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Great device, highley under rated, great look and feel, doesn't feel too small like some iPods, has good heft but a comfortable amount for its size. sounds great, easier to grip than iPod classics. I have both a Zune and a Classic and for every day music listening I use my Zune and when I'm driving I use my iPod Classics because they can connect properly to my car through usb and I can control it through my car, to bad the Zune wasn't adopted industry wide, then I could do the same with my Zune. The Zune Software is Ok on the PC and getting things setup can be a little bit of a pain at first but it is well worth it, if you need help YouTube is great. I love the quick Playlist que/creation on my Zune and the screen looks great, the album art on the Zune looks way better than on the iPod classic, for whatever reason the iPod has a decent sized screen but the album art is tiny, not sure why apple did that. The main reason for a Zune is a dedicated music device free from distractions. I don't have to worry about abnoxious phone calls from telemarketers interupting my music, also the built in DAC and EQ are great, the sound quality is awesome as well. I plan on modding my Zune with a 128GB SSD and a New battery, which is pretty easy to do, then I won't have to worry about dropping it. One important not on the Zune and all but the 7Th Gen iPod Classics, they DO NOT support in line headphone controls, its a shame but sadly they just can't support the controls, there is a solution for both devices though, on the iPod there is a wired FM Tuner/Controller that connects through the dock/sync port which adds radio function to the iPod and can also control volume, Play/Pause and skip tracks, it has a headphone jack and a clip to hold it to a shirt, the Zune also has a similar device called the duall controller, it connects the same way, to the sync port and also has a clip to hold it, it has 2 headphone jacks for music sharing, a big selling point of the Zune when it first released was Legal music sharing, and it has volume, play/pause and track controls as well, It does't have an FM tuner but the 30GB Zune came with one built in. Overall a great device that sadly ended too soon, it would have been much more successful if it came out earlier, maybe 2003 or 2004. The iPhone and Smartphones in general sadly killed off the mainstream appeal of a dedicated music device. It's also great because I don't constantly use my data, I don't have to worry about cell reception and It doesn't take up storage on my Phone and has a Built in Headphone jack, although no bluetooth.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Seller was easy to work with before the sale. Devine has clearly been opened before. Missing a couple screws that you’d have to remove the hard drive to get to. Main board was broken, headphone jack has a bent unsoldered pin, even the charging port was broken. Not much to be harvested for a “for parts” listing. I know about the broken screen and dead battery before purchase. The rest was a surprise.
Verified purchase: Yes
The Zune Player has been a great product so far. I purchased the unit because I do not like products that are dependent on one source. It does have a few problems that have hopefully been taken care of in the 2nd generation players. It is fairly easy to use and after you have been in the operating software for a little while, the logic behind the operation becomes apparent. It could have had a better command menu on the device itself. The downfall to that is it would have made it more expensive, needing more keys and less available memory. It accepts almost all types of media but every once in a while it will not accept a format (so far, the mp3's seem to be the only format to be rejected) and you have to convert it to another usable format. Converting to the WMA has worked well in this case and it is a Microsoft product after all. The packaging is nice but they leave out a necessary accessory. A charger that does not depend on a computer connection with an adapter to an automobile accessory plug. These are almost required for ease of true portability. To buy them separate is costly, almost a quarter of the cost of the unit based on the prices I paid. Another accessory that is nice to have and should qualify as an extra, is the FM Adapter. If you buy the cheap ones, the car cannot be running, the signal is very weak due to all the other electronics in operation. I am not sure if the $49.00+ units take care of the problems but they are large enough to contain all the noise eliminating and signal enhancements. I haven't really used the "Marketplace" very much and I am not an advocate of "myspace". What I have seen of the Marketplace so far, it seems to be expanding constantly and the music prices are very competitive. Again, I have not really checked into the membership fees or if they significantly reduce song cost. I purchase five units averaging $160.00. I only had problems with one. We plugged it in the first time and everything was fine. The second time, it blacked out and we received no further response. The warranty submittal was easy and the repair/replacement was very fast. About ten days from the warranty call to the receipt of the repaired/replaced unit. They provided everything except the call I had to make. It was impressive. All in all, I am very happy with the unit and so are my kids. The screens are large and very clear. It does not have an extreme high volume, which is good. I have noticed with ear buds that acclamation to the volume occurs quickly and it is very easy to damage your hearing. A work associate has one I can hear when I have my headphones on, set to low volume.Read full review
Microsoft's Zune is my first digital media player and I am glad to say that I am quite pleased with it's features. I was well aware of Apple's line of MP3/media players but I opted for the Zune for it's wireless capabilities and ease of use with MS products (Windows + Xbox 360). It was easy to setup and the Zune software is fairly easy to use. The battery life is around a good 12-14 hours if you're listening to MP3's, around 3-5 hours if you're watching videos. The unit itself is fairly light, but the dimensions are kinda bulky if you want to exercise with it. The interface is really simple and you can access music/pictures/video within a few clicks. It does a good job of sorting everything out automatically, but you can rearrange inside the Zune software. Charging the unit is just a simple matter of plugging in the Zune via USB cable, although you can purchase an AC charger kit/DC car charger seperately. My only gripes with the unit is when I used it the very first day, songs would cutout for a split second and resume playing at regular intervals. After I decharged the unit completely and recharged it however, the problem went away. Also, it can be kinda hard to find Podcasts and non-music related material if you have alot of music stored on the unit. Also, the Zune software doesn't support my Operating System, which is Windows XP Pro 64-bit Edition. All-in-all, I feel that the Zune can hold it's own against other top of the line players. If you're looking for a 30GB media player that has wireless capabilites, FM tuner, decent battery life, and an easy to use interface, then I would reccommend getting the Zune. -PRO's: Can share songs wirelessly, FM Tuner, easy to use, stream media to XBox 360, decent battery life, bright screen, good software. -CON's: Experienced first time use poor audio quality, too bulky to run with, protective sleeve/case it comes with is rather useless, no AC charger unit bundled with product, software does not work with Windows XP Pro 64-bit editionRead full review
The zune is basically like the Ipod Video with a larger screen. So that's a plus. It has however, for it's first 1-2 years always been crippled by shoddy software, however with the Zune music management not in it's 3rd version, things have finally improved to be about the same quality as itunes. Also, this version of the zune doesn't have a click-wheel. So it will feel weird at first, but the benefit is that you can use it in the cold while you're wearing gloves, and also when you're scrolling up/down or changing volume, instead of constantly moving your thumb, you can just lightly hold the button down. (The downside to this is you can't really control the speed you scroll at, so if you have a long list of artists it could take 7-10 seconds instead of 4-6 seconds) Oh, another bright side: My ipod always seemed to break down every 4 months or so, my zune lasted nearly 2 years before needing a replacement. It's very durable!Read full review
First off, I have an X-Box 360. My Zune connects to it and allows me to play music off my Zune on my 360 which is connected to my surround sound system. It sounds beautiful. When I plug in the Zune via USB 2.0 to the 360, the system loads it within seconds. Browsing through the Zune library takes seconds, unlike when I connect my iPod on there, which takes a minute just to load the initial artists list, then half a minute to load in sub-categories. This boasts the faster processor inside the Zune. Another example of Zune's processor is the very minor and quick loading pause when playing long videos. I have a couple of videos on there that are about an hour long, and it loaded faster on my Zune then it did on my PC! The video was also extremely clear and the sound through my headphones was great. Playing videos through my 360 wasn't so great, it was extremely pixelated, but since I'll be rarely using that feature, that doesn't bother me much. The menus on the Zune is actually better then expected. I was expecting Microsoft to Windowize it with icons and embed the face of Windows Media Player everywhere. However the menu is straight to the point, you got your music, pictures, video, radio, community (for the wi-fi access) and settings. If you geek out and let the Zune software download album art and such, it makes it look extremely nice when browsing the Album section under Artists, as each band will have a thumbnails of some album art near each album, it makes it quite pretty. I can do without the gigantic letter that periodically appears to the right of the list when browsing through the Artists list, if anything it's more of a distraction, maybe in time they will get rid of that or have a setting for it, who knows. Pictures has the standard set up, where you browse through thumbnails and select what you want to full screen. You can even set a picture to be your background, similar to an actual PC. My wife was happy when I used our wedding picture as my background. Videos have a similar listing, with a thumbnail, name and basic info for each video you have on there. Videos actually look great for the size of the screen, making it great for travel use. I watched a couple episodes of Robot Chicken on the train and it was just as great of an experience as watching it at home, just got a few crazy looks from people after laughing. The sound is great, you can actually hear the differences between the equalization settings. I was a bit disappointed though that you can customize the equalizer, but maybe that will be in a later update. Battery life is quite nice too, I was using a Zune, showing it off to friends and family for almost 12 hours straight with no breaks and it went down to about half. For something that loads videos, music and connects to wi-fi? That's not bad at all. Now for the main reason why I gave this a 4 star rating instead of a 5, the software. I've never been so aggravated in my life. First off, it read a lot of my MOV files as music, not Movies. MOV is a Quicktime video format. I don't understand how one file works in Media Player well, but not in Zune, which is basically the same program just made into an iTunes variant. There was a couple of miscalculation errors when syncing, syncing itself can be difficult at times and the program itself takes forever to load! I hope they change it soon or some third-party support comes out soon. I do love my Zune though, just not the software. - Scott BRead full review
Had a Zen Vision M that suddenly died after a few months, had a warranty on it for the purchase price, which was only $115 and couldnt find any more refurbs for that price, but found a Zune 30 gb unit refurbished for $99.... Reviews were very good, so figured I'd give it a shot. Very nice unit, very sturdily built. Bigger than the Zen, but about the same thickness, and quite a bit bigger than the IPOD, but unlike the IPOD, doesnt feel like you could look at it and break it.. Software was a breeze to intall, simple to use. The only complaint I have is that if I have a bunch of misc music in a folder, i.e., "Meditation", it shows up on the Zune like 30 different albums, albeit only one song in each album.. Havent figured out how to get them all to show up in the same "album", even if I use "genre" while searching, it still shows each song as a separate album with one song in each album... The Zen did allow you to pick a folder, and whatever songs were in that folder, it would show/play them all.. I guess I just need to make more playlists.. The sound is nothing remarkable, slightly less pronounced than the Zen, but still acceptable. Luckily, all of my music lacks the protection, or I would be less satisfied with the unit, as it does not allow protected music to be uploaded to the unit. The radio is a great addition, but does not pick up stations quite as good as the Zen did. The video screen is quite a bit larger than both the Zen and IPOD video, but is just as crisp and clear. Battery life is good, but not any better than the Zen, slightly better than the IPOD.. Overall, I am really pleased with the purchase, especially for $99... Who could go wrong with that?? I give the Zune 30 gb player an overall score of 7/10..Read full review
After my 3g iPod battery decided to last for an hour, I decided to just get a new MP3 player. After a week of research, I chose the Zune. There are a few reasons I did so. First off, let me say that I am a huge Apple fan -- I think their quality is second to none. That said, I think the Zune has excellent potential. Currently it pumps out excellent sound quality (I am NOT an audiophile by any means) and has some innovative ideas. The huge screen is beautiful (movie quality is incredible) and with firmware updates still rolling out, who knows what great things can be done. That said, there are still a few things lacking from the Zune. First off, NO GAMES! Such a pretty screen and no game support, but there have been rumors of this being fixed. Next, there is no Podcast support; this really just means that there is no Podcast category to make them easier to find in your library. Also, codec support is low -- no DivX XviD etc, but this can be fixed by getting some of the various movie to Zune converters. The wireless feature may be cool, but it has so little use as of now (crippled with '3 plays or 3 days' feature.) I feel this product still has many possibilities. Also, the fact that it isn't selling well means you can easily get one for sub 200 bucks. That price beats a 5.5g 30GB iPod anyday. Finally, the battery life lasts less than what was promised. If I use the device sparingly, I still need to charge it every 4 days or so. If I use it excessively, I need to charge it every other day.Read full review
Upon planning to go for a long trip I decided I needed a bigger MP3 player then what I had. I was not going to pay an arm and a leg for some other brand of MP3/media player, I lose things easy enough, didn't want to shell out the extra cash. Firstly, please note any Windows OS older then XP does not work with the Zune software. Big bummer for me. I'm looking to update from 2K anyways, But hate the thought of that being a reason why to upgrade. And there appears to be no work around for that anywhere. I installed the software on my laptop with no issue. And realized almost immediately it wants you to sign up for the sync service (or whatever they call it.) I don't know about you, but before I attempt anything else let me get my own media on first and see how much space I have left to do such things. The place as to where to update/change file locations to be uploaded is kind of hidden. But, after the first couple times of figuring out what folders are to be uploaded its managable. The folder structure is not maintained within the Zune when you sync the media, bummer there. The firmware on the 30 gig Zune needed to be updated upon completion of the install of the software. Version 1 to version 3. Big jump there. Didn't even attempt to use the Zune prior to updating the firmware, so I'm not sure what the big difference between the updates are, I could read not the motivated though. I wanted my music and to play it. The Zune itself was a decent price. The unfortunate thing is now I need to get the AC adapter. So there's more money to shell out as well as I need to get a hard case or protector for the screen. The Zune itself just came with the USB cable, which Microsoft made to be their own special connector to the player. I hate when people do that, anything for more money. There's no speaker so you need to have atleast headphones or any speakers with the audio cable that you can connect to. I got some speakers last winter and tested them out and sounded good. The equalizer gives you about 11 different presets, personally I know my husband would rather be able to manually set and adjust a default preset. But he's really into getting things to sound as good as possible. I'm content with whatever. Using the FM transmitter with the Zune through the car speakers sounded good. My husband was content with it, I didn't hear any complaints atleast. :) But all in all, I'm glad I spent the money, it'll atleast keep me entertained for days on the road. Oh and you do have the ability to download games for free as well, its only like 5 of them but definatly worth it. Another way to put the Zune to use and get your money worth.Read full review
Bought the 30GB Zune because I hate iPods, and I'm not disappointed. The screen is large and clear, but the controls are a tad clunky. The software install and ensuing multiple updates for the PC software and Zune firmware was also annoying, considering that both the PC software and the Zune firmware required three updates each. However, I do admit that the updated firmware for the Zune makes the graphics and syncronizing process much slicker and faster. I do wish the Zune had more equalizer settings, and the number of video formats supported is pretty limited. Its still a great product, though. Music quality is awesome, and its very easy to use. Sound quality isn't reduced by using the AUX jack in my car stereo, either.