Zune 2.0 update is ready for your first generation Zune
By Thomas Ricker 
posted November 13th 2007 2:47AM
posted November 13th 2007 2:47AM
P.S. -A note in advance about the name of the Zune: this is the same unit we tested at launch last year that gave us such an unbelievable headache and took about four hours to get installed right. Just happens that we never bothered to rename it from "oh god please work". Beggin' your pardon.
Update: Zune.net is back. Hit that read link now to get your updates.
Update 2: Sneaky, looks like we've been trumped by our own readers who are downloading v2.2 (1040) direct from Microsoft.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Here in the Netherlands I downloaded and installed the software around 15:15 local time GMT+1. Indeed get the video driver message on my Vaio to upgrade the driver for a better experience. Works great, love the podcast service in the new software.
Hendrik
I'm guess its cause the site is MAAAAAAAD busy but I been trying to upload my Profile picture for a while now....lol........
and I hate the choice of colors for the program.......I hope they add more........
Well, has anybody had any luck with wireless sync?
Works great for me, I even have WEP 128bit turned on, and just a simple select my ssid, type in the wep key and it's done.
Sadness! I don't know about y'all, but I was keenly looking forward to being able to copy mp4s without conversion into wmv.
Looks like that didn't happen. Video still goes through the painfully slow conversion sync.
I love the new zune interface and software.. It's really chic and it seems to be more responsive... The wifi sinc on 802.11b is slow thou.. about 6 mins for 62.8 megs of songs.
How utterly disappointing. I've waited months for what... THIS? Engadget nailed it when they said the new Zune software was for beginners. For once I agree with the fanboys. Not only that, it (very unnecessarily) ties your hands behind your back. I understand using market research to improve your products, but this is nuts. No auto playlists? It's not like it's a grocery store and there's limited shelf space. Why get rid of a perfectly good feature?... Binary ratings? Ok, some might prefer it, but why leave those of us who have spent hours and hours rating songs out in the cold? At least the old 5-star rating we affixed is still in the metadata of the file, but this just sucks... You can't even delete a song directly from the software. That adds a good three steps to removing the dead wood. UGH
Getting angrier by the second...
It's clear that this whole thing revolves around people who don't care about organizing their music. WMP11 and the first Zune software were very playlist-centric: you could immediately drag any song or groups of songs directly to a playlist on the left and even move them directly to where you want them to be in the playlist itself. That was such a breath of fresh air after dealing with iTunes. But now that's gone. Now you have to right-click a song, select 'Move to Playlist' and then scroll down to the playlist you want it to go to. Then the song is added to the bottom. If you want it on top of the playlist, you have to go into the playlist and move it there.
I'm done being a Zune fan. I'm tired of defending a company who makes crap software. But being that I despise Apple even more I'm pretty much screwed. Oh well, I guess I'll just stick with what I have.
Wait... Just tried to sync mp4 video with the new software and a v1 Zune with the new firmware and it still trying to convert.
What
The
Heck?
The upgrade was very painless, but the new interface is so-so. I really like the way it looks, but there are a few usability annoyances, such as the lack of ID3 editor. I use another app to tag my files, so it's not a problem for me, but others may find it annoying.
What the heck is up with them seperating albums out by the different artists on them. I was mortified to find that my zune now lists every album about 9 times.
[b]"What the heck is up with them seperating albums out by the different artists on them. I was mortified to find that my zune now lists every album about 9 times."[/b]
That's kind of funny.. My ancient Entempo Spirit has the same problem, and is one of the major reasons I just bought a Zen Touch 40.
So are the new updates worth it? How well do they work on the 30gb original versions?
I dont know why so many people had problems. I was able to grab it in the early morning hours and start it installing. I then went back to bed and woke up to find a nice new zune interface!
I admit I had to get the exe from the zune sight, and I had to be persistant as it seems their servers were taking quite a beating, but I was only up for about 20min, and that included the 1min of download and clicking next and I agree.
Its really great! I cant wait to get home and get some podcasts ready and to set up wireless sync!
Too little, too late. Too bad you cant upgrade the ugly shell. I am SOO tired of microsofts policy of selling junk and then upgrading it later to make it work how it should of in the first place.
wow,
your comments are not subjective at all
/sarcasm
Not everyone likes the bubble-gum look of an Apple product... sorry to disappoint you.
Why update when you can just throw it away every year? (I've had 3 ipods) I'm sick of Apple intentionally coming out with broken products just to abandon them in 6 months when the next shiny thing came out.
For the record, I like iPods, but I am not an apple fan boy. And who said the opposite of Microsoft has to be apple Mario. There are other products out there. Apple has lost its way too. Making a deal with the ATT devil and then having piss off their customers so they won’t get sued (losing their soul along the way). Ryan you must have lots of cash to "throw" away an iPod every year. I keep mine long enough to justify the expense (about 1.5 - 2 years), and then give it away to my family when I upgrade.
Anyone else getting installation errors? The install gets to 2% then says:
Setup must stop because the required package 'Zune' failed to install.
Fatal error during installation.
Error code: 0x80070643
Then provides a link to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944938 which offers no help at all. I'm so sick of these issues.
I get an error message too. Ot says that it can't install because a component of "system restore can't find the drive". WTF is up with that?
granted that it hasn't been 24 hours since the release, but how well is the battery now using this update? i've been getting about 4 hours of video time as advertised on my zune 30gb.
one more question: does the upgrade now allow the zune to be used as an external hard-drive? i know its possible with some registry hacks, but i don't want to mess with that really.
I like the new firmware, but the zune software sucks! It completely butchered my entire library! All the tracks are there, but all of my album/artist names are shuffled up with other songs. I've already tried deleting everything from my "collection" and then re-adding it, but it still gets it wrong. All the ID3 tags are correct on all of my songs, but as soon as I drag it to the zune software, it changes it to something completely random. I am speechless as to how M$ could release this software when it doesn't seem to work AT ALL.
Consider me a completely pissed off customer. I hope this is fixed soon.
+1 I am pretty pissed off too. It keeps throwing me errors "not enough space".
I give em credit, they can sure complicate a simple piece of software to the point that it doesnt work.
HEY MICROSOFT: HOW ABOUT DRAG AND DROP SUPPORT FROM EXPLORER TO ZUNE!!!!! SIMPLICITY IS BETTER!!!
Instead of guessing about mp4 support, let's go to the zune site...
VIDEO SUPPORT
Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) – Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 800,000 bps average video bit rate and 1,500,000 bps peak video bit rate; 320 pixels x 240 pixels (4:3 QVGA) or 320 pixels x 180 pixels (16:9 QVGA) up to 30 frames per second. Zune software will transcode VGA HD WMV files at device sync
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video[4] – Zune software will transcode MPEG-4 files at device sync
H.264 video[5] –Zune software will transcode H.264 files at device sync
DVR-MS[6] – Zune software will transcode at time of sync
...so by "support", they don't mean native. Zune 80 is native up to 720x480.
Marshall
---------
The Real HT Info Podcast
I updated my Zune at home and then brought it in to work to find out how easily I could get recorded TV (Media Center) onto it. It was simple--I found my show, dragged and dropped it into the new Zune interface, and synced. Haven't tried it wirelessly yet though.
According to information on the Zune.net webpage, the ONLY new codec support that has been added to the device is WMA Lossless.
Doesn't seem to run windows media player all the time in the background anymore, now if only they'd change ActiveSync not to keep outlook running all the time.
Overall I like the changes to the PC side of things, its a lot smoother than it was, the only quibble is changing the add to playlist option, seems like an extra step for no real value.
Anybody,.....question.... I am planning on getting a Zune but did I read correctly that the only music you can place on the player is from the Zune Marketplace music website? you can place any mp3's, wav files on it, right?
Got my v1 updated, i had been anticipating since last week when i got the email. updated first thing when i woke up.
i likeeee.
but i can't figure out the wireless sync yet :^S
Can we change the skin for this zune media player? Maybe we don't like the pink flowery thing they gave us...
you can... its in the settings
I thought this update was going to have native DIVX support for .avi files.. Do I seriously have to recode all my .avi files?
yep, wmv or m4a(mpeg4)
I use windows movie maker.
use this link
http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/tutorials/11553-divx-wmv-5-easy-steps.html
Went pretty good...and liking the new features.
A couple of things I didn't like.
1. It temporarily screwed up my explorer.exe on Vista, so I had to start it again from the task manager.
2. At the marketplace when you sign in, it doesn't tell you that you need to re-sign up your acct w/ Zune before you use your Zune ID for downloading podcasts and such. It just lets you keep on signing in to no avail. Now, if you type the wrong password, it tells you, but type everything in right, just stays the same...dumb
I don't like the new software AT ALL. They have moved to a like/dislike rating instead of 5 stars, there's no flag ability, you can't view bitrates with any kind of ease, and you can't modify your browsing views on the computer. The biggest thing for me is that you can't search for song/album information like you could with the old software. Now I have to do it all manually. Does anyone know how to switch the firmware back to the original? I really don't like the new one.
I downloaded new software for my old zune and now it doesn't play at all. Any ideas?
Yeah, I was 'upgraded' to the 2.0 today, and its wrecked havoc on my music libraries. I've spent about 4 hours trying to recover from the mess, and I've lost some music forever. I liked the old Zune just fine.. new version? Makes me wanna throw it in the trash.
Okay, I got the new pretty Zune update but my firmware won't update. I've been doing this for nearly 12 hours and I'm getting frustrated. Please help me.
is there any way to change back to the old software because I really don't like this new software at all. The old one is so much easier to use, it has an equalizer, drag and drop, its easy to do basically everything else! The new software does look nice and all but i don't like the now playing window and the new search. I would really like to get the old software again, is this possible?
I updated to Zune 2.o softwarre thsi past week and the big issue I have with it is that all my music information if disorganized. Some songs have the wrong title or artist or if these 2 peices are correct the album is wrong. I do not want to go back and rename ALL my songs!
I called customer support 3 times and the problem is still there. at one point they told me to delete all my music..and then put me on hold while the tech was going to go get her supervisor.. luckily I have backups.
Has anyone else had this problem?
I don't get it. I have a 30GB Zune at 1.4 and the update just keeps telling me that I have the latest firmware. Is there any way to manually download the update and push it to the player?
Hi,
So does this upgrade mean that you can get podcasts and all of the new apps on the bargain priced first generation Zunes? What are the differences between an upgraded 1st gen and these new 2nd gen? Thanks in advance for your help.
Ted Sudol
I have the 30gig zune... of course I bought it when they first came out.GRRR Anyway, I have a ton of music on it that I no longer have on my computer. When I do the firmware update, will it delete the music off of my zune?