a Zune for an early Bday gift and nothing, pictures or videos will turn they are fixed in landscape mode. Is there a setting I am missing somewhere because I have looked everywhere and even
called Zune tech support and they ended up saying they weren't sure and told me I should exchange it in store it must be a hardware issue... is this correct?

Sure would appreciate any feedback. I have only had it a few days so I can easily return it but if its something I am missing then exchanging it won't help me.

Thanks :)

[Darius Wey]

I spoke to a rep from microsoft near christmas and he showed me how you could turn the zune 90 degrees any direction and the picture/video would follow. He was playing a bicycling or skateboarding video. He pointed this out as a very NICE option that no other player had.

You saw this in the flesh? This is the sort of functionality you'd see offered by an integrated sensor - something the Zune doesn't have. Unfortunately, pictures on the Zune are always stuck in landscape mode, and it'll stay that way until Microsoft releases a firmware update that allows the user to switch modes via the menu.

[NPrtmn4evr]

That's very interesting. Did he show you the image changing orientation? Is it possible that you misunderstood him and you just had to move the Zune 90 degrees to watch a video in landscape mode?

Something like what you're talking about would require an accelerometer or similar device, which I'm pretty sure the Zune doesn't have.

[cinder]

Yes my husband and I are a 100% positive and PISSED off!!!! Obviously this is something they used to promote more sales as he made an extra effort to point this out. He had a video running and the picture flipped as the Zune was moved from landscape to horizontal kind of like a floating/rotating picture!! We have been trying to reach microsoft and are trying to get this guys name to find out if they deliberately used this to promote sales or perhaps they were/are going to introduce it into their firmware. I mean I had looked into IPods for awhile but wasn't all that impressed, even without this "trick" or "manipulation" (whichever you would like to call it) I probably would've purchased the Zune anyway for its differences in design and the idea of always being able to DL current updates and its other features.

If anyone hears anything more about this I sure would appreciate the feedback.

[NPrtmn4evr]

Yes my husband and I are a 100% positive and PISSED off!!!! Obviously this is something they used to promote more sales as he made an extra effort to point this out. He had a video running and the picture flipped as the Zune was moved from landscape to horizontal kind of like a floating/rotating picture!! We have been trying to reach microsoft and are trying to get this guys name to find out if they deliberately used this to promote sales or perhaps they were/are going to introduce it into their firmware. I mean I had looked into IPods for awhile but wasn't all that impressed, even without this "trick" or "manipulation" (whichever you would like to call it) I probably would've purchased the Zune anyway for its differences in design and the idea of always being able to DL current updates and its other features.

If anyone hears anything more about this I sure would appreciate the feedback.

Well now that's really interesting. Never in my researching the Zune did I hear this feature mentioned, but clearly it was demoed to you. I wonder if maybe it was a planned feature that was scrapped. Did you see this beofre or after the Zune's release (Nov. 14)? I doubt it would be a future add on as the Zune does not have an accelerometer -or anything else- to detect the Zune's orientation (at least that I know of, I could be wrong though).

[kat.0231]

I remember hearing something similar before the device was released, but from everything I have seen and read, plus my own experience with my Zune, this is not a feature on the device. It would be nice to have a menu option to rotate the image though. Oh well, I will have to rotate my Images before I load them, it in only an extra minute or two, so no worries!