hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr0042.txt

Episode: 42
Title: HPR0042: Zune Review
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0042/hpr0042.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 10:39:55

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Welcome to another episode of HBR. I'm your host Enigma and today I will be
talking about a new little toy I got. It's a Zoom 30-Yig MP3 player, video MP3
player. I wanted to talk about the pros and cons of this versus the iPod and
before everybody yells at me for being a sellout and getting a Microsoft
product. The only reason that I purchased this was I got a good deal because I
recently bought a new laptop and I got a deal at Circus City with the
Zoom and the laptop. I think I got those soon for 80 bucks and it was like
price point was like 140. So I'll get started with the pros. The thing that
attracted me the most for this MP3 player was the large screen. It's got a
three-inch screen that's got a beautiful display and that's what first caught
my eye and the reason that I even asked about it. It also has a very easy
interface. The sync software is in my opinion a lot less annoying than the
iPods sync. I've had issues with the iPods sync on a Windows box all the
time in the past and the Zoom software I haven't had issues since it's a
Microsoft product I would hope I wouldn't. The price point for the 30-Yig
video iPod I believe is a little bit steeper than I think. I want to say it's
around 150 bucks. I got mine for 80 again. The normal price point is 140 so
they're about the same. The battery life I was actually impressed with I got
I've never actually clocked it on the video side but I get about 10 to 15
hours on the audio side and I've never really clocked it from you know
straight continuous play. It's been interrupted so I'm sure that it's not a
very good guide for that. Another nice feature is it has a wireless sync which
I was kind of impressed with. I still need to play around with it a little bit
but you can if you're within your home network you can specify your SSID and
your web or WPA key in the sync software and it'll automatically sync to your
computer that you have the whatever you specify is in its library so if you have
like a file server you can wirelessly sync to that file server. It's also got
a build-in FM radio and I found this kind of neat. I don't even know if the
iPod has this but you know if you want to listen to the radio you can. Another
feature that I haven't tested yet but I want to play around with is it's
compatible with the Windows Vista home premium and ultimate support for the
DVR codec which is their codec for their media center and you can record
movies or TV shows from your Windows media center with a TV tuner and
actually play it back on your zoom which I don't know how that actually
works so I want to play around with it and see see what I can get out of it. The
cons the software only works in Windows it doesn't have any wine support at
the moment in Linux and there's plenty of hacks out there for the iPod I
haven't found a lot for the zoom probably because it's you know Microsoft
product and it's proprietary and but if anybody knows of any cool hacks with
the zoom please let me know you can email me at the site or the feedback
link whatever because I'd really like to play around with this and the other
con is not enough codec support I'll go through the codex right now it
obviously supports WMA for video it supports mp3 for audio mp3 playlist
I'm sorry WMA with Windows Media Audio and WMV for the Windows Media video as I
said it supports the Windows Media Center DVR which is the dot DVR MS it
supports zoom playlist obviously it supports mp4 video it supports mp4 it
supports AC audio created with the ACLC audio codec m4a and m4b I've never
seen that codex so I don't know much about it but the zoom supports it and
that's about it so a lot of the codex like your DIVIX codex and that aren't
supported natively which means you would have to convert them to one of these
codex and then let the software or the zoom software sink it up it won't see
anything in your library in the zoom software that isn't in that isn't in
these codex so you would have to convert it and then stick it in the folder that's
your zoom library to get it to recognize to even sink to your zoom which I
think's a little bit of a downfall I think it should have a little bit more
support but again it's a Microsoft product so what can you expect all in all
I've been very happy with my zoom I don't do a lot of things with basically the
only thing I got for this mp3 player for was for audio listen to work and to
store you know hack TV and hack five and a couple of the podcasts pure
pronage a couple of podcasts that I or the video casts that I watch a lot so I
can watch them in the airport or watch them on the plane whatever I wanted to
it's got a very pretty screen so you can watch it for hours which I did like
most of the video iPods that I've seen or video mp3 players whatever you want to
call them have such a small screen that I but I really don't like but this one
has a nice big screen and I do enjoy it so that's all for today if anybody's
interested in contributing to pack a public radio please let me know we're
always in need of backup episodes and if you want to be a monthly host I'm sure
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email feedback at hackerpublicradio.org and have a nice day