Return Zune 80 and buy an iPod? w/ mini review

[stevodotorg]

Not sure if this thread will last, but hopefully i'll get a good amount of input, thanks for taking the time to read this thread

Well, I sold my 80gb ipod a few months ago, thought I was going to get a new iPod, ended up waiting for the new Zunes, bought the Zune 80.. Love the looks, the touch pad, and gorgeous 3.2" screen. But as some of us new to the Zune, or going from the iPod to the Zune, have noticed a few things that may be new to us, or we simply aren't happy with. Here are some personal pros and cons that I want to state.

Zune pros:

1. Beautiful 3.2" screen (pretty much a key point in this post)
2. Touch pad that works well
3. the device is quite elegant looking, and a change from the iPod

Zune cons:

1. Battery life, I actually love portable videos/movies, so this is sort of a bummer
2. No mp4 meta tag info can be read by the device itself, and I have over 100 tv shows and movies in mp4 format from previously being used on my iPod, the Zune just throws them all in one folder, (if you could imagine the navigation frustration here) it reads wmv meta data just fine for putting videos in directories for organization
3. I have to buy a DLO Transdock (around $50) if I want an all in one cable solution for my car (only cable dock that has a mini jack output) opposed to using the iPod cable I have already installed in my car
4. Can't sync with my macbook (really not a huge deal, have a pc too)

Returning my Zune and getting an iPod Classic, I would get:

1. A smaller screen (2.5"), videos don't look as pretty
2. A device that isn't really new to me, not as elegant looking as the Zune 80
3. Usable with the iPod kit I already have installed in my car
4. Cross platform
5. A battery I know will last a good long while (I used to watch 3 movies and still have life left on my 5.5g 80gb iPod)

So clearly I am looking for some opinions here, I have had the Zune 80 for a week and a half now, I really really like the device, and I am probably impressed with the screen size more than anything, but is losing all of what the iPod was all for a larger screen and having a new elegant device in my life all that much worth it? Is it practical? and this Zune battery news is bothering me

Keep in mind, I can go get any mp3 player, its obvious I am looking for a little more than that, although when it comes down to it, that is the main use of the device, and I must hand it to Microsoft, they did it well

Feel free to voice your opinions, I only have a couple weeks to make my final decision to keep the Zune or not. Thanks a bunch

 

[fatman711]

keep in mind that the classic can't do rockbox...yet

 

[Amblin]

It seems your biggest beef with the Z80 is its (relatively) short battery life. Why not just buy an external battery for USB powered devices?

 

[warrior05]

We all have our priorities when it comes to DAPs. Personally, none of the cons that you listed are really cons to me because I just don't watch any videos. You have to go with what works for you and it would seem that you are making the right choice in ditching the Zune 80. My question is, have you explored others? Perhaps the well respected Zen Vision M would work for you. I have no advice on particular models since, again, I don't tend to watch videos and never focused on those particular specs.

Good luck!

 

[stevodotorg]

This battery problem is bothering me a bit, and none of the zens have a fancy screen size with a lot of space. The other thing is how the Zune reads mp4's without metadata, which I can just sit around and hope that they fix.

 

[Jon118]

As far as the car use goes why not just use headphone out and get a cheap mini to mini cable. It always worked fine for me in the past.

 

[stevenjchang]

sounds like dating
you dump your girlfriend (bored maybe), get a new one, and now your thinking, maybe i should find a girl like my ex-girlfriend, there was nothing wrong with her, i just wanted to try something new.

lol, why dont you go buy the classic while u still have the zune. regardless of the pro's and con's, i think u'll naturally like one more than the other.

im in the habit of buying and then selling my mp3s on ebay, so i've been through alot of mp3 players for short times. each time i get rid of an ipod in exchange for something else (samsung, toshiba, zune, sandisk, creative), i regret it, regardless of any specific reason, its just the feeling, ease of use, and enjoyment of it all.

for about 7 months i had the zune30. on paper it was a great player (and i must admit what i really miss about it is its eq - which dumb-ly the 80g zune does not have...which is why i took zune80 off my list and has never considered it since, plus, it doesnt have LOD either, so no EQ, no LO.....What)

 

[Rukes]

Don't forget that both the iPod Classic and Zune 80 both display at 320x240, so the bigger display just makes it look a bit more pixelated, not good for my photography portfolio

I upgraded from the Zen Vision M 60 gig to the Zune 80 and I love it, but with the numerous software problems (95 of my tracks won't sync because the software thinks an instrumental of a track is the same file as the original) among other issues is making me think about a 160 GB iPod Classic. My very first iPod. Mostly for the Mac support on the road (use a PC at home, MacBook Pro while traveling) and the extra space since I am going to make my collection mostly Apple Lossless.

It just sucks that there isn't really a PERFECT MP3 player yet, everything is a compromise

 

[stevodotorg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevenjchang /img/forum/go_quote.gif sounds like dating you dump your girlfriend (bored maybe), get a new one, and now your thinking, maybe i should find a girl like my ex-girlfriend, there was nothing wrong with her, i just wanted to try something new. lol, why dont you go buy the classic while u still have the zune. regardless of the pro's and con's, i think u'll naturally like one more than the other. im in the habit of buying and then selling my mp3s on ebay, so i've been through alot of mp3 players for short times. each time i get rid of an ipod in exchange for something else (samsung, toshiba, zune, sandisk, creative), i regret it, regardless of any specific reason, its just the feeling, ease of use, and enjoyment of it all. for about 7 months i had the zune30. on paper it was a great player (and i must admit what i really miss about it is its eq - which dumb-ly the 80g zune does not have...which is why i took zune80 off my list and has never considered it since, plus, it doesnt have LOD either, so no EQ, no LO.....What)

hahahhaha, fantastic analogy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rukes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't forget that both the iPod Classic and Zune 80 both display at 320x240, so the bigger display just makes it look a bit more pixelated, not good for my photography portfolio I upgraded from the Zen Vision M 60 gig to the Zune 80 and I love it, but with the numerous software problems (95 of my tracks won't sync because the software thinks an instrumental of a track is the same file as the original) among other issues is making me think about a 160 GB iPod Classic. My very first iPod. Mostly for the Mac support on the road (use a PC at home, MacBook Pro while traveling) and the extra space since I am going to make my collection mostly Apple Lossless. It just sucks that there isn't really a PERFECT MP3 player yet, everything is a compromise

Wayyy interesting about the 320x240 .. I personally think a perfect player would be a hard drive based iPod touch, many opinions on this though..

 

[stevenjchang]

for me a perfect player would have to include divx/xvid support... maybe if creative comes out with a new hdd model

i hate keeping 2 version of the same tv shows/movies...what a waste.

 

[stevodotorg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevenjchang /img/forum/go_quote.gif for me a perfect player would have to include divx/xvid support... maybe if creative comes out with a new hdd model i hate keeping 2 version of the same tv shows/movies...what a waste.

word to that.. even rockbox on the Zune 80 would be gold.. rockbox supports divx/xvid right? (haven't used it myself)

 

[TheBends]

my problem with the zune (i had the old one for less than 24 hours) was that it froze up on the charge screen and i never even got to see the GUI. that being said, i have a creative zen but i'm not opposed to the ipod classic, especially since they're bound to rockbox it and that'll be sexy

 

[luckypictures]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rukes /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't forget that both the iPod Classic and Zune 80 both display at 320x240, so the bigger display just makes it look a bit more pixelated, not good for my photography portfolio I upgraded from the Zen Vision M 60 gig to the Zune 80 and I love it, but with the numerous software problems (95 of my tracks won't sync because the software thinks an instrumental of a track is the same file as the original) among other issues is making me think about a 160 GB iPod Classic. My very first iPod. Mostly for the Mac support on the road (use a PC at home, MacBook Pro while traveling) and the extra space since I am going to make my collection mostly Apple Lossless. It just sucks that there isn't really a PERFECT MP3 player yet, everything is a compromise

Actually, the images are converted to 640x480 anyway, which is larger than the screen. So as far as your photography portfolio goes, it's just dandy.

And if you plan on outputting to a screen, the new Zune80 will output larger than the Zune30, which again, benefits your portfolio.

 

[luckypictures]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBends /img/forum/go_quote.gif my problem with the zune (i had the old one for less than 24 hours) was that it froze up on the charge screen and i never even got to see the GUI. that being said, i have a creative zen but i'm not opposed to the ipod classic, especially since they're bound to rockbox it and that'll be sexy

Sorry to hear that. The solution is to let it charge more. Sometimes it doesn't have enough battery life coming out of the box, and if you've already installed the program, it tries to initialize the device repeatedly. When it does, it doesn't have enough battery, and so it's an endless cycle.

The solution is to turn off the option to automatically start the Zune program when a Zune is plugged in.

 

[luckypictures]

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevodotorg /img/forum/go_quote.gif word to that.. even rockbox on the Zune 80 would be gold.. rockbox supports divx/xvid right? (haven't used it myself)

As far as your mp4 problems go, there are different programs to take care of that. If you need a suggestion, PM me, and I'll find what the program is. The mp4 tag problem has been discussed a few times on this forum, and quite extensively on other forums.