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  1. #1
    Suspended markw's Avatar
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    My impressions: Sansa m200 (2 gig) vs. Zune 80 gig

    Well, the ever-lovely Mrs. W got me an engraved 80 gig Zune for Christmas. I guess she got tired of those 2 gig Sansas we’ve been living with for the past few years and decided to drag me into the 21st century, kicking and screaming. Gotta love that woman.

    I’ve been learning how to use and appreciate this beast since then, with mixed results.

    First off, the good stuff.

    I now have forty times the capacity of my old unit! That’s hard to argue with.

    The sound, with Grado SR-80s, is fantastic. Better than the Sansas.

    The graphics are neat. It’s nice to see the album cover and all pertinent info at a glance on a well-lit screen. The Sansa a line of scrolling text on a hard-to read screen.

    Now, the other stuff.

    It’s bigger and klunkier than the Sansa, but with the graphics and storage capacity I’d say that’s an acceptable tradeoff.

    The earplugs look kewl, what with the cloth wrapped wires and selection of covers to fit any ear, but they sure sound awful! But, that’s the norm with these devices, no?

    There is no hint about how to operate the dang thing. They just say go to the website. This is good since you need to connect the Zune to the computer to activate it. You first need to load the Zune media player (which is like a more comprehensive WMP) and then plug in the unit to activate it.

    With the Sansa, you just plugged it into a USB port and went to WMP. Everything was fairly intuitive.

    Oh. still no instructions. A brief blurb somewhere in the included “quick start” pamphlet on how to turn it on and off would have been nice.

    This thing advertises a built-in “radio”, which was a major decision in wifey’s purchase of this over an ipod. (that, and she doesn’t like itunes). And, it does have a radio, sort-of. When I go to the radio function and scan up the “dial”, it does lock into some known frequencies and, in some cases. displays some station info (Call letters and genre).

    But, and this is where it gets good, or bad, depending. THERE WAS NO SOUND! Just a hiss.

    I thought it was broken so I checked the instructions, which are hidden on the Zune website only to find out that you need to subscribe to these “free” radio stations. Now, maybe I’m old-fashioned, but I’ve always believed that OTA radio was free for the asking, no? We travel and don’t always have access to the NY stations. I guess I’m supposed to subscribe to the Texas stations too.

    Major score FOR the Sansa here. Free radio is free there. Just tune to the station and you’re off and running. That’ll still be in our travel kit, you betcha.

    Likewise, the Sansa may well be the chosen companion for the car. I can easily hold it in my right hand and use my thumb to skip songs while driving. This will be more of a task with the Zune. Ergonometricly, I think the Sansa wins here.

    All in all, it’s a mixed bag. Sometimes letting go of the old ways is hard, but when you have to pay for “free” radio, something is wrong.

  2. #2
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Are you 100% sure there isn't some other setting that allows for free-radio listening on the Zune?

    I ask only because my already biased anti-Microsoft ass is even more outraged that MS has the audacity to charge users, thus making money off somebody else's product (the radio stations). That's unethical on so many levels, and I'm not even sure it's legal? Can you profit of a regulated airwave without paying some form of license or royalty?

    Geez.

    Other than that...nice write-up.

  3. #3
    Suspended markw's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by kexodusc
    Are you 100% sure there isn't some other setting that allows for free-radio listening on the Zune?

    I ask only because my already biased anti-Microsoft ass is even more outraged that MS has the audacity to charge users, thus making money off somebody else's product (the radio stations). That's unethical on so many levels, and I'm not even sure it's legal? Can you profit of a regulated airwave without paying some form of license or royalty?

    Geez.

    Other than that...nice write-up.
    I'm still rooting through any information I can dig up on this bugger. Their instructions are, let's say, "sketchy" but so far I see no way around this. Remember, their IS no insrtruction manual enclosed aside from "log onto the website and download zune before plugging the zune unit into the computer"

    If you can find anything here I would be happy to hear about it: [url]http://www.zune.net[url] I see lotsa fluff but little of substance.

    It took me a few days to find out how to turn it off. I'm still not sure how to turn it on. I feel like a fargin' caveman clubbing a black monolith (which, strangely enough, it resembles) with a bone here.

  4. #4
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Yeah, I've had several products do the same thing. I don't mind it in the interest of being green and all that, but then they kill 4 whales and 13 trees on the exaggerated packaging, so it screams cost-savings to me.

    Well hopefully there's something we're overlooking - I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt here.

  5. #5
    Suspended markw's Avatar
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    I stand corrected on that FM thing.

    I tried it again and this time sound came out. Not as clean as on the Sansa, bit id is free. Methinks it was just setting up the presets at first? Decent (heck, ANY) instructions would have helped here.

    But, this thing is fussy about headphones. If you change them while it's powered on, all sound is muted. AFAICT, the only way to get it back is to power off and on.

    Oh, it must be recharged, either from a USB port or a power supply (sold separately). So, when we travel we must carry either a computer with USB ports or the aforementioned wall-wart power supply.

    The Sansa ran for about 20 hours on one plain old AAA battery which could be changed in about 30 seconds..

  6. #6
    Loving This kexodusc's Avatar
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    Cool...glad to here it's FM friendly....I can go back to merely hating MS for all the other crap they're responsible for.

    Hope you get many hours of enjoyment out of it. Looks like a fun little device.

  7. #7
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    Mark, to turn your Zune off press and hold the play/pause button. My 30 gig and 80 gig Zunes have no problem with playing normal FM radio stations. If you have any ?s let me know I own 2 Zunes and have given one as a xmas present.
    Jimmy B

  8. #8
    Suspended markw's Avatar
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    thanks Jimmy

    Quote Originally Posted by Jimmy B
    Mark, to turn your Zune off press and hold the play/pause button. My 30 gig and 80 gig Zunes have no problem with playing normal FM radio stations. If you have any ?s let me know I own 2 Zunes and have given one as a xmas present.
    Jimmy B
    I finally learned the play/pause trick after throughly investigating the zune web site where it's relatively hidden.

    I found out how to turn it on by sheer luck, that is to toggle the "lock" slider.

    but, I do notice that when one changes headphones, I have to power it off and back on again otherwise nothing comes out. That was the cause of my FM situation.

    Now that I'm learning to live with it's foibles, it's not bad. A bit large compred to what I'm uased to, but quite nice. It sounds great with Grado SR-80's and the user interface is good..

  9. #9
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    same to turn it on, pres the play button and it will come on also.
    I live in microsoft country so I will support them on these players. I don't own anything that starts with "I". It's too bad Rio sold out and quit making players, I have 2 of them and they were real nice.I like the deal where you can put pictures on the Zune being I am a photography enthusiast also. Have fun with your Zune!
    Jimmy B

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