MOSA500
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2007
- Posts
- 13
- Likes
- 0
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I can tell the difference on Audio Technica ATH-A500s that aren't even $100 shipped from audiocubes.
Besides, LAME 3.97 -vbr-new -v 0 is the new standard for MP3 encoding
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Close doesn't count. Lots of albums besides classical require gapless playback. And not just Pink Floyd either.
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Are you implying that the Zune sounds good out of the headphone out? I've heard both the 80GB iPod and Zune out of the headphone jacks, and to me, the Zune sounds like mud. It honestly seems like all of the players the anti-Apple crowd latches on to sound like mud. Bloated bass, muddy mids, muffled highs. What is it about people like bad colored sound?
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iPod gives more detailed contact information than most cellphones. iPod can sync Outlook and Address Book contacts and have everything from multiple addresses (not just email, but home and business addresses) to "notes" about the person. Most cellphones that are not "smart phones" don't do that.
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Why should I wait? iPod went to 60GB nearly 3 years ago. 40GB before that.
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Registry? Oh, sorry, some of us upgraded passed Windows
iPod doesn't require any hacking and is guaranteed to work as UMS on any computer it is connected to.
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The times I've played with it, the little "Effects" that MS tried to add in were too choppy to be impressive. It doesn't look good if everything chop chop chops along and doesn't go smoothly.
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Considering that most people in the world, and roughly 4 out of 5 people in the US still own SDTVs, the iPod's video output to a TV looks great. iPod can handle 640x480 at up to 2Mbps H.264 video. On an SDTV you won't be able to tell the difference between that quality of video and the DVD you used to encode it.
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For a video encode? Try again. WMV encoder is extremely slow, even though the Zune is limited to VHS quality video.
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Who wants to carry multiple devices? Especially when the DS and PSP are too large to be carried when you're already carrying an MP3 player + headphones + cellphone + wallet + whatever else you need. Most adults don't have time for games when they're away from home anyway. So when you're standing in line at the Post Office, a quick game of Bejeweled, Tetris, or Pac-Man will help things go by faster.
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iPod has multiple clocks. With one click I can check the time all over the world. I can see that its still too early to call my friend in Paris, but its the right time to see how my friend in Manilla is doing.
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And considering it's Microsoft, whatever Podcasting support they include (if they do at all, we know how long it takes MS to implement features people want.. look how long tabbed browsing in IE took) won't be as good as iTunes.
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The Zune UI has a lot in common with Vista. Meaning they tried to make it look nice, but really half-assed it. In the end it comes out choppy and is more disappointing and impressive.
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It feels like plastic and kind of looks like a plastic toy.
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With the same 320x240 resolution the iPod uses (though the iPod can output DVD quality video through S-Video) stretched to a 16x9 aspect ratio.
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Didn't have a Zune when they were first released, eh? At least the software installs now without having to hack/create .dll files.
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Proof? Zune sounds like mud to me. But thats just a matter of opinion.
Where is some hardcore evidence that the Zune sounds better?
Because so far it seems to me that the anti-iPod crowd is just latching on to yet another iPod "killer". Though the anti-iPod market seems to be shrinking, as the Zune is selling terribly.
What kind of name is "Zune" anyway?
Its funny how many people I've come across that say "what the **** is a Zune!?" You tell them and they say "who was stupid enough to call it that?"
Anyway, I'll give some more reasons as to why the Zune isn't as good as the iPod.
Most importantly, the Zune is not cross-platform. It locks you into Windows XP and Vista. You have absolutely no choice but to run either one of those OSes if you want to use a Zune. You can't upgrade to Mac OS X or switch to Linux.
The iPod has countless pieces of software across multiple platforms that will let you use it.
UMS is very important. I have a Mac and a PC and my 80GB iPod lets me take data between both platforms easier than any other way.
The 80GB iPod also allows you to use it as a nice complete multimedia jukebox. For video, you can use 1.5Mbps H.264 and it will be DVD quality on all SDTVs and look relatively good on smaller HDTVs. For audio you can use LAME 3.97 --vbr-new -v 0 or 256kbps VBR AAC. Using those two codecs, you'll be able to store a few thousand songs as well as 40 or so full length movies on an 80GB iPod and still have room to spare.
The battery life on the iPod is also much better than the Zune. When I tested my iPod just a couple of weeks ago, I was able to get 14.5 hours of battery life out of the iPod while playing video. I optimized the video for the iPod screen. Video was generally 320x240 using H.264 and a bitrate of 384kbps for video and 128kbps for audio, with the screen brightness set to the lowest.
| lossless - if you can tell the difference between alt-preset-extreme and alac, you have better headphones and better ears than I care to |
I can tell the difference on Audio Technica ATH-A500s that aren't even $100 shipped from audiocubes.
Besides, LAME 3.97 -vbr-new -v 0 is the new standard for MP3 encoding
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| gapless - silly that it doesn't have it, but even in classical songs (1/4 of my library) its so close that it's barely noticable |
Close doesn't count. Lots of albums besides classical require gapless playback. And not just Pink Floyd either.
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| lineout - that's coming, though thats one of the major reasons I picked the zune, I don't need it for good sound |
Are you implying that the Zune sounds good out of the headphone out? I've heard both the 80GB iPod and Zune out of the headphone jacks, and to me, the Zune sounds like mud. It honestly seems like all of the players the anti-Apple crowd latches on to sound like mud. Bloated bass, muddy mids, muffled highs. What is it about people like bad colored sound?
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| contacts - as in... for people? I'm surprised someone who uses an ipod doesn't have a phone |
iPod gives more detailed contact information than most cellphones. iPod can sync Outlook and Address Book contacts and have everything from multiple addresses (not just email, but home and business addresses) to "notes" about the person. Most cellphones that are not "smart phones" don't do that.
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| 80gb - wait 2 months |
Why should I wait? iPod went to 60GB nearly 3 years ago. 40GB before that.
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| UMS - takes 10 seconds with a reg hack found in 15 seconds on google |
Registry? Oh, sorry, some of us upgraded passed Windows
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| OS - well I prefer the Zune UI to the ipod or RB |
The times I've played with it, the little "Effects" that MS tried to add in were too choppy to be impressive. It doesn't look good if everything chop chop chops along and doesn't go smoothly.
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| TV out - this one confuses me, who uses the tv out of these portable devices? I know the zune and ipod have them, but with the terrible transcoding needed to fit on the small screens... that has to look just awful |
Considering that most people in the world, and roughly 4 out of 5 people in the US still own SDTVs, the iPod's video output to a TV looks great. iPod can handle 640x480 at up to 2Mbps H.264 video. On an SDTV you won't be able to tell the difference between that quality of video and the DVD you used to encode it.
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| codec support - again, 30 seconds to a minute, without much effort |
For a video encode? Try again. WMV encoder is extremely slow, even though the Zune is limited to VHS quality video.
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| games - another one I don't get. Though I don't get cell phone games either, I have a DS. |
Who wants to carry multiple devices? Especially when the DS and PSP are too large to be carried when you're already carrying an MP3 player + headphones + cellphone + wallet + whatever else you need. Most adults don't have time for games when they're away from home anyway. So when you're standing in line at the Post Office, a quick game of Bejeweled, Tetris, or Pac-Man will help things go by faster.
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| clock - no watch or cellphone? is a clock really a feature? |
iPod has multiple clocks. With one click I can check the time all over the world. I can see that its still too early to call my friend in Paris, but its the right time to see how my friend in Manilla is doing.
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| podcasts - what you mean is a frontend for podcasts. You can still easily get podcasts onto a zune, there just isn't the automated frontend. Of course you could setup a different program to download them, and then set that folder as a sync folder in the zune SW, but I guess thats not what you're looking for. And... that's coming in a couple months. |
And considering it's Microsoft, whatever Podcasting support they include (if they do at all, we know how long it takes MS to implement features people want.. look how long tabbed browsing in IE took) won't be as good as iTunes.
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| better ui |
The Zune UI has a lot in common with Vista. Meaning they tried to make it look nice, but really half-assed it. In the end it comes out choppy and is more disappointing and impressive.
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| better look and feel |
It feels like plastic and kind of looks like a plastic toy.
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| bigger screen |
With the same 320x240 resolution the iPod uses (though the iPod can output DVD quality video through S-Video) stretched to a 16x9 aspect ratio.
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| zune software |
Didn't have a Zune when they were first released, eh? At least the software installs now without having to hack/create .dll files.
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| better quality out of the headphone jack |
Proof? Zune sounds like mud to me. But thats just a matter of opinion.
Where is some hardcore evidence that the Zune sounds better?
Because so far it seems to me that the anti-iPod crowd is just latching on to yet another iPod "killer". Though the anti-iPod market seems to be shrinking, as the Zune is selling terribly.
What kind of name is "Zune" anyway?
Its funny how many people I've come across that say "what the **** is a Zune!?" You tell them and they say "who was stupid enough to call it that?"
Anyway, I'll give some more reasons as to why the Zune isn't as good as the iPod.
Most importantly, the Zune is not cross-platform. It locks you into Windows XP and Vista. You have absolutely no choice but to run either one of those OSes if you want to use a Zune. You can't upgrade to Mac OS X or switch to Linux.
The iPod has countless pieces of software across multiple platforms that will let you use it.
UMS is very important. I have a Mac and a PC and my 80GB iPod lets me take data between both platforms easier than any other way.
The 80GB iPod also allows you to use it as a nice complete multimedia jukebox. For video, you can use 1.5Mbps H.264 and it will be DVD quality on all SDTVs and look relatively good on smaller HDTVs. For audio you can use LAME 3.97 --vbr-new -v 0 or 256kbps VBR AAC. Using those two codecs, you'll be able to store a few thousand songs as well as 40 or so full length movies on an 80GB iPod and still have room to spare.
The battery life on the iPod is also much better than the Zune. When I tested my iPod just a couple of weeks ago, I was able to get 14.5 hours of battery life out of the iPod while playing video. I optimized the video for the iPod screen. Video was generally 320x240 using H.264 and a bitrate of 384kbps for video and 128kbps for audio, with the screen brightness set to the lowest.
