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Second Time 'Round - the Zune Flash In-Depth

Posted by Zonk on Thu Nov 15, 2007 02:44 PM
from the give-it-a-better-go-this-time dept.
Microsoft Toys Media Music Technology
J Mallard writes "Ars Technica has an in-depth review of the new Zune Flash. The overall verdict? An improvement over the original, with some caveats. 'I suspect there's a special shotgun in Redmond passed around ceremonially to the different divisions so each can shoot itself in the foot. When the shotgun arrived at the Zune team HQ, it appears to have been directed squarely at one of the most promising new features the device has to offer: autosyncing of recorded TV content ... [Specifically,] DVR-MS support for unprotected standard definition TV recordings from Windows Media Center. HDTV and protected recordings are not supported.' Let me make sure I understand this: at this point, a consumer has purchased a PC, Vista, a tuner card, and a Zune, but still can't be trusted with high-def content? Nice.'"
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Submission: Second time around: the Zune Flash in-depth by Anonymous Coward
[+] Technology: Microsoft is the Industry's Most Innovative Company? 421 comments
mjasay writes "According to a recent analysis by IEEE, Microsoft's patent portfolio tops the industry in terms of overall quality of its patents. And while Microsoft came in second to IBM in The Patent Board's 2006 survey, its upcoming 2007 report has Microsoft besting IBM (and even its 2006 report had Microsoft #1 in terms of the "scientific strength" of its patent portfolio). All of which begs the question: Just where is all this innovation going? To Clippy? Consumers and business users don't buy patents. They buy products that make their lives easier or more productive, yet Microsoft doesn't seem to be able to turn its patent portfolio into much more than life support for its existing Office and Windows monopolies. In sum, if Microsoft is so innovative, why can't we get something better than the Zune?"
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Second Time 'Round - the Zune Flash In-Depth 50 Comments More /

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  • but that... is quite a blunder there. Sure most people won't want to use it for HD content, but dissapointing the crowd with the loudest voice is usually a bad idea...

    • Re:All software has bugs and/or design faux-pas... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mabhatter654 (561290) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:12PM (#21369307)
      Content is content... if it's on your windows machine and a supported format, why can it NOT be played...especially if it was RECORDED on your machine!!!! By Windows... kinda dumb

    • Re:All software has bugs and/or design faux-pas... (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Erwos (553607) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:15PM (#21369363)
      The again, Microsoft's been screwing the HD content crowd for a while now. No clear QAM support (except for Cablecards, which is pointless), the Cablecard limitations, no DirectTV support (it's been "coming soon" since like early 2006), and so on. Even their MVPs are starting to lose their patience.

      • The again, Microsoft's been screwing the HD content crowd for a while now. No clear QAM support (except for Cablecards, which is pointless), the Cablecard limitations, no DirectTV support (it's been "coming soon" since like early 2006), and so on. Even their MVPs are starting to lose their patience.

        I don't know about the DirectTV stuff, but last I checked, the QAM is more from the cable providers, etc. not wanting that stuff available to the consumer, so making it an issue.

        AFAIK, no other OS has any encrypt

    • Re:All software has bugs and/or design faux-pas... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:17PM (#21369387)
      Who the hell would need HD content on a 320x240 screen and with that small of a storage space?

      Fix the horrible playlist support on the Zune first. That was the one thing i was hoping they'd fix this time around but instead it's still an epic fail.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Tim Browse (9263)
        Well, (as I understand it) the video is always transcoded when syncing occurs, to match the Zune's screen/performance.

        This limitation means you can't sync certain shows you've recorded to your Zune, just because the channel/show happens to be in HD. Arbitrary annoyance, and kinda dumb, really.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by hobo sapiens (893427)
        They didn't fix that for the same reason they didn't completely fix piss poor standards support in IE7 and instead spent five years (or however long it took to get IE7 out the door) focused on making the "groundbreaking" tabs and worthless anti-phishing filter. That, and screwing with the placement of important stuff on the toolbar and menu.

        MSFT focuses on stuff that is whizzbang and makes for good press releases instead of just making the damn thing work properly. Typical, and not surprising. Really, do

    • Re:All software has bugs and/or design faux-pas... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by arth1 (260657) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:29PM (#21369553) Homepage Journal
      Why would anyone want it for HD content? The screen doesn't even support NTSC resolution. Starting out with HD won't make a noticeable difference when it has to be scaled down anyhow.

      • Re:All software has bugs and/or design faux-pas... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by ByOhTek (1181381) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:33PM (#21369615) Journal
        Simple - people don't want things because they are rational, they want them because they are spiffy.

        And it saves the time to downconvert it by hand if it can be done on the fly (though if you have a transfer app, you should just use that).
      • I recently got an iPod Nano Video. All the shows I've taped with SageTV get converted using a special conversion profile I've set up which basically amounts to 320x240 MPEG4 with 128 kBit/s AAC sound. You can get an hour of TV in 140 Megs. This means I can keep a lot of shows on my tiny 4 GB Nano. The screen doesn't support higher resolutions anyway, so no point taking up space for it.
      • Better harmonics and a warmer picture! It doesn't have the harsh, digital flavor of NTSC resolutions.

  • I think this is what is most bothersome (Score:5, Insightful)

    by yagu (721525) * <yayagu AT gmail DOT com> on Thursday November 15 2007, @02:49PM (#21368973) Journal

    I think this is what is most bothersome, and tiresome, about the treadmill that is Microsoft's products, advertising, etc. From the article, yet again:

    Only recently has the company admitted what was clear from the outset: the first Zune was rushed to market (it was a "sprint cycle," in Microsoft terms), and "compromises" were made in order to make that happen.

    It's hard to imagine how this goes on and on, but it does. I don't know who it reflects more poorly on, Microsoft's disingenuousness (word?), or the public's collective willingness to be fooled again and again.

    I've often referred to the Charlie Brown - Lucy tension as the perfect metaphor... Lucy promises to placehold the football so Charlie can kick it. He falls for it every time and she never fails to pull it away at the last second (I keep hoping there's one strip where she doesn't pull it away, but I never saw it.... anyone?). We, the public are Microsoft's Charlie Brown. Sigh.

    • Charlie Brown? Lucy? You must be getting old, and I'm above 30...

    • Re:I think this is what is most bothersomeLUCY& (Score:4, Funny)

      by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:23PM (#21369465)

      I've often referred to the Charlie Brown - Lucy tension as the perfect metaphor... Lucy promises to placehold the football so Charlie can kick it. He falls for it every time and she never fails to pull it away at the last second (I keep hoping there's one strip where she doesn't pull it away, but I never saw it.... anyone?). We, the public are Microsoft's Charlie Brown. Sigh.

      I had long hoped to speak to Charles Schultz about this very item. It was my fond hope that in the very last Peanuts strip that Lucy wouldn't pull the ball away, and Charlie Brown finally kicks it...

      ...right into the Kite Eating Tree.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dprovine (140134)

      Lucy promises to placehold the football so Charlie can kick it. He falls for it every time and she never fails to pull it away at the last second (I keep hoping there's one strip where she doesn't pull it away, but I never saw it.... anyone?).

      There was an episode of American Masters on PBS a couple weeks ago about Charles Schultz, and his wife said that some time after he'd finished the final cartoon he'd said something to the effect that "Drat! I ended the strip and he never did kick that football!"

      • Since MS does a complete redesign every time they release a product, isn't every MS product a 1.0 product? Not until they start releasing service packs could the product be considered not 1.0.

  • But (Score:4, Interesting)

    by niceone (992278) * on Thursday November 15 2007, @02:49PM (#21368979) Journal
    But will it run Linu^H^H^H^H rockbox [rockbox.org]?

    Probably not.

  • HD? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2007, @02:50PM (#21368997)
    HD content displayed at 320x240 on a device with an 8GB capacity? Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.

    • Re:HD? (Score:5, Informative)

      by DingerX (847589) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:06PM (#21369213) Journal
      Uh, the point was:

      If you have a TV tuner, you can set it to auto-record shows, and the Zune software will transcode it (and presumably bust it down to 320x240) for the Zune, and wirelessly sync it up. If you have a HD tuner (or even just a digital one, on some reports), it won't work.

      The "coolness factor" isn't in the HD, but that you can record your daily television shows (say last night's talk shows), and they'll be automatically put on your device for the morning commute. The "shotgun-to-foot factor" is that it doesn't work unless you have an analog tuner card, even though analog broadcasts are going to disappear.

      • Re:HD? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by aztektum (170569) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:42PM (#21369787)
        Some times you can see a glimmer of cool going on inside Microsoft. It's kind of a bummer, because obviously they have to have a lot of really bright folks working there. It seems when you get a certain level above peon is when it turns into the corporate monopolist with an eye on world domination everyone hates. Granted a lot of places work like that, but somehow MS always seems to take it to a new level.
    • I was a bit baffled as well from the summary, but it isn't really about HD content. According the the article the zune won't support digital content recorded using windows media center and a tv-tuner card.
  • Only recently has the company admitted what was clear from the outset: the first Zune was rushed to market (it was a "sprint cycle," in Microsoft terms), and "compromises" were made in order to make that happen.

    Translation: Release it. Fix it in SP1
    • Translation: Release it. Fix it in SP1

      No, no, no. That's pretty much standard for most software. Microsoft's version actually goes like this:

      Release it. Fix most of it with SP1, introduce new problems and incompatibilities. Repeat with subsequent patches until software becomes obsolete.

  • Positive review (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RonnyJ (651856) on Thursday November 15 2007, @02:57PM (#21369109)
    So why is the only quote in the summary from the only really negative bit of the review?

    Heres another quote, from the conclusion:

    We expect that the new lineup will help Microsoft become an established player in the PMP space over the next year. The updated devices should also put an end to the almost-endless set of Zune-related jokes, and they are an obvious choice for anyone who loves subscription music services.

    • Re:Positive review (Score:5, Insightful)

      by niceone (992278) * on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:09PM (#21369247) Journal
      So why is the only quote in the summary from the only really negative bit of the review?

      Ummmmm, because this is slashdot?
    • Because this is Slashdot of course! M$ is the spawn of Satan and anything they create must be mercilessly ridiculed from our Windows PC's at work while we whittle away the time until we can get home to play more 360. Didn't you know that???

      In all seriousness though, I'm glad to see all of the improvements. I personally don't like iPod much because I don't like paying $250 for a device (actually, I won mine, so technically it was free...but the principle still holds true =) ) with a battery that conks ou

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AndersOSU (873247)
      I wouldn't call it the only negative part of the review.

      My one sentence summary of the review: "It's a pretty neat devise that mostly does what you'd expect a music player to do, but there are some stupefying design decisions, and it doesn't really offer anything that will allow it to make significant inroads into the iPod dominated market."

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by hondo77 (324058)
      Because you have the line in your own post: "...and they are an obvious choice for anyone who loves subscription music services." Music subscription services are such a small part of the online music market as to be a joke themselves. If you want to be an iPod-killer, you don't focus on a market that even Napster is giving up on [slashdot.org].

  • Product not customer (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna (970587) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:00PM (#21369143) Journal
    You are mistaken in thinking the person who bought all that and wants to watch the TV program is the customer. Sorry. You are wrong. That person is the product. The advertisers and content owners who want to protect it using ever increasing amount of DRM is the customer. Got it? Now it all makes sense, doesn't it?
    • Mod this up! It's probably the single most insightful comment in this discussion!

    • Re:Product not customer (Score:5, Interesting)

      by nine-times (778537) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:18PM (#21369399) Homepage

      That idea is sorely underrepresented in a lot of discussions about "media content". Even ignoring the ad breaks in TV shows, there's still product placement within the shows. If you haven't seen it yet, either you don't watch TV or you haven't been paying close enough attention.

      When you really evaluate what's going on in media companies, it's clear that even a lot of content that you pay for is still designed to serve as advertising. The music and movies you buy are rigged and designed to get you to buy into related brands and merchandizing. Listen to a record executive for a few minutes, and you'll realize that what they're really interested in is branding, marketing, merchandizing. The music is an advertisement for lifestyle products, clothing lines, etc.

      So the business model, under this light, is the consumer as a customer. The content owners/producers are providing a service, but you aren't the customer, you're the product. The customer are the huge companies who produce loads of crap that no one really wants or needs. The service being provided is to convince you (essentially the product) into believing that you want and need crap that you don't actually want or need.

      • While I certainly agree that the content producers are in the business of selling eyeballs to advertisers, rather than content to viewers, it is important to remember that the only way a content producer can produce a supply of eyeballs is by making something that causes the viewers to show up. If things like ad-riddled drm encumbered content, or an onslaught of insipid writer-strike driven reality tv alienates viewers to the point that it causes them to stop watching the content producers will find themse
        • You are correct in saying though the cash is paid by the advertisers and product placers, unless the content delivers eyeballs, it is not going to sell anything.

          The current business model is that the viewers pay with their time, the time they watch unwanted portions of the broadcast. And a few pay with actual dollars, pay per view, DVDs etc. But those who pay with money are swamped out by those who pay with their time. As it is the internet pipes are getting fatter and pretty soon it will be possible to

  • at this point, a consumer has purchased a PC, Vista, a tuner card, and a Zune, but still can't be trusted with high-def content?
    C'mon, if they'd purchased Vista and a Zune they'd be pretty pissed off and I wouldn't trust them either.

    (Seriously, I have Vista and have been more than happy with it.)

  • Mr. Gates, Tear Down This Wall! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:19PM (#21369409)
    Until they get rid of that ridiculous limit on playback of WiFi shared files -- especially non-copyrighted files -- Zune is just an annoyance with potential.

    What makes it all doubly stupid is that Microsoft is able to identify copyrighted files that aren't allowed to be shared (e.g. Frank Sinatra) through WiFi.

    • Well... Yes and no. The problem is, of course, that 99% of the content people will end up "squirting" to each other will in fact be illegal. After all, like Apple has admitted themselves, the VAST VAST majority of a user's music library consists to ripped, downloaded or otherwise finangled music that are not downloaded off any online store. Sure, you could scan track names and try to guess at its copyright status, but that's neither foolproof nor a good solution.

      So MS was staring at two options:

      1 - All

  • Unfortunately, it's not just Microsoft. Cable and Satellite providers have things so locked down that doing what *I* want with the HD content I pay for is simply out of the question. I use an HDHomeRun [silicondust.com] box in conjunction with SageTV [sagetv.com], which will let me record both OTA and clear QAM HD channels over cable, but the offerings are limited, and it's certainly NOT a system for Joe Sixpack. While it is nice to be able to watch and record HD content, unless it's clear (unencrypted) you are out of luck. Cable, DirecT

  • Quite a bargain (Score:4, Interesting)

    by InlawBiker (1124825) on Thursday November 15 2007, @04:11PM (#21370219)
    The old one is now a great bargain. I have the old 30gb model, I won it at a charity auction. I always liked the thing, but with the new firmware and software it's really nice. I've seen them for $85 online with free shipping (in the U.S.) Not bad for a 30gb player with wireless and video!

  • Zune Owner, HD Works Fine (Score:5, Informative)

    by JonXP (850946) on Thursday November 15 2007, @06:10PM (#21371757)
    I'm a Zune owner, and I record Terrestrial Broadcast HD shows. My Zune syncs with them fine, after the software does its automatic (and transparent to the user) conversion for resolution and space. This is on my old Zune 30GB, even. I'm not sure why the article says that non-DRM'd HD doesn't work...perhaps they only tried a DRM'd video and assumed it all wouldn't work?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by LWATCDR (28044)
      No worse than iPod. Sounds like something you use to keep your prosthetic eye in. I mean if you are going to bash the Zune bash it for all one of the many logical reasons.
      Lack of a wireless musical store. DRMed to Death. Doesn't support Microsoft's own Play for Sure content.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by sseaman (931799)
        I think rumors of its DRMed death are grossly exaggerated. From the review, it looks like it will not only play DRM-free files, but you can also purchase a slew of DRM-free songs at whatever on-line service it (strongly) encourages you to use. There appear to be annoyances (you can't store DRMed video on it? that makes no sense - I'm assuming that's the reviewer's mistake. Likely you can't store DRMed video that the Zune application can't find a license for), but none of them are a deal breaker for some
    • Monkey nipple is a way cooler name than zune. The thing comes in a brown color... enough said.
    • Sounds like something out of ghostbusters.

    • Re:Look (Score:5, Funny)

      by fred fleenblat (463628) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:13PM (#21369325) Homepage
      I would argue with you, but I am very busy right now. I am drinking a Zima while programming with some Zend tools. My Zune is rocking to the musical stylings of Zappa. I store my zinc in a zip-loc bag right next to my Zip drive, which contains a Zero Mostel mpeg. I do not use Zone Alarm. I drive a MBW Z3. I had some zucchini at the zoo. Any zircons? Zilch. I ran out of money yesterday so I robbed a zombie and hijacked a zephyr. I got my shoes at Zappos.com. But and between zeus and zygotes, I've had enough zeitgeist.

    • Why not name it Monkey nipple?
      I think that the name "Monkey nipple" was already taken by some component of Gnome.

    • If it came with 7 strippers and a dwarf I'd buy seven. It would not fail. It would be awesome. If it were named Monkey Nipple and came with 7 strippers and a dwarf it would make Ballmer the ruler of the planet, Darkseid-style.

    • Re:HD on the Zune? Huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by joto (134244) on Thursday November 15 2007, @03:08PM (#21369239)

      Why would you need HD content on a device with a 320 x 240 screen?
      Because the content isn't available as non-HD? Why would you want to record the same program twice, just so you can use it on your whateveritscalled.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Bobartig (61456)
      if you have a digital tuner, its all technically hd, although some of it is just 480p streams. They seem t be indicating that you don't even have the option of shrinking it down, which makes no sense to me since I can do whatever I want with the digital tuner in my mac. I can take 1080i and shrink it to postage stamp iPod sizes, if I'm so inclined. I mainly encode to 480x320 for my iPhone.
    • Daddy Who: "Nobody goes outside on Grinch Night"
      Cindy Lou Who: "But daddy, I gotta go to the euphemism"



      Joins your first and last points quite nicely, doesn't it.

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