iPod or Zune? [Archive] - Unicyclist Community

OneForTheRoad

2007-03-09, 02:10 AM

:confused: I don't know much about iPods and such. I see the 30GB with video is only $50 more than a 4GB. Why is the 4GB so expensive comparatively?
Trying to decide between an iPod 30GB and the Zune 30GB. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which one to get, what's different about them? Can you put your storebought DVD movies into them or do you have to download off internet sites? Help!

unicyclepa

2007-03-09, 02:13 AM

I see the 30GB with video is only $50 more than a 4GB

I think its because the 30gb has a hard drive and the 4gb nano is flash.

i would get an i pod and put linux on it. but thats just me.
or http://www.redwineaudio.com/iMod.html

Chris.James

2007-03-09, 02:35 AM

if you run around at all, get the flash based (nano) ipod if you are hell bent on an ipod. HDD ipods have a tendancy to break, as they have moving parts inside of them

foforackard

2007-03-09, 02:40 AM

def. get the zune. My friend has one and the LCD screen is bigger than the Ipod and the picture is better. You can also customize a lot more things on the Zune such as the background (you can use your own pics). You can trade songs with friends but you can only listen to the song three times before it gets deleted of your zune. It's really sweet though.

dunawan

2007-03-09, 03:02 AM

Ipods are peices of crap...go for the zune...the only reason i bought my ipod is because it was an investment, see back when the ipod shuffle first came out my brother got it... and got the 2 year replacement planfor it... ipod shuffle broke, he exchanged it and got a nano, it broke, he exchanged it and now hes up to an 8 gigabyte sansa with video

definatly go for the zune

Chris.James

2007-03-09, 03:04 AM

personally i would say go for neither, but if you are hell bent on either an ipod or a zune, i would say 4gig nano

numberthree

2007-03-09, 03:26 AM

See, the thing is, with copywrite protection you can really only transfer about 50 percent of the songs if you have a zune.
I would go with an ipod, but I have a bias towards apple.

BluntRM

2007-03-09, 04:12 AM

The iPod has better software and more free content (Podcasts).

john_childs

2007-03-09, 04:45 AM

The iPod has better software and more free content (Podcasts).
I believe the Zune can play standard Podcasts (netcasts) but the Zune software doesn't support it so you have to work outside the box.

A quick Live Search confirms (http://jkontherun.blogs.com/jkontherun/2006/11/zune_doesnt_sup.html).

My complaint about the Zune is no gapless playback support. Maybe version 2.

maestro8

2007-03-09, 06:58 PM

personally i would say go for neither
+1

I love my Creative Zen (http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/) and Zen Muvo. The Muvo goes with me on many muni rides. It's freakin' tiny but it still has a two-line display and a trick multi-function thumbswitch... I don't need to take my gloves off to operate it, no matter how clumsy I am.

dunawan

2007-03-09, 08:06 PM

+1

I love my Creative Zen (http://www.creative.com/products/mp3/) and Zen Muvo. The Muvo goes with me on many muni rides. It's freakin' tiny but it still has a two-line display and a trick multi-function thumbswitch... I don't need to take my gloves off to operate it, no matter how clumsy I am.

Yeah my friend has one of those, its pretty nice.

tomkarches

2007-03-09, 08:24 PM

The iPod screen and the Zune screen have the same resolution, even though the Zune screen is larger. So the picture isn't any better, its' pixels are larger.

Buy an iPod, unless you want using your music player to become your hobby. If you are on some sort of anti Apple kick, then put it in a case and use different earbuds. No one but you will know.

If you go with an iPod, get a refurb through the Apple Store. Same one year warranty, much cheaper. You can get a 4 gig Nano for under $100. Won't play video. I keep uni videos on my 5g iPod and they look great. The screen is a bit small but fine for stuff under an hour. I watch the Daily Show and it is perfectly adequate.

I have had almost no problems with my iPods. My 6 year old dropped my 1st generation 5 gig iPod onto a hardwood floor from 3 feet in the air. Still works.

If nothing else, the iPod has gone through many iterations, while the Zune is Microsoft's first shot at making a music player. Understand that owning one makes you a beta tester for Microsoft.

--tom

Erin

2007-03-09, 09:15 PM

Yeah, I'd say go for the 'pod, but then I am clearly biased having three different ipods in the house right now. I haven't had any problems with any of them and each is perfected suited to its specific application.

Gotta love the durability of my old mini, the simplicity of the 1st gen Shuffle and the awesome capacity of my 30 gig video pod that gets used as the core of my home stereo system.

I have owned a 4 gig nano in the past but found it to be just a little too small and slick for taking along unicycling and skateboarding - couldn't even feel it in my pocket...LOL Perfer the solidness of a mini when I'm out playing hard.

itunes rules right now, whether we are happy about that fact or not. Works well with any 'pod and especially cool with all the free podcasts that are available now.

joejumps4fun

2007-12-21, 07:13 AM

Anyone have the Zune? I just got the 80 gig zune and I'm new to "sync" stuff. I've never had an Ipod but the reason I bought the Zune was so I could add songs to it and then delete the files off my computer WITHOUT losing them on the player. So.... can anyone tell me how I can add my music to my zune and be able to delete it from my PC without it deleting from the Zune as well?? I really need the advice, and at a noob level, please.

The UniSLAB

2007-12-21, 03:01 PM

Get this (http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/)

forrestunifreak

2007-12-21, 06:01 PM

Jerrick

2007-12-21, 06:57 PM

tomblackwood

2007-12-21, 07:51 PM

There is a way. Basically, you just go into the settings and configure it for manual synching only. That way it only adds what you tell it to and when, and only deletes what you tell it to and when. I'm not someplace I can plug mine in right now, or I could give you the specific instructions. I'll plug in when I get home from work later tonight and write it up if someone else hasn't answered before then. But it can be done...I have mine set up that way.

johnfoss

2007-12-21, 09:21 PM

So.... can anyone tell me how I can add my music to my zune and be able to delete it from my PC without it deleting from the Zune as well?Before attempting an answer, I feel it's my duty to start with another question. Where are you going to back up your songs before you delete them? Because you listed yourself as a noob you may not yet have found out how fragile hard drives are. A hard drive in a small, portable device is subject to three major problems: getting lost, being stolen, or basic drive failure from shocks/drops or for no reason at all. If you have no backups, there goes your music. Back it up to CD/DVD first, and then you're ready to delete it from your computer.

Sounds like Tom Blackwood's advice should work for you, but it may take a little playing around until you get comfortable with doing it all. Tom Karches made a quote earlier that may fit here:
Buy an iPod, unless you want using your music player to become your hobby.
I haven't heard much about the ease or difficulty of managing your music library and keeping your device up to date with other brands of player. I like iTunes as it handles all the dirty work of databasing all my songs and is pretty flexible. Let us know how it goes!

Thor

2007-12-21, 11:26 PM

I Like The Mp 4 Players How About You

johnfoss

2007-12-22, 12:16 AM

I Like The Mp 4 Players How About You
I like having a life. You should try getting one.

...or have I just fed the troll?

tomblackwood

2007-12-22, 09:27 AM

Okay, here's a try at it:

1) Computer running, connect your Zune

2) If your Zune software doesn't launch automagically, click Start, then All Programs, then launch your Zune software. Once your Zune screen launches, click the "Settings" link in the top right.

3) Click on the word "Device" near the top left, then click on Sync Options. You should see four sets of radio buttons. Change the "Sync all my music" button to the "Let me choose my music" button. Then do the same with the video, pictures, and podcasts buttons.

4) Click "Apply" in the bottom right of the screen. Then click OK.

Your Zune should now be in completely manual mode. Things go on it only if you drag them onto your sync list then choose sync. Things go off it only if you select them, then right click and choose delete.

I have the Version 1 30GB Zune, although I just upgraded to the new version of the firmware. I like it much better now. Not sure if it fixes the gapless playback issue...maybe will test tomorrow. But it does fix my biggest pet peeve from V1, which was when you are in "shuffle" mode and got a song that made you want to hear the whole album, you couldn't navigate there without stopping the play, then searching for the album. Now you can press once, and you get a "go to artist" option that takes you right there.

Hope the above works for you and you enjoy your Zune.

TB

johnfoss

2007-12-22, 09:23 PM

The current issue of PC Magazine has a review of the newest Zunes. They like the HD one better than the new solid-state one, which is a version 1.0 product. But apparently there's a lot of new stuff over the previous version, and lots of features the iPod doesn't have, for the same price.

The article can probably be found on the pcmag.com web site.

manon1wheel

2007-12-22, 09:32 PM

i like my new 80 gig pod. havent had any problems. ive got tons of video on it

joejumps4fun

2007-12-23, 02:41 PM

no, I can't. It "syncs" with my library collection so if I delete it off the computer, the next time I plug in the Zune it automatically deletes the album off itself. the gayest function ever. What's the point of having an mp3 player if you absolutely have to keep the music on your computer. I need the space!! Can anyone tell me how to upload new music and not have it delete from Zune when I delete it from my computer?

The UniSLAB

2007-12-23, 08:19 PM

Got my new Ipod touch and it pretty much the coolest thing ever. Haha my friend got a new 80 gig zune and he couldn't stop looking at mine:cool:

tomblackwood

2007-12-23, 08:33 PM

no, I can't. It "syncs" with my library collection so if I delete it off the computer, the next time I plug in the Zune it automatically deletes the album off itself. the gayest function ever.
I'm not sure the issue has anything to do with your Zune's sexual orientation, but rather is related to the device's default settings, and the need to change them to manual synch. To fix this issue, see my step-by-step instructions above, and also this thread (http://www.zuneuser.com/forums/basic-operations/300-keeping-music-zune-but-deleting-computer.html) from the Zune user forums.

joejumps4fun

2007-12-28, 02:21 AM

I'm not sure the issue has anything to do with your Zune's sexual orientationthis thread (http://www.zuneuser.com/forums/basic-operations/300-keeping-music-zune-but-deleting-computer.html) from the Zune user forums.

Thanks Tom! You also made me laugh at your response. I'll check it out. :D

Magixause

2007-12-28, 02:24 AM

Why in the world would you get that. The only thing better is you can get on the internet w/ wifi. If that is a huge deal then great. But when are you really gonna use the internet that much. Go around looking for spots to use the wifi. The standard only holds 8 gigs and the better one holds 16. Well the standard ipod video holds 80 gigs and is 50 dollars less than the standard touch. The other one holds 160 and is 50 dollars less than the other touch. So if you want to get it just for the internet it's ok, but I can't see anyone using that enough to buy a 50 more ipod w/ 10 times less storage.

john_childs

2007-12-28, 02:52 AM

Why in the world would you get that.
There have been some impressive deals on the Zune that could make the Zune attractive to some (and not necessarily attractive in the gay sense). Find it for a good enough price and you just might overlook some of the warts.

You're comparing the capacity of a flash memory based Zune against the capacity of a hard drive based iPod? That isn't a fair comparison at all.

A fair comparison would be to compare the flash based Zune against the flash based iPod. Then compare the hard drive based Zune against the hard drive based iPod.

At a certain point though, capacity becomes overkill. You can only reasonably use so much capacity for music. If you're adding video then you can end up using more capacity, but be reasonable.

With enough capacity you might be able to store your entire music collection on the device. But that comes at the cost of it taking you more time to scroll through selections and find what it is you want to listen to. I'd rather be a bit more selective about what I copy to the device so I don't have to scroll through too much "junk" to get to what I want.

Jerrick

2007-12-28, 10:53 AM

Im gonna probably get an Ipod soon.

Im also gonna set up to be used like most every other mp3 player out there.

Plug it into your computer. Computer detects it as an extrea storage drive. I drag my music into the drive and wait for it to finish copying. Unplug the Ipod and leave.

Should work fine that way. Never going to use iTunes, and im not keeping the apple firmware on the Ipod for anymore than an hour. =p

siafirede

2007-12-28, 02:30 PM

I have been using a first gen(i think) iPod Nano 2gb for a while now and it has held up great. I don't want to use iTunes so I use a program called vPod.

The battery life isn't that great though.

The UniSLAB

2007-12-28, 04:18 PM

Good idea. I didn't register my ipod and I can just go around to other computers and take their music. I'm like a music pirate

Im gonna probably get an Ipod soon.

Im also gonna set up to be used like most every other mp3 player out there.

Plug it into your computer. Computer detects it as an extrea storage drive. I drag my music into the drive and wait for it to finish copying. Unplug the Ipod and leave.

Should work fine that way. Never going to use iTunes, and im not keeping the apple firmware on the Ipod for anymore than an hour. =p

john_childs

2007-12-28, 04:22 PM

J. River just recently released an updated version of Media Jukebox (http://www.mediajukebox.com/). It is free and will sync with iPods and many other players as long as it's not a Zune (Zune is too proprietary).

The new free version has many of the features and conveniences of their commercial Media Center (http://www.jrmediacenter.com/) product. The difference is that Media Jukebox is audio only (no video) and won't do things like stream music over a home network or interface with the TV.

For audio the Media Jukebox rocks. It is database driven and can organize and help tag all of your music. It does proper gapless playback.

I've been using the commercial version of J. River Media Center to play and organize my music files on my PC for a couple years.

The UniSLAB

2007-12-28, 04:24 PM

Is it free?

J. River just recently released an updated version of Media Jukebox (http://www.mediajukebox.com/). It is free and will sync with iPods and many other players as long as it's not a Zune (Zune is too proprietary).

The new free version has many of the features and conveniences of their commercial Media Center (http://www.jrmediacenter.com/) product. The difference is that Media Jukebox is audio only (no video) and won't do things like stream music over a home network or interface with the TV.

For audio the Media Jukebox rocks. It is database driven and can organize and help tag all of your music. It does proper gapless playback.

I've been using the commercial version of J. River Media Center to play and organize my music files on my PC for a couple years.

john_childs

2007-12-28, 04:25 PM

Is it free?
J. River Media Jukebox (http://www.mediajukebox.com/) is free. J. River Media Center is about $40.

Jerrick

2007-12-28, 04:29 PM

J. River Media Jukebox (http://www.mediajukebox.com/) is free. J. River Media Center is about $40.

Sounds cool, but im gonna stick with putting rockbox on my Ipod. Ill still jsut be using realplayer to listen to my Ipod (if its pluged in) just as I would if I was playing any other mp3 from my hard drives.

I dont know why it took so long for me to find this firmware, but it made me interested in iPods again.