Good Product - But Buyer Beware

Based on the recommendation of some good reviews, we purchased the red version of this Zune for our 11 year old daughter.

A strength of the Zune is that the user interface is well designed. Navigation with this device is the best I've ever seen in a user interface (even better than the iPod for me). The Zune software that runs in Windows is pretty well written too - from the user interface perspective.

I've heard negative things about the Zune that are simply not true. For example: "Nobody is buying them." Wrong! A lot of people are buying these devices. Another is that this player is not nearly as good as the iPod. I cannot disagree enough with that statement. Our family now has both the iPod and the Zune, and they are both very well designed and thought out devices.

However, I need to warn you that there are some major hurdles to overcome with the Zune as a package - meaning both the player and the Zune Windows software working together. These hurdles may be a major irritation to anyone who expects this device to just work out of the box. Please keep in mind that I am a professional software developer - and even I almost returned the Zune out of frustration and disappointment with how to send a DVD movie to the Zune, or how to use the Zune as a flash drive (like a USB flash drive).

So here are some things to know before purchasing a second generation Zune 4:

NO SOFTWARE IN THE BOX: The Zune software for Windows does not come in the Zune package. You must browse to a web site to download the latest version of the Zune for Windows software for installation. (The instructions give you the web address.)

NO FLASH DRIVE OUT OF THE BOX: The Zune software for Windows is required for synchronization of files. It is not possible to just drop files into the Zune like you do with a USB flash drive because the Zune does not show up as a drive in the My Computer window. Running a hack patch at http://cppworld.com/Zune/ZuneHDPatch.exe is necessary to solve this problem. There is absolutely no reason why a user should be locked out of the using a Zune as a flash drive! This was a major blunder by Microsoft. Some may even view this as an insult to user intelligence and an unnecessary restriction to user freedom. Microsoft beware: It may steam a lot of users who are used to the freedom of the iPod.

NO WRITING FILES - UNLESS YOU TRICK the ZUNE SOFTWARE: After the hack is installed, Zune will not allow writing folders or files to the Zune through a Windows Explorer. If you want to manually copy a file to the Zune, you must start a sync session in Zune software and shutdown the software with the close button (not Alt-F4) before the sync process stops. This clunky move leaves Zune in a state where you can copy files to the Zune manually.

NO SURE MP4 VIDEO SUPPORT: Converting movies from DVD to an iPod is hard enough without the extra hurdles faced when converting to the Zune. For example, trying to figure out what video format to use is a struggle. The specifications say that the Zune supports MP4 video files. However, apparently the Zune Windows software does not recognize certain MP4 video formats as a valid media type. Even if you manually copy an MP4 file to the Zune, the Zune may report that it cannot play that format. The only format that it recognizes regularly is WMV - which is okay, but it requires more space as a WMV is not as compressed as an MP4. (I recommend the Xilisoft DVD to Zune Converter software. If you are ripping standard DVD movies, then you may need to use DVD Decrypter first - as many DVDs are "copy protected.")

MARKETPLACE - WILL IT WORK OR NOT?: The marketplace is an online store from Microsoft that allows you to browse a huge library of music or videos to download into the Zune. The site that allows you to purchase credits in advance, then choose music or videos to download, that is, if you can. We downloaded a few Charlie Brown albums without any problems. However, in a later session, we attempted to use the remaining credits for other music. We were stopped by some cryptic license protection message that would not allow the music to load into the Zune Windows software. Now we cannot use the rest of our credits. Searching the net, I found that a lot of angry people are suffering from lots of download issues with Microsoft marketplace. Microsoft has really dropped the ball with this issue –because that is my money that they have in their bank – and they will not send me product for it! This will turn into a big loss for Microsoft, since consumers like me will never trust marketplace with pre-purchased credits again.

Frankly, I'm pretty happy with the Zune now that I've overcome many hurdles. It’s too bad that users have to be beat up just to use this nice little device with Windows. If I had known before the purchase what I know now, I would have saved myself the aggravation and purchased another iPod instead.