MrNezzer wrote:I highly recommend to anyone who purchases on of these, get the HD/AV dock for your television. This device isn't HD but the dock comes with an insert that will fit this player and sounds amazing through a good home stereo. Also, once you have this device and get used to the software and start enjoying the Zune Pass, you won't be able to stop yourself from getting a Zune HD. Trust me, I started off with a Zune 8 and now have my original 8 and two 32GB Zune HD's. And smart DJ is a wonderful feature of the software (and on the Zune HD device).

I would echo this, BUT I'm not sure that the 4GB and 8GB can output to TV (my 80 and 120 can and I have 2 docks - one for each TV).

That said, Amazon has the non-HD docks for about $15 now...

roadhunter wrote:Peripherals for an iPod? You mean like headphones, a charger, or amplified speakers, which all work on any media player? What else would you attach to one?

I just got a wireless keyboard for my Touch. I use a lot of apps. But I also took all my music off it, as I prefer the freedom of a Sansa, and also I like the Slotradio tunes as well as my own mp3s. iTunes and I are not friends.

ipod > zune

I really like the Zune computer software, even just for playing music at home. It's very easy to work with, and pretty to boot. (And free even if you don't have a Zune, FYI.)

lexicon5 wrote:They still make these? Considering how far they have come down in price...Microsoft will eventually be PAYING people to use the Zune just to claim a micro-percentage of the market. What is that color? Mustard Gas?
No, my bad, it's DRIED mustard

I don't know about that. This is Woot and all, and they're still asking $70 for a 4Gb media player. I wouldn't call that exactly cheap. The reason they can ask that price for it is that it's actually a great player.

At least, I think it is. I actually have a Zune HD (16Gb), which I love, but not this model.

truedivinity07 wrote:Since '07, I've had my faithful Zune 4GB. It still works perfectly, while I've watched my friends replace ipod after flimsy ipod.

These things are durable and amazing, although I will say the Zune software is a bit hard to get used to.

$70 is barely a deal though. Woot I want a 64GB Zune HD! Make it happen!

I have owned three iPods, all of them work perfectly to this day. One is the original 5 gig Firewire iPod, it is nine years old now I think... second one is an iPod classic 80 gig, it has two or three years on it, and an iPod touch that has a year on it. I have dropped all of these several times on hard surfaces many times and I have a very active lifestyle. I don't understand when I hear people call these things flimsy... they have been nothing but robust... given the original iPod is very much brick...

If you own a Mac (and run OS X on it, exclusively) there is no software support. Microsoft does not support the Mac platform with Zune.

If not, I hear it's a nice little piece of hardware.

Gonna join the Zune fans here today. I have a brown (turd) 30gb and got the GF a respiffed white 30gb from Woot. No problems with either unit. I'm listening to mine right now through a nice little 6V6 tube headphone amp - the best of both worlds IMHO.

chorpie wrote:you're missing the point of a device that was meant to show pictures, videos, and play music.

and i guarantee that you cannot listen to all 4GB of music in a day.

I think YOU are missing the point. The point of the modern day Music device is to have all of your music readily available, and above all to multi-task. Why buy an mp3 player AND a phone AND a personal organizer AND a personal gaming system when you can have them all in one sleek little device?

I own an iPhone myself, but there are many very impressive devices coming out that can match and possibly exceed it, and all of them are affordable. Why limit yourself to a mere mp3 player when you can have SO much more?

lexicon5 wrote:They still make these? Considering how far they have come down in price...

Since when is a lower price a bad thing for consumers? Unlike *some* companies, Microsoft doesn't over-price their products just to trick people into thinking the product is superior to the fair-priced competition. *Some* consumers have the misguided mindset that expensive things are always better, so they'll buy them and feel good about themselves and praise their expensive purchase. I bet you only buy brand-name Silly Bandz for your kids too... After all, you don't want your kids' friends to know they paid less for a product that does the exact same thing! How embarrassing!

Just bought another Zune. They don't work with Rhapsody. That would kindof defeat the purpose of the "Zune Pass"- Which ROCKS!

Who wants to drag the battery down on their phone with music and such? There are more important things to do with a smart phone than listen to music... Not to mention the Zune Pass that you can't get on a phone. It lets you download all you want, and you keep any 10 each month. Basically, you pay 3 bucks for all of the music you want and buy 10 songs a month. I phooey.

Don't buy this! You can't find anything in the store to go wtih it, let alone a replacement cord.

It dies after about 1.5 years of use. Cheap product.

shathorn wrote:Just bought another Zune. They don't work with Rhapsody. That would kindof defeat the purpose of the "Zune Pass"- Which ROCKS!

Thx!

mkentosh wrote:how good are the headphones?

The headphones are decent but I would plan on investing in purchasing a separate pair.

foureyedgirl wrote:Don't buy this! You can't find anything in the store to go wtih it, let alone a replacement cord.

It dies after about 1.5 years of use. Cheap product.

You can find accessories on the web.

And, while I understand your unhappiness with the product, you presumably mean "mine died after 1.5 years." Your post is appreciated - the more Wooters post about their experiences, the more we know.

Unfortunately, electronic items have varying lifespans (sometimes owing to quality, other times to users' hard knocks). If you buy a media player, you hope it will last 3 years or more, but you can't be certain.

You have 2 choices: 1) "play the dice" (probably cheaper in the long run, but you may get burned), or 2) get an extended warranty (there's a link on the item page for a 3-year SquareTrade warranty for $9.99, and you may even get it cheaper with a coupon code).

CGar23 wrote:Do these work with Rhapsody?

no they do not.

bkearney09 wrote:I think YOU are missing the point. The point of the modern day Music device is to have all of your music readily available, and above all to multi-task. Why buy an mp3 player AND a phone AND a personal organizer AND a personal gaming system when you can have them all in one sleek little device?

I own an iPhone myself, but there are many very impressive devices coming out that can match and possibly exceed it, and all of them are affordable. Why limit yourself to a mere mp3 player when you can have SO much more?

cause if that one device dies, you're screwed. I like having my music seperate. It means I'm not out of luck. Zune is the best MUSIC player around.

I have had a 30GB zune for 3 years. The device itself is great. Battery life is great, sound quality and interface are fantastic.

However, the zune software for the PC is AWFUL. Get this if you have a very robust processor and memory OR if you can do without updating your song catalog very often. But I found the software to be incredibly slow (much like iTunes on the PC if you have a large catalog of mp3s) and incredibly inept at handling basic music management tasks.

Example: you can rate a song on the player by 'hearting' it, but there is no way to grab all these songs and make an exportable playlist out of them in the PC application. Great! Glad I spent all that time hearting those songs!

I could go on but I can't remember other examples b/c I haven't used the software in about five months and have only bothered to engage with it maybe 8 times in the 3 years I've had the zune because it is such an enormous pain in the butt to use.

By the way, this is coming from someone with years and years of using iTunes, winamp, windows media player and other less common music applications on my PC, so I know what to expect from such interfaces. (By the way, of those, the only ones I recommend are winamp and now subsonic, but the geniuses at microsoft won't let a zune talk to ANYTHING other than the zune software. Thanks for wasting a rather nice appliance with your proprietary bs, M$!)

BanhiDancer wrote:I must be in the minority here, but I really don't like my Zune. I have an old, fat 30GB but I use my 8GB Sansa wayyy more.

For one, I truly despise the Zune software that I'm *forced* to use. If I can't just drag music over in an explorer window when I'm in a rush, I'll pass.

Secondly, why-oh-why can't I just use my MICROSOFT Windows Media Player to Sync my MICROSOFT ZUNE?? Seriously, I have my media player all set up and perfect but I can't sync my Zune which is marketed by the same darn people? Perhaps there's a workaround that I'm missing there, but it was just too much hassle and now I have a 30GB Zune, unloved, needing a good home. (I'm thinking eBay)

I am totally with you here. The device itself is fine, but the software is simply godawful. Luckily I fit enough music on there that I never bother to sync with the software. For new stuff, I listen elsewhere.

shathorn wrote:Just bought another Zune. They don't work with Rhapsody. That would kindof defeat the purpose of the "Zune Pass"- Which ROCKS!

Not exactly if you get MP3's off Rapsody you can play them back.. but your right not directly

any clue when the next woot off is!?

NightGhost wrote:It looks as though you're new to Woot. Their writeups are always humorous. Usually very humorous.

You have such a nice way of calling some one a dumbass. <---favorite emoticon BTW.

dhousner wrote:any clue when the next woot off is!?

Sign up for the news letter

They are touch sensitive. Zune's are the best and by far, beat IPod and Sansa. I have a 30g 1st gen and an 80g from woot about a year ago. I had problems with the 80g twice. Sent it in first time had it back within a couple of weeks. Second time had a brand new player replacement on a refurb I bought from woot. Service was excellent and fast. And yes, if the music is in a mp3 format or compatible it will load from other software such as ITunes and Rhapsady. All of my ITunes music loads successfully on both players. I have two IPods and don't use either of them other than as an alarm clock.

zzzaap wrote:Why couldn't this be a Zune HD?

Anyways, how does the controls work? Are they touch sensitive or are they buttons only?

bring back the ableplanet headphones !!!!!

I'd get a Zune but for two reasons:

-It doesn't have onboard volume leveling. A lot of media players/organizers can calculate the average volume of the song, embed that value in the tag, and the mp3 player will play it back corrected. The only way to make this work with the Zune is to permanently alter the mp3 file before syncing it, which can result in clipping, which sucks.

-As someone mentioned before, you can only use the Zune software to sync your music. The Zune player is the only DMP that has this problem. I use MediaMonkey to organize my music (and highly recommend it), and it will sync everything but a Zune.

Other than that it's great, but if it can't be left playing unattended at a party because I'm having to run over and adjust the volume between each song, and I have to use the Zune software, which runs incredibly slowly on my reasonably spec'd computer, it's not for me!

I had mine a little over a year, normal use, and it quit working. Not covered by warranty anymore, nothing the company will do. Do some research online - it appears it is a common occurance with many frustrated users.

The Zune pass is the reason to get these machines (that and the sound quality). I have 3 kids all desperate to buy the latest music that they listen to frequently for a couple of weeks then never listen to again. The Zune pass which allows 3 Zunes and 3 PCs for each account is just fantastic for that.

So we have most flavors of Zune. The 30Gb first generation - built like a tank; a few 8Gb Zunes which are a great size and 1 HD Zune which is just an object of beauty.

You also get 10 songs to keep forever each month so effectively you pay $5 to keep 3PCs and 3Zunes up to date with the latest music. Bargain!

The Zune software takes an age to load if you have a huge amount of songs (as it automatically searches for new music) but once up and running it is great.

Even that there are ipods in the house too, everyone in my house prefers the Zune software and hardware.

Hah, is it me or is that green zune... have too much red pigment O.o I like the software interface though, took me about 5 min. to master it.

I paid $80 for my refurbished 30GB Zune on Woot, and that was well over 2 years ago.

A 4GB media device is kind of laughable these days.

By the way, my Zune still works great! Battery life sucks balls, but that's expected after such heavy use for so long.

Zune saves the known universe!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqTYI55K1eo

Yeah.

Ok, maybe not.

Sansa Fuze works with Rhapsody in much the same way as Zune with Zune Market save for the 10 song a month credit. Additionally the Zune Software is Way WAY better than either Rhapsody or iTunes.

I may justy upgrade to Windows Phone 7 just for this. . although the Android owners in the household would probably miss Rhapsody. Too bad!

bsmith1 wrote:Since when is a lower price a bad thing for consumers? Unlike *some* companies, Microsoft doesn't over-price their products just to trick people into thinking the product is superior to the fair-priced competition. *Some* consumers have the misguided mindset that expensive things are always better, so they'll buy them and feel good about themselves and praise their expensive purchase. I bet you only buy brand-name Silly Bandz for your kids too... After all, you don't want your kids' friends to know they paid less for a product that does the exact same thing! How embarrassing!

Wow, way to stereotype.

I'm dirt poor and buy everything generic when I can get it that way, but there ARE some things that are worth paying extra for. In my personal opinion, my purchases from *some* companies were worth a little extra. Don't think that just because I paid more money for my quality electronics I'm an elitist a-hole. In my experience I've seen more elitists that support *other* companies than *some* companies. "You're so d-mn touchy!"

Peace and love everyone; PC and Mac users can coexist

For the Wooter (blueconversechucks) who said you can't make a playlist out of the "hearted" songs....yes you can.

Open the Playlists window. Click the button for "New Autoplaylist".

In the filters, choose the Rating dropdown and select your heart.

That's it. You are done. Easy peasy!

I have a Zune 30 gig I got from Woot a couple years ago, an iPod Nano 1st gen, and an iPod Touch.

I prefer the Zune for these reasons:
1) the navigation is more logical, especially if you hand the device to someone who hasn't used an ipod before.
2) The Zune software does better management of podcasts than iTunes.
3) Zune Pass
4) Built in FM tuner (which I know the new iPods have but not when I got my devices)

The Nano I got for free and the Touch I got for iPhone development. I'm not doing anything with the Nano right now, it will become my motorcycle's MP3 device next year when I get a new motorcycle. The Victory Cross Country can have an iPod connector.

I would love a Zune HD - the only issue I have with my Zune 30 is that it is hard drive based. The HD is a little pricey though.

I like the iPod Touch but it seems Apple has lost fact that it's main purpose is a music player. It is a decent music player but still a little confusing to use. It's a mini-PDA.

The Zune Pass is a no brainer. Unlimited music rental with the option to own 10 songs a month. For the price of a CD every month you get almost a full CD a month and unlimited rentals.

The only thing I wish the Zune or iPod could do is stream their contents over wireless to the PS3 or Xbox - built in media server. Yeah, that is probably asking too much of the hardware, but it would be cool.

hebetude wrote:Zune or Sansa Fuze+.

Sansa Fuze+ costs the same, can be used on any OS or without an OS.

Zune works only with Zune software (which is fantastic, but only works on Windows)

The Fuze is less expensive:
SanDisk Sansa Fuze 4 GB Video MP3 Player - Price: $56.96 & eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime

And you can find better deals than that. The Fuze also has microSD/microSDHC slot. That was the deciding factor in my decision to buy a Fuze.

hexic fo' free
'nuff said

Zune does NOT support non-English texts.
If you have any songs with ID3 tags including non-English texts (such as those in ISO font) they will appear as complete garbage.

BEWARE!

I would buy this, but I bought my Zune about 3 or 4 years ago on woot! and it refuses to break, so I can't justify purchasing another one. I love my Zune by the way.

I need more storage. My Zune30 (my 2nd woot!) finally died after nearly 4 years of abuse. I'm hoping for a replacement in the same spirit.