The Zune HD

[Sporknight]

A few weeks ago, my roommate and I got Zune HDs, and fell in love with them. The player itself is solid, very well designed UI and all that, but what really sold me on it is the ZunePass subscription service: $15 a month for unlimited music downloads, and 10 'song credits' a month to un-DRM songs so you can keep and share them. It all feels like it centers around music sharing and discovery, but! I only have my roommate to share my Zune music with.

So, I figure, where else is better to look for more people with good taste in music than here? Post your Zune ID's! I go by my OCR handle, Sporknight.

[Prophet Orwell]

Sporknight's roommate here... DrexHex is my ID.

[The Damned]

It looks nice, but here in Canada, I don't have to pay for music, so why would I?

Also, the "required" software to transfer files over is bullshit. There are lots of players that act simply as USB drives and you can just drop your entire music folder right onto them without any problem. That's a major negative on my scorecard.

It looks nice, and I see it's pretty much the only real competitor to the iPod (because most brick-and-mortar stores don't carry other brands, like Archos or Creative Labs), but it could be a little better in some areas.

But I hear the screen is indestructible, which is a big bonus for anyone that has pockets and lives on a planet with a gravitational pull.

[linkspast]

It looks nice, but here in Canada, I don't have to pay for music, so why would I?

WHAT?!?!?

So you are free to just download music at your leisure?

HD radio is a cool feature, I kind of want one..

[phill]

WHAT?!?!?

So you are free to just download music at your leisure?

There was a post on Reddit a while ago about a Canadian who got one of them fancy fancy warnings from the music industry. When the guy phoned his ISP, Rogers I think, they told him downloading wasn't going to get him in trouble (which is basically what the current copyright law more or less says) but uploading isn't so easily ignored.

So yeah, currently most Canadians download at their leisure.

[The Damned]

That's why I laugh at people I know who pay for things like iTunes. You're getting ripped off, basically, by paying for something you can get for free.

Mind you, most people own iPods, and those are kind of iffy when it comes to non-licensed files...

I just remembered the other thing I don't like about the Zune HD: low capacity. It only comes in 16 and 32 gb sizes, which isn't even half of what I have. Any player I want is going to have to start at 120 gb, and that's the minimum.

I did see an Archos 5 IT, running Android. Reviews are stating while it has lackluster GPS, the internet browser is fast as hell, and it has fantastic media support (it plays mkv movies). Too bad no one in this country sells them.

[phill]

I think you can buy it off their website, their billing/delivery address form allows you to enter Canadian addresses. I will also have to remember Archos when I get a replacement for my Creative Zen:M

[OverCoat]

I have a 120 GB zune, and it's a decent player, but the lack of a stop button [????] and lack of a power button [?!?!?!?!] weird me out. Also, the Zune has the lamest problem, it can't display foreign languages at all. So I have a couple thousand things on my player where it's just a series of blocks. There's also the whole Zune software bullshit, when Windows Media Player would've sufficed plenty. Why, when Microsoft already has their own media player, would they make an entirely new one that isn't as good, and force people to use it? Goddammit. My Zune ID is Pardessus if you really care. I don't use my Zune player for anything but syncing.

If my old Creative Zen Vision M was still alive I'd use that. Can't find them anywhere anymore, and if you want the 60 GB, dealerfags are selling them for $400, when I paid $270 for it brand new. Sad thing is, I would've bought a new Creative player, but they don't sell any new mp3 players over 32 GB. WTF? It's sad because IMO the Zen Vision M was perfect.

[The Damned]

I think you can buy it off their website, their billing/delivery address form allows you to enter Canadian addresses. I will also have to remember Archos when I get a replacement for my Creative Zen:M

Never buy anything from Archo. Buy the actual devices if you want, but don't buy it directly from them. They have what is considered to be the absolutely worst customer support of any electronics company.

Cases in point:

1. The Archo 5 was released just last year. Within eight months, Archos dropped all support for it, even axing warranties that were still valid. No explanation was ever given. The only thing that people could think of is the current Archo 5 that runs Android was being pushed more.

2. Plug-ins. Up until the most recent players, if you wanted things like HD playback, or an internet browser, you had to pay for it on top of the device. They used a heavily modified (and gimped) version of Opera, and charged $30 for it. It didn't support flash videos, so Youtube was completely useless earlier this year. It still isn't that great, half the time it stalls or crashes, and they haven't updated any software or firmware in months.

3. They don't include any power cords for recharging their devices. You have to either rely upon charging through USB (slow as hell) or shell out another $30 to $50 for a charging station. It also acts as a USB port, because all their players use a proprietary USB port, so you can't just plug it into anything.

4. Exchanges and refunds. I've never heard of anyone actually getting one. If your Archos player is defective out of the box, they won't just replace it. They will have you ship it back at your expense, and then charge you a restocking fee, even if you just got it. I was going to get mine fixed (the built-in battery was toast), but they wanted $80 to fix it. $80 for a battery. I decided to not bother, because after the charger and the browser and the initial price, it was getting to fucking much. Time to cut losses on that one.

5. Their tech support is a fucking joke. It takes days to get an answer from them, and most of the time it just tells you to refer to their unofficial forum, made and ran by fans. that's right, their tech support is a forum that they don't even own. They let their customers sort most of it out on their own, and you have to hope that someone there has had the same experience and found a solution.

If you want to get one, get one from an actual store, one that you can walk into and get an extended warranty. Archos makes some nice hardware some of the time, but it's just dodgy enough that you'll want to get some extra protection.

If my old Creative Zen Vision M was still alive I'd use that. Can't find them anywhere anymore, and if you want the 60 GB, dealerfags are selling them for $400, when I paid $270 for it brand new. Sad thing is, I would've bought a new Creative player, but they don't sell any new mp3 players over 32 GB. WTF? It's sad because IMO the Zen Vision M was perfect.

I know. Why are so many companies making such small capacity players? Hard drives are fucking cheap as hell now, and flash has come down a lot in price, but they stick with all these 16, 32 and maybe the occasional 64 gb ones.

I'm waiting for a 120 gb flash player, and I suspect that it will be expensive as hell, but it might be worth it. Lots of battery life, that's a big selling point with me.

/MP3 player #8 and counting...