Zune HD

[Tessian]

I recently moved where now I have almost an hour commute to work (long story). I am looking for something to help pass the time, originally I was looking at an HD Radio which has interested me (just in having more choices) which led me to look at a Zune HD. It looks good, maybe not as good as an ipod but I'm not just looking for an MP3 player and the Zune Pass is interesting too and the price isn't bad ($165 on Amazon for 16GB).

Anyone else have one or know someone who does? I'd be using it mostly in the car (and my car has an AUX jack so no worry about using an FM transmitter).

[SineSwiper]

Are you looking for a video player or just a music player? If the latter, you can just get any average MP3 player and install Rockbox on it. It was amazing simple to install and works for quite a few players. It's like DD-WRT for MP3 players, except it doesn't require heavy instructions to install. I have one for my son's MP3 player (used to be a Gigabeat) and it works great.

Actually, it looks like there is a video plugin. Not bad for turning $50 of hardware into a good video/audio player.

[Tessian]

I'm mostly looking for a music player, but I don't think I want to be stuck with only the music I have which is why I liked the HD Radio on there. My music collection today is extremely small, I often prefer radio but I'm looking into listening to some podcasts with it now too.

[SineSwiper]

Portable radio is hard to come by unless you're talking about a phone. You can't really jack into wireless when you're traveling. And if you're talking about a phone, you could probably get some good software on a HTC Hero or something. But, that depends on if you want to spend the bucks on the unlimited data plans and all of that.

As far as HD radio, that might be all well and good if you like your local stations, but I personally fucking hate people playing the same shitty songs 100 times a day. Sirius is pretty good, though I actually wish there was more variety. (Of course, I listen to a lot of electronica, and there's only about 2 decent electronica stations on Sirius/XM.) It would be really cool to have Last.fm in my car, but the technology isn't there yet (or at least all of the pieces and parts aren't there yet).

Like I said, save some money and just get a cheap MP3 player with Rockbox. I grab my music from Amie Street and LegalSounds, though I'm going to also take a look at 7digital and BLEEP. (I think I still have a subscription to Magnatune, though you really have to listen and dig around for good music, as it's totally independent artists.)

[Tessian]

I installed Rockbox on my old 2GB Sansa to try it out... I regret it already. It's cool all they can do with it (interesting to play Doom on a tiny Sansa) but in my opinion they've made it way too complex now. I was much happier with the original sansa software, it was simpler and did everything I needed. Appreciate the suggestion, but I'm gonna pass on Rockbox... hopefully I can uninstall it.

[SineSwiper]

Sorry to hear that. I installed it on a Gigabeat mainly because the original software had you do some bullshit with Windows Media player to install files onto the player. (You had to have your music in the WMP library, and then transfer it with their function.) Rockbox allowed me to just transfer over files to a folder.

I never tried it with your particular player, but it didn't seem too complex to deal with. Sure, there were complexities in the advanced settings, which was pretty cool, but overall operation seemed to work fine with me. I created a global playlist, set it to random, and it works. Complete with album display and next song title.

[Tessian]

Luckily it was totally painless to uninstall, but yeah just in my opinion it was trying to do too many things at once and that made the core things I wanted to do get hidden amongst all the features. That and the text was too freakin small. Sansa's builtin firmware works fine for what I need it for but it's still cool to mess with.

On the bright side you getting me to at least try Rockbox got me to realize my old Sansa is still perfectly usable, even if it only has 2GB of space (with all my music I still have 500MB free) so I think I'll mess with this a bit more before I look into upgrading.

[SineSwiper]

LOL, okay. I think it may vary per player. After all, if you have a really small screen, I could see that the text might be unreadable. One of these, right? Yeah, that is a small screen.

If you only have 2GB of music, it sounds like you need to bulk up your collection. There's a lot of good sites out there. Amie Street is geared towards lesser known and indie titles, since its price model is based on how popular the song/album is. You can get stuff for as little as $2-3 an album, or the full $.99/song price. I also mentioned Magnatune, 7digital, BLEEP. LegalSounds is the only Russian site I go to. There are others, but LS has a downloader, and really (too) cheap prices.

I usually search on Amie Street first, and if the price is too high (or it's not there), I go to LegalSounds. Though, I just found the 7digital/BLEEP sites, so I might add that to my search list, so that I can make an effort to pay the artist. (Frankly, I wish I could just bypass the RIAA bullshit and pay the artist directly.)

[Tessian]

Actually it's the e200 series, this one: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Pla ... 659&sr=1-1 but my model's a bit older. Screen's pretty small but not horribly so.

[Shellie]

My Hero has Pandora and Last.fm on it, plus the 8GB SD card for my own MP3s. It plug's into my car's AUX(for Pandora or Last.fm) or USB port (and reads like a hard drive).

I love Android.

[bovine]

I was thinking about getting a Zune HD, but they didn't sell them in Canada at the time (don't even know if they do now). I got an ipod touch and HIGHLY recommend it. It is a music (and video, but watching a video on such a small device is no fun) device that has access to the apple app store. You can play plants vs. zombies on it.

The big downside is that you have to deal with itunes, which is a bit of a motherfucker.

[Tessian]

Yeah I started using Zune software at least and I'm really liking it. Introduced me to the "We're Alive" zombie radio drama show that I'm loving on my commute so far. I refuse to jump on the ipod band wagon, mostly because I don't want to get locked into itunes (also cause Zune is cheaper than touch).

I may get a Zune HD in a month or two, but for now my 2GB Sansa is doing well enough for me... just gotta trade out podcasts daily.

[SineSwiper]

What's the medium of the radio show? MP3?

[Tessian]

What's the medium of the radio show? MP3?

Yup. It's one of the most subsribed podcasts on Zune, also found here: http://www.zombiepodcast.com. Surprising production values for a free podcast

[SineSwiper]

Seems like you can use any MP3 player for that then. You're basically just looking for a cheap portable HD that plays music.

[Tessian]

I'm revisiting getting a new MP3 player. Originally with this thread I ended up just making use out of my little 2GB Sansa but at this point I want to use it more and more and it just doesn't have the space. I want to go with 16-32GB so that really only leaves the Touch vs Zune HD and I'm torn.

Touch
+Apps Apps Apps
+Bluetooth audio
+Ease of use / UI
-Forced to use iTunes
-More expensive than Zune
-iTunes

Zune HD
+Doesn't use iTunes, Zune software is nice and don't even need to use it
+Cheaper than touch
+HD Radio
-Few apps / games since it's all free
-Heard that simple things like changing volume and switching tracks is not easy (push this button, slide finger here, press there)
-Future of Zune HD is questionable at best

I'm leaning towards the touch but god damn I hate iTunes so much and the thought of being forced to use it and only it just pisses me off. Most reviews seem to indicate though if you're looking for an MP3 player then the Zune is better, but if you want a multifunction device go with the Touch.

[Louis]

I recently purchased an iPhone (pretty much an iTouch). I have to say its pretty damn awesome despite the limitations imposed by Apple. It is a device that works and works well (except for GMail synching for some reason; it has a problem with loading new messages correctly sometimes, but it could be a GMail issue). I do, however, wish that it was a more open platform that I could customize if I had the time to put into it. I don't have much time to tinker with stuff lately, but the iOS interface works very well in its stock form.

And for listening to music, the Pandora app is awesome. I'm not sure that Zune has Pandora capability.

[Flip]

I got the GF a touch for christmas last year and while im glad i dont have to use it (because i hate itunes, too) it is a pretty cool device for the games and quick web surfing.

I load songs onto my blackberry via Rhapsody for my daily metro/subway rides.

[Shrinweck]

I have a Touch and I like the way it works. I do actually like iTunes, though, and don't mind being forced to use it since it's already my primary tool for listening to music. My only complaint about iTunes is they force you to install Quicktime with it which is utterly fucking useless, although they have improved it a lot for Windows... It's still shitty.

The best part about it is that I've canceled the Internet service on my phone because I can just access wireless access points that are all over the place if I need to do some on the fly web surfing.

[Kupek]

Do you hate iTunes because of how it performs on Windows, or is there something about the application itself?

[SineSwiper]

Touch
...
Zune HD
...

Why are these the only two options? Hell, every smartphone has good MP3 playing capability. Get an Evo and download the best app for playing music: whichever one you choose.

Don't have cell phone data plan? Get one anyway. It's worth being able to do whatever you want on your phone besides just calling people.

And again, I really don't see what you didn't like with Rockbox. Granted, it's solely a MP3 player (with some video capabilities, I believe), so you're not going to get extra apps, but it's good and cheap.

I guess what I'm saying is to either go full bore and get a smartphone, or go on the cheap and get something like Rockbox.

[bovine]

Do you hate iTunes because of how it performs on Windows, or is there something about the application itself?

I don't know who you are directing this to, so I will pretend it is me for some reason. I hate itunes because it performs poorly, you have to manually enter all new music, when the ID3 tags don't perfectly match up you will find multiple entries for the same albums and artists but for different songs, plays very limited music and video files, putting music on ipods is harder than it should be, and genius don't know jack about anything. All genius knows is how to put the music I do not want back on my ipod to ruin my shuffle challenge (when you put your device on shuffle and DO NOT SKIP ANYTHING). Oh! and, you can easily add the same file multiple times, having the same file listed more than once, and the process of getting rid of the copies is strange. There is an option to see all the copies. Why isn't there one to delete all of the copies?

[Tessian]

Kupek -- Aside from Bovine's complaints above I mostly simply hate the fact that I'm forced to use it. I have no alternative to loading music onto the ipod

Sine -- I have a phone, a blackberry from work. Your points would be valid if I actually owned my own phone or paid for service. Since I don't need to I certainly am not paying for one just as an MP3 player. Once you take phones out of the loop and you want more than 8GB it is pretty much only Zune or Touch.

I think I finally leaned enough to one side and decided I'd go with a Touch, unfortunately it seems everyone expects them to release a new ipod touch next month so I'll have to wait :\

[Shrinweck]

Well iTunes works so well with the iPod interface that it really isn't much of a negative any more.. I remember on my first iPod that I had some setting switched on and it formatted my iPod for some reason. And it was right after I had entrusted it with my entire music library and had deleted a great deal of my music from my desktop hard drives for more free space. Yes I realize how stupid that was. Luckily it was mostly the music library I had established in middle school and high school.

No big loss there.

As for using smart phones as your MP3 player... they don't have audio jacks. You have to use whatever peripherals for personal audio they want to sell you. And they're shit. Even if they aren't shit they aren't compatible with anything else. I'm going to pass on using these until a phone developer pulls their head out of their ass. Oh, wait, they did, it's the iPhone! Which... I have little interest in buying. I'm not paying more for worse service (word of mouth from friends, both of my parents technically are employed by at&t, and knowing the area I live in has the best coverage with the provider I use) or access to the Internet with wireless access points being so easy to find. As for the actual product... if I'm hoofing it around in my pocket all day I want it to be less fragile without me having to pay further out the ass for added protection that should clearly be included with the product.

[Shellie]

My HTC Hero has an audio jack..I'm pretty sure most smart phones do. I also plug my phone into my car's USB port and it reads it like a thumbdrive (yes, my car has a usb port lol). I also like not having to use ANY software to put music on my phone. Plug it into my computer mount it as a drive and copy and paste. There are various music apps that download album art, etc. Also no need to buy special cables to connect to things. Any plain ol mini USB to charge it or connect to PC.

Before my phone, I used my Gigabeat for music. 40G for 99 bucks several years ago. It's now Sebastian's MP3 player lol

EDIT: Throw Pandora and Last.fm apps into the mix and I have free music in my car.

[Shrinweck]

My old HTC... model (whoops forgot which one) didn't have one and the few people with them I haven't seen one and I've tended to inquire. I was just talking about audio peripherals for connections being annoying.

[Lox]

My HTC Hero has an audio jack..I'm pretty sure most smart phones do. I also plug my phone into my car's USB port and it reads it like a thumbdrive (yes, my car has a usb port lol). I also like not having to use ANY software to put music on my phone. Plug it into my computer mount it as a drive and copy and paste. There are various music apps that download album art, etc. Also no need to buy special cables to connect to things. Any plain ol mini USB to charge it or connect to PC.

Before my phone, I used my Gigabeat for music. 40G for 99 bucks several years ago. It's now Sebastian's MP3 player lol

EDIT: Throw Pandora and Last.fm apps into the mix and I have free music in my car.

Yeah, I love plugging my Droid into the Auxiliary jack in my car and listening to Pandora. My friend doesn't even touch his iPod anymore because he put all of his music onto his Droid.

[SineSwiper]

Sine -- I have a phone, a blackberry from work. Your points would be valid if I actually owned my own phone or paid for service. Since I don't need to I certainly am not paying for one just as an MP3 player. Once you take phones out of the loop and you want more than 8GB it is pretty much only Zune or Touch.

Really? Do a search on any MP3 player out there. Zune and Touch are the most popular ones because they are made by MS and Apple.

[Tessian]

Examples? The only brands I hear about with MP3 players now is Apple, MS, and Sansa. Sansa is 8GB and under. Creative used to be decent but their latest models are getting smacked in reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/el ... =UTF8&pg=1