I give a quick review of the Zune HD & the companion software Zune 4.0 software. I go thru some of the features of the Zune HD, and touch on some of the new effects and features presented in it. I also give a quick overview of the Zune 4.0 Software including some of the new features debuting in version 4.0. I am a Microsoft Student Partner for University of Central Florida, and this is my first review. I hope you enjoy it!

Duration : 0:7:43

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Zune HD – GET BEST AND LOWEST PRICE for Microsoft Zune HD 16 Gb Video MP3 Player (Black). You can buy the cheapest price Zune HD from Amazon.com

Duration : 0:1:2

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Zune HD, zune hd, zune hd 16 Gb Video Player, zune hd black, zune hd reviews., zune hd touch, zune mp3 player

Sign-up is quick and painless, easier if you have a U.S. hotmail account already but it’s pretty easy to create one; when it comes time to enter your payment details you enter your code from your access card instead of a credit-card and you’re good to go.

What I found to be pretty amazing is the instant access you have to the download library, while I initially began by downloading a couple dozen songs I found myself rapidly downloading by the 100′s. One of the things that encourages you to large downloads are the playlist suggestions: numerous song “mixtapes” geared towards a certain band, style or era. For a kick I tried out the Flower Power playlist, a nearly 100-song list of songs ranging from the 60′s hippy era of the Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul & Mary to the 00′s indie-rock of the Flaming Lips and Death Cab For Cutie. It wasn’t a perfect mix by any means, and it’s questionable what music would considered Flower Power from the 80′s onward, but whoever decided to compile a list that included Marvin Gaye, Allman Brothers, Partridge Family, Nick Drake and the Brady Bunch all within 10 songs of each other must have a sense of humor.

More predictable but enjoyable were the year-by-year mixtapes; I downloaded a year-by-year song-list from 1980-89 to get a pretty thorough summary of the 80′s, or at least 900 or so of the biggest hits. I already had many of them in my library previous to signing up, and the ones that the Marketplace recognized as already owned were skipped over when downloading, although it sometimes didn’t recognize the same song being in my library due to having downloaded it from a different album, resulting in having the same song twice (ie. Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark was already in my collection from the Born in the USA album, but the Marketplace still downloaded it from the Greatest Hits album).

The Smart DJ feature, which creates a playlist based on your criteria ( ie. songs related to Johnny Cash, or songs related to Aerosmith’s Pump album, etc.)becomes more useful with the addition of being able to access the Marketplace. Whereas before using it would only create a playlist using songs in my collection, it was now able to create mixes incorporating songs from both my collection and the Marketplace, or I could change the settings and have it only download songs from the Marketplace, perhaps exposing me to music I never would have heard otherwise.

Probably the one genre I wouldn’t normally download if I was directly paying for it would be comedy. While I love it and there are some great classic albums in the genre, I normally don’t go out of my way to download it, just because much of it is topical and can lose its appeal quickly after repeated listens. That’s why I like it on the Marketplace; I downloaded the latest Robin Williams album and a recommended comedy playlist that was quite good. And it’s the sort of thing you can listen to and enjoy, then delete and look for something different.

The Channels feature of the Marketplace, which are weekly updating playlists, are a little more of a mixed bag. There are ones that sound like they came straight from a Top 40 radio station, such as the Billboard Top 20 Channel or Rock Hits Channel. Then there are others that are selected by the Zune staff; I tried out the Rock Picks channel and was given someone’s bizarre compilation of acoustic, new wave and uh, death metal songs, mostly from acts I was unfamiliar with. The auto-generated ones, such as Rock Picks for You, were a little more interesting: I had a channel mix of Tommy Shaw, David Cloverdale and uh, Robert Downey Jr. on my player. It’s a bit similar to the Smart DJ mixes, but the auto-generated channels seem to focus on music not in your collection already. The songs in channels are also temporary unless you specifically add them to your collection; if not they’re removed in the next channel update..

It should be mentioned though that the Marketplace can be a little restrictive with the unlimited access; some songs are available only for purchase, which means they’re unavailable for downloading through the Zune pass membership. There are some significant artists that couldn’t be downloaded due to the restrictions: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Chicago, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, and so on; however I had most of them in my collection already, so it wasn’t particularly noticeable. But there were no problems with others, new albums from Eminem, Slash, Tom Petty and Sarah McLachlan were readily available to be downloaded.

Of course, the main disadvantage of the Zune Pass is that it’s only as good as long as you subscribe to it; let it lapse you’ll find quickly your downloaded music will not play. As mentioned before you are allowed a 10-song credit to download mp3′s in a drm-free format, which are yours free and clear. If you want to purchase mp3′s over that you’ll need either a credit card to purchase them or another Zune card called a Microsoft Points Card, which I saw in a denomination of $25. As for renewing your Zune Pass subscription, if you’re using a credit-card you’ll be billed on a monthly basis, but in my case you’d need another pre-paid card. Best Buy, where I purchased mine from, didn’t exactly have a whole lot of them in stock but they were available for purchase on their site, and they do accept international credit cards provided the merchandise is shipped to an American address.

Overall I’m finding the Zune Pass is well worth the $14.99/month, the Marketplace has a few quirks but it certainly doesn’t detract from the experience. I like the idea of “test-driving” a new album or song, then having the option to use my 10 song credit to permanently keep it. I’m not sure if the Zune Marketplace will be around in a few years, they don’t seem to be the big Itunes competitor I think they were hoping for, and they would do themselves a big service if they opened up their Marketplace outside the US, but for now they’re certainly one of the better choices for legally downloading music available.

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Zune HD & AV Dock Unboxing with quick preview on it hooked up on a large screen lcd tv using the dock/hdmi cables. Quick browse on the music interface, video and radio

Duration : 0:4:34

Technorati Tags: apple, Dock, ipod, Microsoft, Zune, zune hd

Duration : 0:10:1

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Duration : 0:5:35

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Duration : 0:5:18

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Duration : 0:0:42

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Duration : 0:0:45

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Duration : 0:2:10

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