Any of you have a Zen or Zune?

[Riot]

What's up guys? I'm interested in getting myself a better mp3 player (right now I got a stupid 1gb Sandisk cheapy) but I'm not sure which one to get. I'm not going to get an iPod...that I already know. I've pretty much narrowed it down between the Zen and the Zune. Any of you guys have either one of these? What are the pros and cons to them?

I want something that can play videos and has a lot of storage space. It has to have FM Tuner and I'd like it to be an okay unit to use when exercising. I understand, something like the Zune or Zen are so big and expensive taking them out on a bike ride or out running isn't a smart idea. I might just use my Sandisk for that kind of use anyway, but if there is a different model that combines all of these things together (does't have to be Zen or Zune) then let me know!

Thanks a lot guys.

[hammertime23]

I don't know much about mp3 players, but my friend has a Zune, and its sweet. He can transfer songs amongst other people who have them, which i found to be extremely awesome. Also the screen is much larger then an ipod so you have better visuals.

[Jing]

My friends have a Zen, and its been really durable (he drops it a lot), and its memory capacity is plenty big. What he has is the Zen Microphone. Its fairly small too.

As for the Zune, I don't know anyone with it or have any personal experience with it, so I can't say.

[Riot]

How easy is it to put music and videos onto the Zen or Zune? I'm not sure how to put videos on a player since the only MP3 player I've ever had didn't support video files. If I get videos from say limewire or something can I just drag and drop the video files into some folder or do I have to do conversions?

Also, can I just drag and drop to put music onto the Zen or Zune? Or do you have to use a program? What is the battery life like for those two? Thanks a lot.

[Lamrock]

Get the Zen V. That is what I have, and its great. Not too expensive (you can get them as cheap as $130), very durable, and it is surprisingly tiny. IMO the best MP3 player out there.

[Joe']

The Zune sucks (and no, I'm not saying it because it's made by Microshit), I've seen reviews and all of them consider it to be inferior compared to the iPod and the Creative Zen.

The Zen Vision is absolutely gorgeous, it has a 4-inch widescreen display and costs "only" $285. If you have the money get that.
Otherwise get the Zen Vision:M which is 30GB and costs only $199. It's one of the best multimedia players ever IMO.

[Ryan]

How easy is it to put music and videos onto the Zen or Zune? I'm not sure how to put videos on a player since the only MP3 player I've ever had didn't support video files. If I get videos from say limewire or something can I just drag and drop the video files into some folder or do I have to do conversions?

Also, can I just drag and drop to put music onto the Zen or Zune? Or do you have to use a program? What is the battery life like for those two? Thanks a lot.

I got a Zune and I like the bigger screen than the Ipod, but that's about it.The accessories are a real rip off(price wise), syncing or even running the Zune software makes my pc lag and I'm living so far out in the sticks now that I can't share music with other Zune users. You can't just drag and drop with it either and you usually have to convert all you video as well. Battery life for it is about 6-8 hours I think, but you can plug it into your pc or 360 to charge it.

[Riot]

Can you drag and drop your music and videos onto the Zen?

[ixcuincle]

I need a mp3 player to join the rest of you in the 21st century. Been looking into the 80 GB Ipod , the Zune , and the Zen Vision M. Ipods cost too much , I'm skeptical of the "3 day trials" for songs people send you on Zune plus people say the software is not easy to use , and Zen Vision M is , so far , the cheapest and looks like the best option but some guy on Amazon said he could never set the time right , there were no smart playlists , etc. Didn't seem to like it too much. So which one of those 3 (or one cheaper) do you think is the best?

I like the idea of a FM tuner but it's not that important. Ipods are on sale now , the 80 GB one is only 230 on Amazon. Not that bad...

[el badman]

i have zen creative vision m 30 gig video
and its amazging
and creative products are aways good

Yup, I offered one to my wife and it's definitely a safe choice.
I was really surprised how much easier the "software" is compared to iTunes that I have for my iPod. It's not even a software, it just detects your zen in "my computer", and it takes just a sec to transfer pix and music. It's slightly longer for vids, like c.b.4 said, but it's not that bad.

[volsey]

I'm kind of in the same predicament, really need some kinda mp3 player and what I care most about are:

1) Right now I have 9gb of songs, and I would ideally like to have my entire library on the mp3 player, I could settle for 8 gb I suppose though
2)Ease of Use/Design/Functionality - This is why the ipod sells so much (other than the fact that Americans are stupid and will buy anything "cool"), I've only ever used a Creative mp3 player once, and it seemed alright, how would you guys compare it to the ipod? And how easy is it to transfer songs and such?
3) Has to be fairly thin, not as thin as the new Nanos but still somewhere around the where the Classics are at. I wouldn't mind one of those Creative mp3 players but I've seen one of the larger capacity Creative ones at Future Shop on display and it was actually a solid inch thick, thicker than my psp and its foam case. For all I know this could be an older version though, so for you people that have a creative, how thick/thin are they compared to the Ipods?
4) Price, probably the least important reason though. I'd rather be happy with my overpriced ipod than a moderate price mp3 player that I'm moderately happy with.

As said I'm mostly looking at either the ipod Classic or one of the Creatives, my sister might also be selling her ipod video for a new nano so I might be getting her old video instead.

[Ryan]

I have a zune and it's nothing special. One nice thing about it is they upgraded the zune 1 to the zune 2 firmware so that you get all the features of the new zune(podcasts, wireless syncing). For the price though it really isn't worth it. I'll probably be getting the 160gb Archos soon and dump my zune on ebay.

[Riot]

I bought a 160 gig iPod Classic the other day so that's my mp3 player of choice. I want it mostly for when I leave for the military it will give me something to do on the plane rides or in my downtime (especially I'm am stuck overseas). This will be a good mp3 player that will last me for years and I can keep adding music and videos to it without fearing lack of space.

I'll let you guys know how much I like it when I actually get it (bought it online).

[Amphatoast]

Zen Vision M is excellent. How easy is it to add music and video? Just drag and drop, can't be easier than that. ( and it supports many video formats, ipod only mp4)

But the 160gig classic- can't top that space wise.
No additional stuff like radio and MIC recording is the downfall of the ipod

[el badman]

Sorry to dig this up, but after being an iPod customer twice, I decided to go ahead and order a 16GB Zune. Any of you guys have that one?



I didn't really get it just for videos, but it's apparently much better than iPod Nanos that are about the same size in that regard, and I mostly ent for Zune so that I never EVER have to use fucking iTunes again.
Anyone has any feedback?

[Joe']

I've seen you complain about iTunes in a lot of your posts but I think I never cared enough to ask you what you thought was so frustrating about it... I know it's kind of a pain in the ass on Windows but I've never seen anyone express so much hate towards it lol. So please, do tell, what is it that frustrates you?

As for feedback, I have never personally owned a Zune but I heard that they only work with this app (I think it's called Zune Software,) which transfers all of your files to your device, etc. So it's pretty much the same as iPods, only instead of iTunes, now you're using MS software to synchronize your media to the device.

Anyway, the new ones are much better than the old 30 GB Zune, I like the new pad. I still wouldn't spend $179 on anything manufactured by MS, though (especially since OS X is not supported and will probably never be.)

[Oznogrd]

Joe' Itunes blows because its fucking impossible to fix anything thats not preset by mac. When I put in a hootie and the blowfish cd and their database calls it alternative, or it calls something Emo or whatever: i always have to go fix it to a genre i actually acknowledge. Finding duplicates you accidentally get doesnt work because it finds every live version or demo version you have. Changing the Info on a song is a gigantic pain, you tell it to look for album art and it confuses Sex Pistols and Bowling for Soup. The problem is its created for those that have no idea what the fuck they're doing with a mp3 player. For those of that have some idea and maybe would like to tweak some songs (set different EQs for each song), some organization (like dividing your 10k songs into some basic genre folders), or moving songs around its terribly painful to do. The only reason i use it is because ipods require it and I personally prefer ipod over zune and Creative....If i had the option i'd trash it in 3 seconds or less.

[el badman]

I think I ranted like an old fuck about this in the "letting off steam" thread, but basically, what DrGonzo said, plus a zillion other issues.

It's bulky and a resource hog; it's sneaky because it prevents you from using another third-party program (if you just wanna give another free application a try to compare with iTunes) and then go back to iTunes (it locks everything and you can't add anything else to your device); it installs a very suspicious and seemingly useless program called "bonjour" which starts with Windows unless you disable the service; it keeps you from having more than one iPod on the same PC (not everybody uses their iTunes account to purchase music online and such, sometimes you just wanna add some of your music on a friend's iPod for example); the automatic CD cover retrieval never worked for me; it keeps you from adding songs to your device when the tracks have not been ripped with iTunes, but using Windows Media Player for example; it bugs the hell out of you if you do not have the latest version of the program and just wanna rip and add some songs;.......

Anyway, I despise iTunes, I've said it before, but this is the worst software I've ever had to use, and that's a shame because I did like my iPod quite a lot.

[el badman]

Just a quick update to mention that I'd recommend a Zune to anyone. The software is, to me, much more user-friendly and advanced, you don't spend hours tweaking settings and shit, it's all done automatically in a snap when ripping CDs for example, so that's quite a welcome change compared to iTunes.
The device itself is really cool too. It's more austere-looking than an iPod I guess, doesn't have as much of the "cool" factor, but it's simple, intuitive and gets the job done. The LCD screen is much better quality too.
Just my .02 about it...

[Lamrock]

Get the Zen V. That is what I have, and its great. Not too expensive (you can get them as cheap as $130), very durable, and it is surprisingly tiny. IMO the best MP3 player out there.

Epic fail.

I have the Zune 80gb and I am quite happy with it. The USB cords (bullshit that you can't use standard ones) aren't the most reliable, but that was the only issue I have had. The headphones that come with it are pretty nice. The software is much improved. The screen is cool. Its a hard drive, but its quite durable. I've dropped it a few times, and no problems. I would recommend it.

[Ryan]

http://gizmodo.com/5121311/reports-30gb ... ll-at-once