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The Zune HD - A Modest Review - Page 2

post #16 of 25
10/5/09 at 3:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cupckae View Post
Now, I have a few cons. First, it's extremely difficult to convert videos to the three only supported codecs.
No matter how long I've fiddled with SUPER© or MediaCoder, no dice. It might just be my desktop.
Here's my settings for AVS Video Converter 6. Adjust the framerate/audio to what makes sense for your source. I spent a couple hours testing what the Zune could handle for the compression parameters and found a bitrate that's flawless Bluray transfers.

This is all under "To MP4".



Edit: I'm guessing that lmf22 would be interested to know that I tested these conversion settings on a Blu-ray rip of the AIR extended opening. Just guessing based on your avatar.
Edit 2: If you're getting errors, try single pass instead. Nth pass doesn't work all the time for whatever reason.
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post #17 of 25
12/8/09 at 2:43pm
Is there any love the for Zune HD? Seems like no one is picking up this thing.
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post #18 of 25
12/9/09 at 1:20am
I just got a good deal on a 32g original. I like the idea of it and it feels very polished.

my main annoyance with it is with playlist editing on the portable. coming from rockbox it feels rather rudimentary...all you can do is add to the end of the queue. it seems like some move/delete command should be there.. you can even hold-click on a playlist item and it will light up but.. alas. maybe in a future firmware.

I like that even though it's a touchscreen device it is still easy to pause, volume and trackseek from the pocket without looking at it.

I second cupckae's comments on the software. I used to be a rather staunch foobar user, but MS's tagline of "Browse music, not spreadsheets" has a lot of brain velcro. I thought I was going to hate going from a directory based to tag based system, but the software made it quite easy to organize everything... and I ended up converting the Genres tags of everything into a mock directory structure.

and wow, I hadn't turned on wireless yet, but.. browsing through artists in my collection and seeing bios and pictures pop up was great! Being able to click on links in the bios to hear related music and having it stream straight into my ears from this little thing was a whole new level. now I see what people were talking about with "the music experience"
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post #19 of 25
12/9/09 at 9:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lmf22 View Post
I found that the best converter to use is Format Factory. It's free and you can download it here: Format Factory - Free media file format converter
I use it to convert videos to Zune HD and iPod Touch with excellent results.

Use the following settings for the Zune HD (see screenshot below):
Hi, Thanks for your information of the format factory. Could you please tell us if the software need to pay for using?
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post #20 of 25
12/9/09 at 10:16pm
Format Factory is Free as Freeware.
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post #21 of 25
12/10/09 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by xantus View Post
I like that even though it's a touchscreen device it is still easy to pause, volume and trackseek from the pocket without looking at it.
How easy is this? It is one of the major things keeping me off the Zune HD at the moment (much like bad software is keeping me off the Sony X series).

Thanks!
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post #22 of 25
12/10/09 at 9:11pm
Well, if you can recognize the Zune HD shape inside your pocket and press the media button, taping the center of the screen would pause it, taping above or below the screen would increase or lower the volume and trackseek is done by tapping and holding the left or right side of the screen.

in short, the media control screen is divided in "hot zones"
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post #23 of 25
12/10/09 at 11:21pm
it can be simpler than that. if you swipe up or down vertically volume will increase or decrease. swiping crosswise will next/prev track. when you swipe you don't have to worry about the zones...it doesn't matter where you start or end, just the general direction of the movement.

you still have to tap center to pause but that isn't hard.
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post #24 of 25
12/11/09 at 12:01am
I assume it is as glove unfriendly as every other touch based system out there?
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post #25 of 25
12/11/09 at 3:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lamewing View Post
Loved the Zune HD, but returned it to order a Zune Originals and then kinda of lost interest...as I am trying to cut down on the number of players I have. I found the Zune HD keyboard to be very difficult to use due to my large fingertips. The keyboard on the iPhone is easier for me to use, but it still isn't something I like to use. Loved the Zune sound as well. If it has been $50.00 cheaper, I would have reordered it immediately.
I am not sure if you are still interested in the zune hd. But there was an update and the keyboard is a lot better in the horizontal(landscape) mode.

And yes the zune hd has been very glove unfriendly because of the touch screen.
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