Ask Dave (A Microsoft Employee)

[DarkPotato]

awesome, so with the web browser, I can go on Facebook (non-mobile)!!!

oh, and btw, can you give us any info on how much battery life is used with the web browser?

[Leroy Bad]

Originally Posted by DaveMac-MS

I asked one of our developers, and here is the answer I got:



Cheers, Dave.

Thank you for following up on that for me!
Yes I've discovered there were other options later on, its just that neither the Zune Software nor Media Monkey (My primary music ripper/library) has options for WMA-L.
My real question though was about the 784kbps bitrate limitation for lossless audio in the specifications. How can it be lossless if its limited?
I' assume that the functionality will be no different from the previous Zunes, but its just confusing statement.

[h1a8]

Originally Posted by Leroy Bad

Thank you for following up on that for me!
Yes I've discovered there were other options later on, its just that neither the Zune Software nor Media Monkey (My primary music ripper/library) has options for WMA-L.
My real question though was about the 784kbps bitrate limitation for lossless audio in the specifications. How can it be lossless if its limited?
I' assume that the functionality will be no different from the previous Zunes, but its just confusing statement.

When you say limited are you implying that 784kbps is the lowest it can go and you would prefer it go lower?

If so, then know that 784kbps is 55.56% compression which is nearly neck and neck with Monkey's Ape. Going any lower would make it have the best compression of all lossless codecs.

[Olley]

Originally Posted by DaveMac-MS

But to comment specifically on your last point <Pause button> - the competition doesn't have dedicated buttons for pause either. In using the device, I've not had a problem with the button layout or functionality at all. Cheers, Dave.

So the Touch was the only device that was considered competition. OK. I undertand that reasoning. However the Touch does have dedicated volume buttons. Is there no one at MS creative enough to think ahead a bit? It may not be a problem for you to tap once to get to shuttle and volume controls, but it would have saved you a few thousand taps by now if you hadn't needed that tap. How about bettering the competition's hardware? Is that too scary for the team? That side button could have been a volume rocker which paused or started the music when pressed in the center. My two favorite touchscreen players right now are my Samsung P2 and Cowon S9. Both have external Pause/Play and Volume +/-. The Cowon adds track fwd/back. Even Sony was smart enough to put external buttons for volume, track, and pause/play on their X series. Samsung left out an external play/pause on it's P3 and sales have been so bad the P3 is being discounted all over the web.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by Olley

Samsung left out an external play/pause on it's P3 and sales have been so bad the P3 is being discounted all over the web.

Really? Where? I love the Samsung sound.

[quintets_man]

This has probably already been asked but I don't feel like reading through 400+ posts so I'll ask anyway

1)Does the Zune HD have enough dedicated controls? (as in fast forward, rewind, Play/pause, deicated volume controls, hold button)

2)Does it still have to be used with the Zune Marketplace? Seeing as I like the have the option of how to put my music on my DAP (Personally prefer Drag'n'Drop)

3)Does it have an expansion slot? (I hate having to replace a good DAP because I ran out of memory)

4)Does it have Gapless Playback? (Not really necessary, but Ipods can manage it)

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by quintets_man

This has probably already been asked but I don't feel like reading through 400+ posts so I'll ask anyway

1)Does the Zune HD have enough dedicated controls? (as in fast forward, rewind, Play/pause, deicated volume controls, hold button)

2)Does it still have to be used with the Zune Marketplace? Seeing as I like the have the option of how to put my music on my DAP (Personally prefer Drag'n'Drop)

3)Does it have an expansion slot? (I hate having to replace a good DAP because I ran out of memory)

4)Does it have Gapless Playback? (Not really necessary, but Ipods can manage it)

1) No

2) Yes

3) No

4) I think so....the current Zunes do.

[Leroy Bad]

Originally Posted by h1a8

When you say limited are you implying that 784kbps is the lowest it can go and you would prefer it go lower?

If so, then know that 784kbps is 55.56% compression which is nearly neck and neck with Monkey's Ape. Going any lower would make it have the best compression of all lossless codecs.

Read the specifications posted earlier, as my comments are regarding it. It seems to imply 784kbps is the highest it'll support, even though some WMA lossless files are around 800-1000.
They need to go that high to ensure their accuracy. If they were limited down to 784kbps then they would lose that accuracy and no longer be lossless.

Someone later suggested that its referring to a combination of a 784kbps bit rate and a 48khz sample rate. But even that doesn't make sense, because if the audio was truly sampled at 48khz it would still need all the head room it requires for the bit rate in order to insure accuracy.

I assume its a typo, because again the previous Zunes have no problem with WMA lossless at bit rates above 1000kbps, and I dought they'd down play that......but then again....

[quintets_man]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

1) No

2) Yes

3) No

4) I think so....the current Zunes do.

Thanks for the answers. Guess that means I won't be getting a Zune HD

[CheeToS]

Originally Posted by Marvin the Martian

2) Yes

Um, I'm pretty sure you don't have to purchase your music from the Marketplace in order to get it on the device.

[CF]

Originally Posted by CheeToS

Um, I'm pretty sure you don't have to purchase your music from the Marketplace in order to get it on the device.

Correct. All you need is the Zune software, which will sync your music library (if the formats are compatible).

[Dan12R]

Dave, will the Zune HD need an HDCP display in order to output HD (with the dock of course)?

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by CheeToS

Um, I'm pretty sure you don't have to purchase your music from the Marketplace in order to get it on the device.

Originally Posted by circus_freak

Correct. All you need is the Zune software, which will sync your music library (if the formats are compatible).

The point is you NEED to use the Zune software to sync the device (same as all Zunes), that was the point of the question. No, you can rip your own music, but you're REQUIRED to use the software - PERIOD.

[Marvin the Martian]

Originally Posted by CheeToS

Um, I'm pretty sure you don't have to purchase your music from the Marketplace in order to get it on the device.

Originally Posted by circus_freak

Correct. All you need is the Zune software, which will sync your music library (if the formats are compatible).

That's what I meant....the software.(maybe I should sleep more?)

[hawkshot]

They are killing off all current zunes. LINK

This better not mean that my zune 80 will be stuck with the 3.1 firmware. It really made me angry that the transition from 3.0->3.1 killed gapless with my mp3s and aac and I was hoping 4.0 would fix it.

[quintets_man]

Originally Posted by hawkshot

They are killing off all current zunes. LINK

This better not mean that my zune 80 will be stuck with the 3.1 firmware. It really made me angry that the transition from 3.0->3.1 killed gapless with my mp3s and aac and I was hoping 4.0 would fix it.

I can understand why their getting rid of the Zune 16 and below as I've never actually seen anybody with them.

But I don't get why their getting rid of the Zune 30 and above when their the only Zunes I've ever seen people buy.

[quintets_man]

At Dave

Is their any chance that Microsoft will let us choose how we transfer media with the Zune HD(or Zunes in general)?

[copeys]

Originally Posted by quintets_man

At Dave

Is their any chance that Microsoft will let us choose how we transfer media with the Zune HD(or Zunes in general)?

No. It has been previously discussed

Originally Posted by The DarkSide

The point is you NEED to use the Zune software to sync the device (same as all Zunes), ... but you're REQUIRED to use the software - PERIOD.

[daglesj]

Originally Posted by copeys

No. It has been previously discussed

Yeah I just thought a SYNC tab in WMP would be fine but oh no. Sacrilidge apparently.

All we need is a clever coder to make a straight no nonsense sync tool and 'wham' bye bye Zune software.

Would make the Zune a more attractive option for a lot of folks I reckon.

[The DarkSide]

Originally Posted by daglesj

Yeah I just thought a SYNC tab in WMP would be fine but oh no. Sacrilidge apparently.

All we need is a clever coder to make a straight no nonsense sync tool and 'wham' bye bye Zune software.

Would make the Zune a more attractive option for a lot of folks I reckon.

Not to shoot you down, but we all covered our displeasure at being locked into the Zune software/ecosystem already - it's DOA. The point is, if you don't mind the restrictions, then the Zune is for you. If you need freedom to choose, move along little doggie, there's nothing for ya' here to see,.....

The Zune isn't for everyone, that's the main gist of it. And I'd suggest reading all the prior posts, unless ya's want the natives to get restless.