Develop Bugs

[Q] Zune - The unsung hero of Windows Phone?

I bought an HTC HD7 on launch. I also owned an HTC Desire (unlocked and unbranded which I've now given to Mum).
O2 has a 14 day return period. Anyway I decided I really like the Phone. Many people bang on about what Windows Phone doesn't yet have, instead of what it does. I could mention sublime push email, Office, Xbox Live, beautiful apps, very smooth, fast and accurate scrolling, tapping and pinch to zoom, tellme, the best osk ever on a mobile etc.
But for me as a big music fan who always watches video on my device the killer feature is Zune. The Zune sub is £8/month but you get access to millions of DRM's songs and 10 MPs to download or stream. The Zune software on the Phone is awesome and better than the iPod player on the iPhone is which was the gold standard.
But for me the stand out is the Zune PC software. It is so fast, beautiful and works really well. As a Jukebox it blows iTunes (the weak link for PC + iPhone customers) out of the water. I love the Zune client. Things like out of the box wireless sync of your media is science fiction to our Android and iPhone friends.
Suggestions for Microsoft:
1. Please support the avi container.
2. Please support the divx/xvid codec.
3. Please allow the saving of MP3s directly from IE.
4. Please add a podcast section to the Zune platform in the UK like the US.
5. Please expand the film collection and add a zunepass subscription option for films for say £10/month.
Even without certain functions that will arrive in 2011, Windows Phone is enough to make me forget the touchscreen fiasco that was Windows Mobile 6.x.

100% agree. I have a Zune HD and love the overall Zune style and interface + the Zune Pass is an awesome deal that makes you discover new music.
Still have to wait here in the states for Sprint and the HTC 7 Pro...

The zune HD interface is actually nicer. Now that you have access to zune proper, if you need a seperate media player you should totes get one.

IM0001 said:
100% agree. I have a Zune HD and love the overall Zune style and interface + the Zune Pass is an awesome deal that makes you discover new music.
Still have to wait here in the states for Sprint and the HTC 7 Pro...
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That is what I am waiting for, I am not leaving Sprint to go to ATT.

I have to agree.
- Push email is absolutely fantastic,
- Internet Explorer and Pinch to Zoom really good
- Zune is a very nice experience, even if sometimes confusing (it synchronizes my new mp3s but not always delete the ones I deleted from the root folder).
I also agree that avi container as well as support for the divx/xvid codec notably must be implemented by MS.

I agree with this Zune is so awesome. Back when I had a phone and an iPod I always wanted a Zune but it was too much of a hassle to import (bare in mind I was about 16 back then).
The interface is Amazing, coming from android, I just love the heavily graphical UI with the Artist's picture in the background. I know that Android's music player was piss poor (Sense did improve on it) but Zune makes it look like nothing. Zune pass is great (albeit similar to Spotify just cheaper, I like the fact that you "download" though) and the software itself is awesome.
I don't really use podcasts, nor do I care about avi movies (I've synced over an AVI movie through Zune, zune just converts them, this doesn't bother me) although I will offer 2 of my own suggestions:
1. We need background listening support, this is more centric to the OS rather than Zune itself but what I mean is that apps like Last.FM need to be able to "catch" what we're listening to and then scrobble them
2. Zune PC Software is the best media player I've ever used but like above, no scrobbling, please enable plugin support =]

You can activate the Podcast section of the marketplace with a registry hack. Works perfectly:
http://www.techau.tv/blog/how-to-re-enable-zune-feature-in-australia/

brummiesteven said:
1. We need background listening support, this is more centric to the OS rather than Zune itself but what I mean is that apps like Last.FM need to be able to "catch" what we're listening to and then scrobble them
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By the way, did somebody in Europe find the Last.fm App.
In France, strangely, it's apparently not available on the market?! Weird.

It's a great meadia player for Windows, but seriously, don't buy DRMed music....

tomhierl said:
It's a great meadia player for Windows, but seriously, don't buy DRMed music....
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I agree. Zune paid downloads are MP3s with no watermarks. Unlike iTunes AAC with watermarks (and your iTunes account email address).
It is the subscription downloads which are DRM'd with Windows Media. The point is that you get 10 MP3 downloads which have no DRM a month and the unlimited subscription downloads are a bonus.
Its like having the biggest jukebox in your pocket on top of 10 MP3 tracks.

tomhierl said:
...seriously, don't buy DRMed music....
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+1. I don't buy.
Seriously, I didn't imagine that DRM still existed... Really?
If you want to compete with something free, don't make it more complicated than the free thing.

Ogner said:
I agree. Zune paid downloads are MP3s with no watermarks. Unlike iTunes AAC with watermarks (and your iTunes account email address).
It is the subscription downloads which are DRM'd with Windows Media. The point is that you get 10 MP3 downloads which have no DRM a month and the unlimited subscription downloads are a bonus.
Its like having the biggest jukebox in your pocket on top of 10 MP3 tracks.
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So the 10 files you can keep are DRM free? That's nice.

Dazzla said:
You can activate the Podcast section of the marketplace with a registry hack. Works perfectly:
Excellent tip. Now have podcasts in England. Thanks.
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Of course. After the MSN Music and playsforsure fiasco Microsoft realise that if someone buys music to keep forver they want it in high quality 256kbps or 320kbps MP3s. That way they can continue to listen to them for years to come on any device.
Don't forget that Microsoft have many experiences of failure in the consumer world. But they keep coming back until they get it right.
That is why Eric Schmidt said that Microsoft/Bing were their only serious competition. Not Apple, Yahoo!, Facebook.

arturobandini said:
+1. I don't buy.
Seriously, I didn't imagine that DRM still existed... Really?
If you want to compete with something free, don't make it more complicated than the free thing.
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It's only DRM'd if you download music using Zune Pass.
I assume the DRM is because if you stop paying the Zune Pass fee, you lose your downloaded music (which TBF is understandable, they can't give you unlimited downloads for only £7.99 a month).
Also, I downloaded Last.fm as soon as I got the device, in the UK here.

tomhierl said:
So the 10 files you can keep are DRM free? That's nice.
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That's only in America, doesn't seem to apply in the UK. You don't get to keep any music once you stop paying the Zune Pass fee.

Yeah im happy with the interface, only problem is Zune refuses to install on any of my x64 operating systems. This means im forced to run it on my EEEPC, which with such low horsepower, is a very very poor experience.

Avis are good for working with uncompressed pre-production video, but its a legacy format outside of that.
Divx/xvid, yea. Zune works in tandem with WMP on Windows.
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Anyone having trouble installing Zune on a WinVP PC? I try to install the software but get an error message saying it won't install to C because access is denied. However, I re-downloaded the software and now it won't iniate the install. It unzips like it is going to install and then nothing happens.
EDIT- Figured it out. Simply created a "Zune" folder in programs of "C" and the software installed. Apparently the install process can't creat the Zune folder on C itself.

Do you like the Zune Desktop Client?

I've been using the Zune desktop client since 1.0 and I love it. Fresh UI and experience. But I wonder how you, the xda community, feel about Zune?

I just started using it in preparation for getting my WP7 phone and so far I like it, but it has a lot of "missing features" that I'm looking for in a media player/manager. I was using Media Player before Zune, and most of the options available in MP are not in Zune, such as ripped file names.

I have been useing Zune since I got a Zune HD last year and I must say its the king bar iTunes remit on the iPod touch it beats iTunes in every department. It make organizing media so easy and stylish

Zune software is great! 2 things i don't like are:
1. The Album Art is not hard written onto the mp3 file, and imho it should
2. Unable to install apps on the WP7 phone if you got the app from the phone marketplace and not the desktop marketplace. They should change that.

Probably the best iTunes alternative out there, but I don't like that WP7 is locked to using only Zune. Besides that, the software is excellent and just looks amazing.

It would be more awesome if Microsoft would also add the option of syncing Office docs and PDFs with your phone via Zune.
I know cloud storage is awesome and all but the damn ATT caps make me cry. 200MB for $15.... u gotta be fcuking kidding me

krjcook said:
I've been using the Zune desktop client since 1.0 and I love it. Fresh UI and experience. But I wonder how you, the xda community, feel about Zune?
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I've always liked the looks and how it works, but I hated being able to use only one file type. I had two Zunes at the time...now have an 8GB flash and my HD7...and because of capacity limits, I would use a lower quality or smaller file-size format for my flash Zune and a higher quality format for my 80GB Zune. Only problem, the desktop software will only allow one format at a time...unless you go through the trouble of changing filenames and tag data. iTunes allows an unlimited number of formats...compatible, I mean.

i like it theres a couple things here and there im still trying to figure out like how do you burn songs thats you currently have playing in a now playing list

slighmd said:
Zune software is great! 2 things i don't like are:
1. The Album Art is not hard written onto the mp3 file, and imho it should
2. Unable to install apps on the WP7 phone if you got the app from the phone marketplace and not the desktop marketplace. They should change that.
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Zune can hardwire an image onto the mp3s. All you have to do is go into "collections" right click on your album "change art".
It will link new art into every single file. At least that's what happened with one of my albums.

Been using it ever since I got my Zune HD as well and it's pretty much all I know.
Windows media player is kinda blah but sometimes you have to go back to it to convert files and such. Flac and lossless tend to not show up on Zune as well even though I can see the file and play it on media player.
Other than that, busting open the zune desktop client on my 42" tv when my friends are around is always fun.

Great
Runs much faster than iTunes on my pcs. More intuitive ui for me (I know this VERY subjective). Zune pass is an incredible deal - especially with the 10 permanent downloads.

Change of Heart
I absolutely hated it! I got my nephew an Iphone a while back so I had been using Itunes. Itunes had to be the worst media software I have ever used. That was until last week when I got my Focus. When I loaded my music into Zune, all I got back was a steamin pile of crap. Being a huge rap fan, my collection consists of a bunch of freestyles and mixtapes. Zune had no clue. Media Player on the other hand keep everything in order. After working on retagging and editing for the past wek, I've learned to like it. Started Itunes yesterday for my nephew, Oh god Itunes is awful.

Zune offers than iTunes in the way of features but iTunes is infinitely better organized and intuitive. Edit: iTunes for OS X. iTunes for PC is utter garbage.

VonCrisp said:
Zune can hardwire an image onto the mp3s. All you have to do is go into "collections" right click on your album "change art".
It will link new art into every single file. At least that's what happened with one of my albums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this does link the art and its great but its true the info is stored on a database and not the mp3 as they remain untouched, I love that they don't mess with the actual file but as I also use other mediums to play music it does annoy me i have to sedit tags twice

CreepinJesus said:
I just started using it in preparation for getting my WP7 phone and so far I like it, but it has a lot of "missing features" that I'm looking for in a media player/manager. I was using Media Player before Zune, and most of the options available in MP are not in Zune, such as ripped file names.
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Zune is to Windows Media Player what iTunes is to QuickTime.
That's not the point of Zune.
The point of it is to manage the phone, play the media on the phone/your libraries, and access content on the market place (media, apps, etc.).
It's not designed to be a dedicated media player that replaces Windows Media Player in Windows.
Maybe in Windows 8 they will go that route, but I heavily doubt they will.

markgamber said:
Zune offers than iTunes in the way of features but iTunes is infinitely better organized and intuitive. Edit: iTunes for OS X. iTunes for PC is utter garbage.
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Since PCs have 90%+ marketshare, I think it's fair to say iTunes is utter garbage. QuickTime/iTunes is like malware on a Windows PC.

I've had three zunes in my time.
First was a white 30gb. Loved it, stolen from work sadly.
Second was a brown Zune 30 with the 60gb hdd mod. Loved it as well. But my nephew found it and a cup of coke...
Third I had was a Zune 80. Probably my favorite that I've had. Got my Instinct, so I didn't need my Zune anymore. So I sold it.
I loved the Zune software though. Best I've used.

Same as above, have had 2 Zune 80's, now a Zune 120 (I have a long commute, have them hardwired into my M3's Alpine) so I'm quite used to it. Hate iTunes that I have to have on the PC for the Wife's ipod and ipad. I have thousands of concerts that I add custom art to (and add id3 tags with another tool), no issues. Reliable and fast too. I do look forward to the day MS add's Office/Outlook integration.

N8ter said:
Since PCs have 90%+ marketshare, I think it's fair to say iTunes is utter garbage. QuickTime/iTunes is like malware on a Windows PC.
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So goes your opinion. In my house PCs comprise 50%, Macs the other 50% and iTunes on a Mac is much better than Zune on a PC in many ways.

markgamber said:
So goes your opinion. In my house PCs comprise 50%, Macs the other 50% and iTunes on a Mac is much better than Zune on a PC in many ways.
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Most people don't care about hour house. They care about the market as a whole.
Some people probably have a house full of Taiwanese Android Tablets with Resistive Touchscreens and Tablets but that doesn't make them better than a Galaxy Tab.
I never said iTunes wasn't good on Mac, and it certainly isn't as intuitive as Zune although that IS opinion.
The fact that QuickTime/iTunes is terrible on Windows is just that. It's pushed primarily by iOS products which make a Windows version compulsory due to Windows dominance, but that's about it.
QuickTime (later iTunes) have had the same issues on Windows forever, some being:
1. Hijacking File Associations and Browser Mime types (Easier to Remedy in Vista/7, but in Win3.1-XP this was a big problem that required a non-trivial level of computer knowledge, back then, to remedy).
2. Completely disregards Windows User Interface Guidelines (Apple would not allow such an Application in their MacOS store, yet they feel the need to push their terrible user interface on Windows Users - terrible because it looks utterly foreign).
3. Performance is terrible (but people with high end systems may not feel that, hardware can solve lots of problems).
4. Installing crapware on people's computers: Crappy Printer Sharing App, Apple Updater that is worse than Adobe or HP's, not to mention it takes up as much space as Microsoft Office.
Now... iTunes is better on Macs for the same reason Windows Media Player/Media Center is better on Windows than many competing products. It's developed by the OS vendor, has great OS-level integration, matches the look and feel. Everything just fits nicely.
But iTunes is not that great. It's umbiquitous (for reasons stated above), but not great.
iTunes probably would be about 40% less bad if it wasn't so dependent on QuickTime.
90% of the people who run iTunes on Windows do it because they have an iTouch, iPod, or iPhone. Apple was really good about how they handled that. You need iTunes for pretty much everything on those devices. You hardly hear them even bring up their crappy QuickTime player (at least on Windows Machines... it's practically a system component on Macs along with iTunes).

Thank You WP7 for introducing me to Zune.

The Zune Desktop Player is so amazing, so much better than Itunes or Winamp and the Zune Pass and MArketplace personalized picks has introduced me to so many great songs I would have never heard/discovered by myself before.. My music life has rekindled all because of Zune, Zune Pass and WP7 which led me to them.
I am starting to love Microsoft and its services now.
Great.

Always loved the **** outta Microsoft, and I agree, Zune Player is ****ing amazing.

I love the software and its UI/UX (even though it's a bit surprising at the beginning) but it's definitely too resource-hungry. It makes my netbook heat up quite a lot. Quite annoying.
I usually plug my netbook via HDMI to my giant flat screen. The full screen interface is simply breathtaking when all options are activated. SO PRETTY!

love zune so much more than itunes and wmp better interface and easier to use it is rather resource heavy but i dont care lol and the syncing is easier than other devices

I've used Zune since G1 media player complete with the Zune pass. My only complaint its how it she's not allow you to back up your apps locally for WP7. So if an app leaves thief marketplace and you get s new phone or reset your old one, its gone forever. Also only apps purchased through desktop software stnc automatically. Any apps purchased through the phone must be manually searched and downloaded from the phone if you reset or get another phone. Still it is the best media software out.
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It was the opposite for me. I bought a WP7 device because if it's integration with Zune/Zune Pass. My device may only have 8gb of memory but now I'm able to stream most music with Zune Pass service.

macjr82 said:
My only complaint its how it she's not allow you to back up your apps locally for WP7.
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The Zune software has quite a few holes in it, but that one is HUGE. It also needs better management of TV and movies (such as syncing new shows and removing watched shows). I'd also like to see integration with Windows Media Center (auto syncing shows).
I know alot of folks like the ZunePass, but MOG, Napster, and Rdio offer a much bigger catalog at better prices. Unfortunately, only Rdio supports WP7 and the app does not allow songs to be synced to the phone like their iphone and android apps.

SilverRubicon said:
I know alot of folks like the ZunePass, but MOG, Napster, and Rdio offer a much bigger catalog at better prices. Unfortunately, only Rdio supports WP7 and the app does not allow songs to be synced to the phone like their iphone and android apps.
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Well, when you consider that every month you get 10 DRM free sings (to keep even if you cancel your ZunePass), the others are not as good of a deal. Unless some of them also offer that, but that would be news to me.

naplesbill said:
Well, when you consider that every month you get 10 DRM free sings (to keep even if you cancel your ZunePass)
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Only in the US

+1 for me as well
I talked members of my family to getting a Zune before the WP7 came out and they loved it (coming from Iseries). The Zune pass is nice getting songs on fly and people just look amazed too funny, also the software is sweet, way easier the itunes. Why I say that is I was trying to sync specific songs on my girls iphone and I can't click and add to device like I can in Zune with ease. Really good MS once they start integrated their service now that antitrust is gone lookout.

Casey_boy said:
Only in the US
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Yeah, that sucks.

I use a zune pass in Belgium?
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Does your Zune pass include 10 DRM free tracks you can keep forever?
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macjr82 said:
Does your Zune pass include 10 DRM free tracks you can keep forever?
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, at the end of each month I get 10 any songs I like to keep forever.. I subscribed annual.. I buy all my games, apps, music, no more any piracy.. everything legit for the best experience.. I didnt even bother to do Chevron..

Yed, mine too. And I live in Belgium.
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Purple11 said:
The Zune Desktop Player is so amazing, so much better than Itunes or Winamp and the Zune Pass and MArketplace personalized picks has introduced me to so many great songs I would have never heard/discovered by myself before.. My music life has rekindled all because of Zune, Zune Pass and WP7 which led me to them.
I am starting to love Microsoft and its services now.
Great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah zune is awesome musik player, much love

Zune has always been great. Its a shame they haven't pushed/marketed it more. People don't even know it exists. Most consumers only know of iPods & iTunes (gotta hand it to Apple's marketing team for sure).
And Zune pass is one of the best deals out there. I have much <3 for zune. I just hope they can make some more deals to get more content because the one thing iTunes has on them is more content.

I didn't know Zune existed before I got my HD7.
Best music/video player ever, such a unique design.
I hope they expand its phone-related functionality tho, it's quite limited.

dtboos said:
(gotta hand it to Apple's marketing team for sure).
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And the development team. iTunes on Windows is frustrating, but it's more feature complete than Zune.

naplesbill said:
Well, when you consider that every month you get 10 DRM free sings (to keep even if you cancel your ZunePass), the others are not as good of a deal. Unless some of them also offer that, but that would be news to me.
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Click to collapse
Napster includes free tracks and has a larger library than Zune. Or they did at one point, I haven't been a member since they butchered their web UI.

Best Music App??

While trying to get my music on my GS2, I found the easiest way was through the doubletwist player with Airsync. Seems to be a good player. Was using Google music, but that streams abd uses up my data.
What is your favorite music player???

The stock one works fine, had a few others but none stick out for me.
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I'm between poweramp and ubermusic.
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poweramp. spotify. google music.
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Been using winamp for about a day now. On my computer iTunes manages all my music so I wanted a music player that could sync with iTunes. Winamp does that fine and I like the layout of the player but it has one rather large inconvenience for me: the playlists don't sync. I went into the settings, specified that it sync all my playlists and specified I wanted them on H:\ (my SD card), but nothing :/

I really like Google music. And just so you know, you can save all the to the phone with one press of a button so it doesn't use the data . You can undo it just as easy.

Was on power Amp now I'm using player pro
Sent from a guy living in a van down by the river

I really like poweramp. You can really customize all you want, but for the people who have lots of music that cant fit it all in their phone I guess winamp is good.
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donm76 said:
I really like Google music. And just so you know, you can save all the to the phone with one press of a button so it doesn't use the data . You can undo it just as easy.
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Interesting.....when you do that doesn't it use up your storage space on the phone, being that it is downloaded to the device storage and also does it not use the data to to download it to the phone?

Google music works like this. It stream music from your library to your android device. If you lose connection it can stream past played songs that it has saved. So yes it uses storage, and yes it uses data. But it doesn't use much storage.
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Try doods music streamer from the market.. its pretty awesome
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I was liking stock for a while, but then Raycaster3 told me about PowerAmp, yes you have to pay for it but its by far gives you the most options and great sound quality. I did a test also with it to see how it sounds compared to the stock 5.1 sound. And it sounded the same if not better. Then you mix PowerAmp with a nice set of SkullCandy in ear headphones and your golden. I dont mean anything too expensive either I just went with the $29 ones because they also come with a mic. They are amazing. Oh I guess I also use Google Music because I have 40gigs of music stored in the Google Music Cloud.
PowerAmp user here.

Royalknight6190 said:
I was liking stock for a while, but then Raycaster3 told me about PowerAmp, yes you have to pay for it but its by far gives you the most options and great sound quality. I did a test also with it to see how it sounds compared to the stock 5.1 sound. And it sounded the same if not better. Then you mix PowerAmp with a nice set of SkullCandy in ear headphones and your golden. I dont mean anything too expensive either I just went with the $29 ones because they also come with a mic. They are amazing. Oh I guess I also use Google Music because I have 40gigs of music stored in the Google Music Cloud.
PowerAmp user here.
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Click to collapse
Not to brag...but been a long time PowerAmp Pro user since my Nexus One days, and used with my Monster Turbine Gold Ear Buds....nothing short of awesomeness...PS....spent the last two days walking the carpets at the CES Las Vegas extravaganza and and I listened to no less than a dozen competing Ear Bud companies. The Monster Turbines won hands down for purest, smoothest, most pleasing sound quality, IMHO. Oh....I did get to demo a new Headset I saw featured on Fox and Friends before my first trip to the show a couple of days ago. My Bose QC15 noise canceling over the ears headphones got knocked of by a new company I first heard about at the show. ZIK Parrot phones. They work wired as well as Bluetooth wireless. Sound was great but the added features of hand gestures to control volume and track changes was/ is the way of the future. Instead of dealing with unplugging the phones to pause, simply remove from your ears and the music comes to a stop. Put them back on and it starts back where you left off. No price on these since they are not yet released to the public.
But don't even get me going on the best of the event....LG's 55" OLED 3D TV. Will knock anyone's socks off...period, guaranteed, and I will bet the farm on this statement. Thickness = to 3 credit cards stacked!!! Sorry for the slight thread drift, BTW....

Playerpro , lots of features and lovely ui.
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JaZart said:
Playerpro , lots of features and lovely ui.
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Click to expand...
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Just spent an hour comparing. Yes, I downloaded the much needed DSP pack. PowerAMP WINS, IMHO, hands down. Give it a fair try to compare all aspects. Going thru the menu more preferences is extremely important too.

My 3 favorites in order:
1. ZPlayer - I really love the Zune player on Mango and this is a very good clone of it. It has integrated Shoutcast, a nice UI, a very nice lock screen controls that displays picture of whatever artist is playing as the lockscreen background, artist bio, widgets, equalizer and more. It's missing a few features, such as better playlist creation, but it's a very sexy and stylish player.
2. PowerAmp - The most complete player on the market. Has just about everything I mentioned ZPlayer has (minus Shoutcast and artist bio), in addition to good playlist management. Only cons, is it costs $, doesn't have automatic mixing like the Google player, and no streaming from Google or Amazon. Still just about the best player on the market. Only reason I put Zplayer higher is because I prefer the Zune player look of Zplayer, but that's totally personal preference.
3. Google Music - Great player, but a few things are holding it back. If I have music stored locally, when it syncs with Google it will duplicate the music, so for example I have two Nine Inch Nail artists in Google Music. I wish it would not display the music stored on Google if it already resides locally. Also will always stream by default, even if song is stored locally. Again, they need to make it so that it looks to see if song is stored locally and play that instead of reverting to streaming everything. Automatic mixing only available for streamed music (FYI, when I mention automatic mixing, I'm referring to the feature that is similar to Genius on apple devices - both iTunes on iPhone and Zune on WP7 offer this feature for music stored locally, Google player does not). Interface is a bit clunky.
Those are my personal 3 favorites. If I could find one that marries the UI of ZPlayer, with the features of PowerAmp and streaming capabilities of Google Music, it would be perfect.

Thanks,
Very informative. I loved Google Music, but with Tmobile throttling, not feasable. Is there a hack to get around the throttling?

ScottBroker said:
Thanks,
Very informative. I loved Google Music, but with Tmobile throttling, not feasable. Is there a hack to get around the throttling?
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Click to collapse
Look for a thread in the General section. Use Throttling for a search. You will find it Read the thread and specifically go here.
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10151082945165054
This was referenced in the thread and goes into more detail.
I don't know how long this is going to work, but I have tested this myself and it does indeed keep yopu separated from T-Mobiles grasp on your data usage. I have the feeling this won't last long, based on too many people talking in the open.
EDIT..many of the Roms are also including hacks that help the throttling issue, but not like this which all together bypasses the counting.

For me it's really a two way tie. Poweramp and miui music.

hiki player > everything else
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Just got Pixel XL how come it's not playing my M4a files?

I've been a long time android user but for the last 6 months went with the iPhone 7 plus just to try something different, long story short iPhone failed me so I decided to give the pixel XL a try. I love it but I acquired a lot of iTunes music over the past couple months and for some reason when I put them on the Pixel no matter what player I try it wont play them. I have tried Poweramp which was always a favorite, blackplayer, stock google player and nothing seems to work. Any ideas? I have googled the issue and it seems the Pixel can play M4a so what's going on?

rbtrucking said:
I've been a long time android user but for the last 6 months went with the iPhone 7 plus just to try something different, long story short iPhone failed me so I decided to give the pixel XL a try. I love it but I acquired a lot of iTunes music over the past couple months and for some reason when I put them on the Pixel no matter what player I try it wont play them. I have tried Poweramp which was always a favorite, blackplayer, stock google player and nothing seems to work. Any ideas? I have googled the issue and it seems the Pixel can play M4a so what's going on?
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Hi... Maybe a DRM issue? iTunes purchased music is protected and can only be played on a device having the same iTunes account no?
Good luck...

Ya, I thought they got rid of that years ago. I know Apple used to do that but the files work on all my other devices like computer, laptop, but I guess it's not the biggest deal. I converted them to MP3 and now they work fine.

I don't think Google Play Music (assuming that's what you're using) supports .M4a natively. You could upload them using the music manager or try a third party app. VLC tends to play just about everything.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1100462?hl=en

rbtrucking said:
Ya, I thought they got rid of that years ago. I know Apple used to do that but the files work on all my other devices like computer, laptop, but I guess it's not the biggest deal. I converted them to MP3 and now they work fine.
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Ah... Strange. Still it would be better to get them working without the need of reencoding once again. It certainly kills the audio signal a bit more.
Hopefully you'll find a way to play the originals
AJZ12 said:
I don't think Google Play Music (assuming that's what you're using) supports .M4a natively. You could upload them using the music manager or try a third party app. VLC tends to play just about everything.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1100462?hl=en
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Click to collapse
Strange, he alsp tried also Poweramp. Playstore description says it should play m4a. Apple certainly did something here...

5.1 said:
Hi... Maybe a DRM issue? iTunes purchased music is protected and can only be played on a device having the same iTunes account no?
Good luck...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In theory, only files downloaded from Apple Music streaming (.m4p files) should be affected by DRM protection. .m4a files should have no issue on Poweramp.
This doesn't mean Apple didn't do something to encrypt the .m4a files so they can only be played on Apple devices. It wouldn't surprise me. This is a big reason why I don't really like Apple products. Apple pretty much tells you how to use the device and almost force you to use it that way just to try to lock you in their ecosystem.

AJZ12 said:
In theory, only files downloaded from Apple Music streaming (.m4p files) should be affected by DRM protection. .m4a files should have no issue on Poweramp.
This doesn't mean Apple didn't do something to encrypt the .m4a files so they can only be played on Apple devices. It wouldn't surprise me. This is a big reason why I don't really like Apple products. Apple pretty much tells you how to use the device and almost force you to use it that way just to try to lock you in their ecosystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right boy am I getting sick of there crap! Honestly I am HUGE into music and consider myself an audiophile and get a lot of my music in either FLAC or WAV directly from CD and the iPhone was always very picky about what WAV files it would support and it doesn't support flac at all, wont even let you transfer it to the device. I've had instances where I would go to my music library and ALL the music that I hadn't bought from iTunes would just be GONE out of the blue. I googled it, and it turns out it's a very common issue and even the guys on macrumors suspect's it's a tactic by apple to get you to only use iTunes purchased music on their devices.

AJZ12 said:
In theory, only files downloaded from Apple Music streaming (.m4p files) should be affected by DRM protection. .m4a files should have no issue on Poweramp.
This doesn't mean Apple didn't do something to encrypt the .m4a files so they can only be played on Apple devices. It wouldn't surprise me. This is a big reason why I don't really like Apple products. Apple pretty much tells you how to use the device and almost force you to use it that way just to try to lock you in their ecosystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not surprised at all. Since Poweramp is supposed to support m4a, it's definitely an issue with Apple. I remember 10 years ago when my wife had the first or second iPhone and i had to convert songs in mp3 or flac to aac or whatever format to play them. Now she uses my ex N6P :angel:
rbtrucking said:
That's right boy am I getting sick of there crap! Honestly I am HUGE into music and consider myself an audiophile and get a lot of my music in either FLAC or WAV directly from CD and the iPhone was always very picky about what WAV files it would support and it doesn't support flac at all, wont even let you transfer it to the device. I've had instances where I would go to my music library and ALL the music that I hadn't bought from iTunes would just be GONE out of the blue. I googled it, and it turns out it's a very common issue and even the guys on macrumors suspect's it's a tactic by apple to get you to only use iTunes purchased music on their devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now you're free to play whatever you want on your phone :good:
(Except original m4a Apple files <-- sarcasm )
Cheers...

rbtrucking said:
That's right boy am I getting sick of there crap! Honestly I am HUGE into music and consider myself an audiophile and get a lot of my music in either FLAC or WAV directly from CD and the iPhone was always very picky about what WAV files it would support and it doesn't support flac at all, wont even let you transfer it to the device. I've had instances where I would go to my music library and ALL the music that I hadn't bought from iTunes would just be GONE out of the blue. I googled it, and it turns out it's a very common issue and even the guys on macrumors suspect's it's a tactic by apple to get you to only use iTunes purchased music on their devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And with the development of USB-C and the state of modern hardware, lossless file formats will actually be lossless on phones instead of just a waste of space. Most apps converted lossless files to lower bitrates while playing and if the app didn't, the DAC did.
It's ridiculous. In my eyes, Apple looks like they are making desperate attempts to hold onto as many customers as possible by making it as inconvenient as possible to switch to a different platform. iOS is lagging behind Android now in settings menu organization and overall functionality, and I think they know it. I'd use to have to root a phone just to do some of the things an iPhone could do until the OG Moto X, which was the last phone I rooted and that was only for hotspot access when I had my original unlimited Verizon plan. I have lost interest in root access on my daily driver now that Android does everything I need plus more. I thought I'd root my 6P once I experienced a limitation but there wasn't ever a time with the 6P that Android let me down (besides a software-based noise canceling mic issue but Google replaced the phone for free because of it). I didn't even root the only Nexus phone I ever owned and still haven't seen the need to root the Pixel.
I was using my friend's old iPhone while I was waiting for my replacement 6P to arrive and ran into so many inconveniences that I kept asking my friend if I could jailbreak it. He didn't want me to so let's just say it was a horrible experience. You can't even put the cursor in the middle of a word to correct a typing mistake unless you use the magnifying glass long-click thing or the spacebar slide feature on the keyboard. On paper, the functionality of iOS and Android is "closer than ever" but the little things make a huge difference.
P.S. iTunes is absolute garbage. It's the modern day Windows Media Player. I feel bad that iPhone users are basically forced to use it to transfer music from a computer to the phone.