Zune and it's 30 GB player?

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 1:29 am

Anyone have or try the Zune 30GB MP3 player? I've been looking at getting one of these for a while. More bang for your buck from what I have seen. However, I've read some interesting rumors and I'm wondering if they are in-fact, true or not.

What I have read, are rumors that:

1. The user can only use the device with the Zune software and music purchased from it's market, which is limited.

2. The Zune player and software have issues with randomly losing/deleting songs.

3. The Zune player randomly freezes/locks up.

4. It only runs for a few hours but claims to run for 14 and takes forever to charge.

5. Music syncing is a nightmare and the software slows down your PC to a crawl.

6. Annoying DRM software, but I don't know what it's exact effects are. Apparently it limits the wifi capabilities for music sharing and doesn't even reach far enough to make it useful.

I've also heard of a lot of people having trouble even installing the software.

I was wondering how many if any are true and to what extent are these rumors true?

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:21 am

Why buy drm'd music? Buy them as mp3's from Amazon.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:28 am

Yeah, but I'm worried about the player accepting music that isn't drm protected or created by ripping the music using the Zune software.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 8:19 am

Zune makes the iPod look good. Try Creative.

Krom · Post by **Krom** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 9:07 am

Or Sandisk, I'm pretty happy with my 8 GB flash based player, and they offer larger sizes now. Battery life is pretty solid, I've easily gotten 10-15 hours of playback. I've also seen some creative players that managed well over 20 hours of playback, and they all can work as a mass storage class of device, so you can just drag and drop non drmed MP3s (or WMA) on to them in bulk and it will just work.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 12:30 pm

Yup, that is the funny part about MP3 players. All you really want when you pick one up, is a 30GB flash drive, rigged to a small sound output, some buttons to control it and some software to manage it. That's it. I can see why you might want to have pictures on it, but why do you want to watch a movie on such a small screen when you could just carry a laptop with you? I'll probably look at creative or sandisk.

Testiculese · Post by **Testiculese** » Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:10 pm

Sandisk doesn't make 30gb yet (Or I would have recommended it). A buddy has a Creative Zen, and it interfaces with windows nicely (don't need that crap software, just plug it into the usb) and it doesn't care what you put on it. The one he has doesn't have a display, per se, it's only geared for mp3's..not pictures/movies. The newer models have the lcd screens. $200+ though.