[JamesL]

I've only really owned a first-gen nano before, so I'm not too familiar with this stuff..

First off, my first-gen nano sounds.. absolutely.. horribly terrible(which is why I hardly use it)...
My onboard sound quality on my PC on the other hand sounds magnitudes better in comparison.
Is my nano particularly bad, or do all DAPs normally suffer from bad sound quality? This is one of the main deciding factors... if the SQ on the zune80 is anything like my nano, I'll probably end up getting a sony walkman, but if it's comparative to my onboard sound card, the zune just has a nicer heftier feel to it.

Also, I heard you can't drag-and-drop on the zune80. Does that mean that it won't be recognized as an external storage device?

Thanks -

 

[Night Surfer]

Great SQ = Affirmative.
External Storage Device = Negative

 

[Buggs]

I got an 8GB so I could listen to the radio and have liked that part of the Zune, however the software's ability to recognize the Zune once connected is pretty poor.

Additionally I have noticed that my Zune will hang up from time to time and the only way to unhang it is to let the battery go dead and then plug it in again.

If it were not for the radio feature, I would have bought another Apple product.

 

[MCC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Buggs /img/forum/go_quote.gif Additionally I have noticed that my Zune will hang up from time to time and the only way to unhang it is to let the battery go dead and then plug it in again.

Next time this happens, hold the back button and up on the squircle to reset your Zune. Back and down turns off the Zune instead of placing it on standby.

Back to the original post-The Zune 80 has a much fuller sound than the Cowon X5 but at the expense of a little treble clarity. It drives my HD-595s well unamped and I'm happy with the sound for a portable player. My only gripe is that it's Windows only, so I can only use my Laptop to sync music. MS software has no place on my desktop.

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

Quote:

I got an 8GB so I could listen to the radio and have liked that part of the Zune, however the software's ability to recognize the Zune once connected is pretty poor.

something is wrong with either your Zune or the USB ports on your computer

 

[Andrew_WOT]

You can use Zune as external storage. Google for Zune registry hack.

 

[zip22]

if i remember it correctly, that hack requires you to have the zune software installed and running and has to be done on any computer you intend to use. has anything changed, or is it still this complicated?

 

[HipHopScribe]

I don't think you have to have the Zune software installed for the external storage hack, here's a patch to apply the hack, the Zune software isn't listed in the requirements
Zune Boards

 

[soozieq]

I couldn't install the hack on my laptop OR pc, both of which are running Vista. From what I've read on the Zune boards, people with XP are having better luck using the hack.

 

[RoadHazard]

What is it with DAP makers not allowing drag-n-drop and using your player as an external storage device? Why is it so important to tie you to their software? That's one of the reasons I won't get an iPod (or a Zune) anytime soon.
I'm so glad Sony has come over to the good side.

 

[tstarn06]

Quote:

Originally Posted by HipHopScribe /img/forum/go_quote.gif I don't think you have to have the Zune software installed for the external storage hack, here's a patch to apply the hack, the Zune software isn't listed in the requirements Zune Boards

I installed a patch to the Zune80 (rather than editing registry directly), and it does require the Zune Software to be running. As far as drag and drop, the patch allows you to delete songs from the Zune using Windows explorer, but I haven't try moving songs to the Zune. I just use the software, which is now working pretty well for me (I check tags first for any new tracks using WMP, and that has eliminated 95 percent of the Zune SW issues).

As for the other mod app floating around, called zalternator, which allows you to do more (and bypass Zune software completely), I could not get it to work on XP Pro, so I uninstalled it.

Edit: And I really like the Zune SQ, screen, etc. Don't miss the EQ. But take very good care of the screen, and do not ever apply any real pressure on the glass, or it will crack (I had mine crack, but Amazon replaced it in an amazing example of customer service. MS refused to replace the DAP, saying the cracked screen meant I was SOL).

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

ZExplorer, ZAlternator and more...
Zune Boards - zSuite v2 Released, Looks Pretty Sweet

 

[neoufo51]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RoadHazard /img/forum/go_quote.gif What is it with DAP makers not allowing drag-n-drop and using your player as an external storage device? Why is it so important to tie you to their software? That's one of the reasons I won't get an iPod (or a Zune) anytime soon. I'm so glad Sony has come over to the good side.

Microsoft and Apple are also in the business of selling music online. Therefore, its in their best interests to ensure a close relationship between your player and the software because it raises the chances of you buying music as well. Simple as that.

Sony is big enough, but its staked too highly in the hardware industry to start going into that kind of stuff.

 

[zip22]

haha, sony was more into it that either of them. they just recently switched to an open system.

 

[JamesL]

Ugh.. I can't stand this.
Microsoft makes really great hardware... but they always crap it up with their innate dumbness...

External hard-drive? why.. why? Why would you do that?
Can't delete songs directly on the player - ??

Proprietary software - and they don't make it easy to get around this either..
Syncing.. tagging.. all crapped up. - dumbed-down.. insists on trying to fix stuff that it doesn't agree with..

Rating system - Heart if you like, broken-heart if you don't... why in the world would I purchase songs I hate?

I want to add music from my laptop, oh no, wait.. gotta install the zune software first.. there.. no wait, still can't cause I need to keep a match-to-match copy of everything on the zune to make it happy... Well, I'll just store the files on the zune, and transfer it over to my desktop, oh no wait.. can't do that either...
Want to hook it up to my friend's pc?.. nope..
Do I really need a QVGA compressed copy of all my video files on my computer?
Proprietary connector.. meh.. I can deal with it, but it's stupid as hell.
No Line out? - same.. I can deal with it..
Wireless? Maybe if it had web-access.. but otherwise worthless, since you need to hook it up to charge it anyways..
Hate the whole "renting" music ... you don't rent music.. you buy, you own, you listen to your music..
Feedback? Apparently, they don't care to change any of this, cause they're too busy fixing up their i.touch ripoff for gen3 zune.

Someone please convince me that it's not bad as I made it out to be.. I really want to buy one and like it, without getting annoyed at the fact that microsoft screwed up again..