Microsoft's Zune

[flybye023]

I just bought an 80GB Zune and would like to know if anyone here can offer their experiences with it? I have finally got all my CDs on it but have been having trouble finding places where I can find videos, specifically TV shows and movies.

[LostMyMind]

itunes, is about the only "legal" place I can say. Otherwise we're getting into illegal places and we would never do that, right ;)

[FuzzyKitten99]

Have you been to the zune.com network online? You can't use iTunes with a Zune. You can't even use Media Player-you have to use the software designed for it. I have the 30bg one as does my DH. We just got them this past week.

Don't get me wrong, I love the player itself, because I like the setup and the display quality better than ipod, and I don't like apple products, period. The Zune software is ok, but it has some issues that are still being worked on.

Anyway, my ID online is Leas Toy, if you go to the message boards.

Also I wanted to add that you can buy aftermarket software that takes DVD's and converts them for you to put on your player. I haven't bought any yet, but I probably will in future.

[Shards]

Gah! Been waiting for this a while!

I've had my Zune since X-mas. Problem is, no matter what I try, my laptop (my primary PC, and a vista machine) refuses to acknowledge it when I try to plug it in, always saying 'device driver installation failed' and never listing a reason.

Can anybody help me?

[flybye023]

Shards: Have you been able to use it at all? The first Zune I purchased was defective and the computer wouldn't recognize it at all.

FuzzyKitten: yeah, I have been to their network but they only have about a dozen or so TV series. I've heard that you can convert iTunes files as well as DVDs and people in the forums had many, many links for free downloads, but I don't know how to tell which ones are trustworthy. It kinda freaks me out when not only does the site linked to offers free software but also (not free) anti-virus software.

[Evil Queen]

Room Mate J has one. He liked it a lot at first but quickly fell out of love with it (same with everything else he's bought; you should see him get mad at a game system. He'll tear the controles to pieces, the stupid git).

The Zune worked just fine with Windows XP so you may want to install that on your computer as well. There's a Version called Windows XP Most Wanted Edition that you can download. Some guy in India came up with it and it takes about an hour and a half to install. You can only download it and burn to a disc since he can't sell it. It's free to download... somewhere...

[FuzzyKitten99]

Shards: Have you been able to use it at all? The first Zune I purchased was defective and the computer wouldn't recognize it at all.

FuzzyKitten: yeah, I have been to their network but they only have about a dozen or so TV series. I've heard that you can convert iTunes files as well as DVDs and people in the forums had many, many links for free downloads, but I don't know how to tell which ones are trustworthy. It kinda freaks me out when not only does the site linked to offers free software but also (not free) anti-virus software.

I meant that you can't use iTunes to sync or download music directly to the player. Yes, you can take iTunes music and convert it. Really, all you are doing is just copying or moving the file itself over to the drive(s) you assign to pull music from.

If you have multiple tracks from different sources, but you want them under one 'album', a trick I learned is to edit the track number first, then merge them.

I really wish WMP could be used to sync music, as I prefer that interface to the Zune software.

My husband has Vista, and it works just fine. Vista installed everything directly for him, and all he had to do was authorize the download when it asked him to. Try going to the Zune site and downloading directly from there, if your system doesn't recognise the player. Make sure you have all Vista's updates and downloads first. Sometimes this can hinder software installation. XP wasn't the greatest for the first 2-3 years after initial release, but now that all the bugs are worked out, it works fine. Vista will be the same way.