[New Toy] Zune 80GB

[Sazar]

It's pretty easy Tuffgong.

I am going to give you the Vista way of doing it, the XP way is similar but you'll have to refer to instructions from the link I provided.

Anyways, click on Import, select the file you wish to import and it will populate for you. Drag that file into the strip at the bottom where the marker will have appeared.

Now, go to File and select Publish.

I select "save to computer" or whatever the first option is, name my file with the second window and on the third window you will have the option of selecting the format you wish to publish. So far I have been using the portable setting, think the second to last one on the drop-down, which by default converts and saves as a 320x240 file. Hot Fuzz is still displaying in the right format and Office Space looks great.

When I get home tonight, I am going to see what happens when I put a higher resolution file onto here

 

[Tuffgong4]

thanks a ton Sazar...let me know how the higher resolution works out!!!

 

[Sazar]

I highly recommend using the 640x480 setting rather than the lower 320x240. While this leaves a larger file, it also gives you proper audio quality and no jaggies and good video bit-rate. The lower level loses too much I found

It also takes a hell of a lot longer so perhaps do it when you are not using your computer for about an hour or so.

If I find any other methods, I will let you know.

 

[Tuffgong4]

I highly recommend using the 640x480 setting rather than the lower 320x240. While this leaves a larger file, it also gives you proper audio quality and no jaggies and good video bit-rate. The lower level loses too much I found

It also takes a hell of a lot longer so perhaps do it when you are not using your computer for about an hour or so.

If I find any other methods, I will let you know.

awesome. I really wanted to do a larger resolution. I don't mind the time it takes, when I'm at work I log in to my pc at home and let it run and run!!

I also like the fact my computer at home is an encoding beast and everything is usually pretty quick.

Thanks again Sazar

 

[Tuffgong4]

to add...what about the regular windows media encoder?

 

[Sazar]

I haven't tried that.

I was looking for a way to rip stuff in a way my player would recognize

I have finally got all my album art updated and I LOVE the way this thing organizes and just allows me to flick through songs/movies and the menu's.

The touchpad flicks are BRILLIANT

I also uploaded some pictures. All in all, I have True Lies, Hot Fuzz, Pablo Francisco's OUCH show and Office Space on the player plus about 1700 songs and I have used about 17GB. I am going to continue ripping so I can have all my LOTR movies and most of my comedies on here. I can't go to risque since I use the player mainly at work.

Eddie Izzard's shows should all be on there by the end of the week.

I think I might have to bite the bullet and grab be a quad-core just for help with encoding. The X2 4400+ is a great processor but dang... I can't afford to be limited in my background activities while encoding videos

Tuff, do you have a Zune account setup? I might set one up tonight, I'll see if I can set you up as a social pal

Also, do you have any recommendations for pod-casts?

Finally, do you have any recommendations for the FM modulators? I can't find one that works properly

 

[Tuffgong4]

I don't remember if I set up a zune account yet. I thought I remember having to use some really weird (non-Tuffgong name for my zune account if I did)

Podcasts, I have no recommendations for that, never found any I actually liked.

I just purchased a belkin tunecast from Buy.com while it was on sale for 7.99. I'm not sure if the deal is still on but I just bought it and it just shipped in snail mail. (http://www.dealigg.com/story-Belkin-F8V367-TuneCast-Mobile-FM-Transmitter)


also what did you do to update all the album art?

 

[Sazar]

While your music is in your COLLECTION, right-click and "update album art" and then select any pictures you may have downloaded from online.

 

[Tuffgong4]

any particular place to get those?

 

[Sazar]

Google images is your friend

 

[falconguard]

Hey guys try this for some podcasts, pretty good stuff http://twit.tv/

 

[Electronic Punk]

Google images is your friend

Exactly what I do with some of my obscure music and WMP11

 

[Tuffgong4]

EP + Saz = thank you!

 

[Sazar]

Yah

NP.

The other thing you can do is have your music in wmp11 first and let wmp11 do a complete and thorough search for music album cover-art and it will do it for you and get some additional data if it's not already present.

Zune's software also does a great job but I would do this first, drop the music in the zune tool and get the additional data and THEN fill in the blanks

Shouldn't take too long.

 

[Aprox]

Wow, I have to say after reading through this thread I'm tempted to get a Zune now. I have been in the market of looking for a new player for a while now, and I was kinda waiting to see what Creative might come out with soon... but from the looks of things, nothing special. The Zune sounds pretty cool, I'm not so sold on the design and look of the unit and the UI but I'm sure I can get over it.

How would you say the Audio quality is? Does it have a full EQ?

 

[Sazar]

It doesn't have an EQ but I have noticed no issues with the audio quality or a need for one. The ommission of the EQ is probably the biggest issue I potentially would have had if not for the trueness of the quality output. The headphones are also really high quality and I am happy with it.

I am hoping that there can be a software EQ added later but I don't miss it particularly. Audio fidelity is excellent.

The screen is the biggest selling feature. The glass surface and the quality of the output is brilliant. The software is pretty good as well.

The design is pretty nifty as well. If you've used a Classic or older iPod, this is head and shoulders above it. The iPod touch has too small a memory capacity.

I think you really can't go wrong with this player

 

[Tuffgong4]

Sound quality is amazing on my zune. I'm still fighting the mp4 fight. My sister is as non tech as they come and I'm testing converting videos with proper aspect ratios to mp4 so that my sister can use them on her ipod touch, which supports the same video types as the zune but I'm coming up short...

 

[Sazar]

A quick pictures of my Zune collection being played by the Zune player

Fullscreen view. The playlist and control buttons fade out after a few seconds so it's just a really cool representation of the songs I have



The normal view.



The typical view of where I can add or remove items and sync.



Pretty nifty application even though I think it could be more fully-featured and allow for video conversions. Still, I love how low-profile it is and how little memory it uses

 

[Tuffgong4]

the belkin tunecast I linked to earlier works great. Only problem is I live in Chicago, so unless I'm always parked by the building I live in, I can't use it (there is no radio frequency that works and sprint cell phone service sucks as well. There are 4 channels you can use 88.1 through .7 I think but all of them catch a frequency in the chicagoland area.

 

[Tuffgong4]

to add how do you get rid of the pre-loaded content?