20 tips for reducing Zune related stress and expanding software's functionality

[Khu]

First, we all have to keep in mind what appears to be the design philosophy of the Zune experience. Microsoft has created a handheld extension of your PC media library. This is not an autonomous handheld media manager. All things Zune flow from the perspective that your library resides in the Zune software and the device is just a way to take selected parts of it with you. There is no management from the device itself and the software is designed to make your device match as closely as possible to your library. Approaching the device and the library as two separate animals can cause a lot of frustration. The Zune device is a shadow. To make the shadow look the way it should, you really have to manage what is CAUSING the shadow. That is a much different philosophy from many of the media players out there today.


Here are a few tips and tricks for keeping your Zune experience stress free.


1. Fix all tags. An app like the Zune software uses a lot of metadata to present your files to you. Even though you may update various tracks, those updates do not always find their way into the tags. As a result, when your metadata gets out of sync or if you decide to move or rebuild your collection, you can find some organization problems. I recommend using a 3rd party program for finding your music information and tagging. When the underlying tags are changed, those changes are reflected in your library.


For general tagging, a free program like mp3Tag will work very nicely. It allows for batch tagging and renaming and will build tags based on the filename or build filenames based on the tags. It will also give you a good view of your library for comparing the tags on various files.


For general library management, I use a program called MediaMonkey. This program has a feature much like the old Find Album Info and will even embed the album art in the tag if possible. This will ensure that when you put the file in another Collection or rescan it, the art will follow it. You can also browse through possible matches much more quickly than the old software and the quality of many of the covers is very good.


Both of these are free. Check the tools section of these boards for some great recommendations and downloads of 3rd party apps.


2. Do not make your Podcast directory a subdirectory of your monitored music folders. If you rescan, there is a chance you will see your Podcast on both the Podcast and music tabs. Keeping your Podcast directory outside of your Music directory also makes it easier to find the casts if you want to make changes, delete, etc.


3. If you are going to make massive changes to your library, unplug the Zune. While plugged in, changes that you make are synched immediately. If you make a mistake, it will be much more difficult to recover if the Zune has been updated. For example, an errant mouseclick deleted a double album for me. However, I was able to copy it back to my computer from the Zune plugging it in, stopping the sync, and Copy to Collection.


When rebuilding my Collection, I dropped every monitored music folder. I renamed directories, moved stuff around, and then finally added the new locations to monitoring. The software made a note of what was already on my device and decided to sync only 45 tracks plus my Podcasts. If I had done this with the Zune plugged in, it would have deleted 3300 tracks and then readded them. Making massive changes while it was unplugged meant that it only had to sync the delta.


4. Rip with an external program. The Zune software is quite capable of ripping but you may often want a lot more control over the quality and size of your library. In addition, ripping to a location the Zune software does not know about allows you to rip, update all tags, and THEN bring it into your collection. It can be frustrating trying to correct tags with the Zune software so getting the information as accurate as possible beforehand is a plus.


Many now have some truly large Collections. If you are using mp3 format, you might consider converting to a Variable Bit Rate. The Zune will rip VBR as well as many other programs. Personally, I like the quality of a 192bit VBR mp3. I use Exact Audio Copy for ripping and LAME for encoding.


When ripping, I will normally have the Zune software running. This will pull down all of the media information. I usually cut and paste album info into the EAC gui and then rip. I will then look at the files with Media Monkey and grab album art. Once everything looks correct, I will copy the files into the Collection. If things look good, delete from the rip location so I don't keep duplicates and go to the next one.


5. Playlists. Go to Settings --> Software --> General and make note of the directory you set up as your Media folder. New playlists will be created in a subdirectory called Playlist. M3U playlists that you create with an external program can be dropped into this directory to be monitored. If you are getting error messages that a particular playlist exists when you try to create a new one, check this directory and delete the old ones.


The playlists are in xml format and can be viewed with a text editor. If you have playlists for files of one format and you have converted the files, you may be able to perform a simple search and replace to convert your old list to the new format. This will prevent you from having to build it from scratch.


When you add a song to a playlist, it will automatically get synched to your device. You can use this to manage what is on your device by a psuedo master list. However, removing a file from the playlist does not delete it from the device.


6. Video. The native format for the Zune is wmv. Whenever possible, convert to wmv prior to syncing. Although the software will transcode multiple formats for you, that occurs during sync and you will have to wait on the device. In addition, a copy of the transcoded file is not kept. If you delete the video and add it later, it will transcode again. The Zune will not transcode the following during sync:


320x240 resolution 30fps 192bit 44kHz wmv.


I normally use the Windows Media Video 9 codec and Windows Media Video 10 Professional codec. There are numerous apps that will convert from one format to another and see CucuSoft popping up on the boards quite a bit. I personally use DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink for ripping and AVS Video Converter for conversion. Converting from an uncompressed format like VOB to WMV will happen almost in real time. However, doing that prior to syncing means you aren't waiting for the software to do that conversion and then copy it. In addition, you can keep the file for future use. Typically, a feature film compress down to about a 400mb wmv.



7. Podcasts. The Podcast subscription is quite good but there are few quirks to work around. As mentioned, place the Podcasts outside of your music library. When going through the settings, you can control how many casts are on your HD as well as the Zune. However, even when deleted from the Zune, they are still on your HD.


For each casts, you will see In Collection if it is on your computer and a Zune icon if it is on the Zune. The download button overrides Series Settings and you can download specific Podcasts and they will be synched. Automatic identifies files that were downloaded and synched automatically. It is a good practice to occasionally examine the feeds and delete older files if you don't want them.


You can also sample Podcasts without subscribing. Simply click the download button from the Marketplace and a file will be downloaded and synched. You can always subscribe at a later date.


8. Marketplace. The Zune Marketplace is free to browse, sample, and subscribe to Podcasts. All that is required is an account. The Zune pass is an all-you-can-eat download service that provides unlimited downloads for a monthly fee. However, you cannot burn those songs to a CD and not all tracks are available. You can purchase with Microsoft Points and also get the rights to burn that song to a CD. Points can be purchased online or at a brick and mortar shop like Best Buy. Check the games section. These are the same points used for Xbox Live.


To see what you have downloaded, go to the Marketplace and click on Downloads. From here, you can see what you have downloaded with the Zune Pass, for Points, and active downloads. If you bought music and need to download it again, do so from this screen.


9. Wireless sync. The wireless sync can work well but also has a few quirks. This assumes you have set up the sync in the software with the device. Typically, with the software running, plug in the device to an external power source like a dock or the travel charger. Toggle on wireless. After 60 seconds of being idle, the Zune will connect and begin to sync.


The wireless is automatically toggled off and disabled when the TV Out is toggled on. When you undock or unplug it, the wireless will STILL be toggled off. Remember to toggle it back on when you need it.


If plugged into external power and the wireless is enabled, it will continue to search for a network. If the software is not running, it will simply continue to search. If you cancel but leave the wireless toggled on, after 60 seconds it begins to search again. If you do not want it to search, unplug it, undock it, toggle off the wireless, or toggle on the TV Out.


10. General software problems and bugs. If you are having problems running the software, check and make sure you have all of the necessary requirements. The Zune software requires Windows XP Service Pack 2 or greater. Even with all of the pre-reqs, you may have problems. When posting, try to keep the following in mind:

• A bug is something that is broken. It is supposed to do "X" but does "Y" or kicks out an error.
• A feature is functionality that is not present such as an Auto Playlist.
• When reporting bugs, give as much information as possible. For someone to be able to help you, they need to try to duplicate what you are doing. For software issues, you should list the operating system and service packs, which part of the software is giving the problem, exactly what actions you were taking at the time, and how can the problem be duplicated. If others can't reproduce it, they won't be able to fix it. You may also want to post on one of the boards at Zune.net. The Zune team monitors and posts in several of those threads.

[Khu]

It seems a lot of the bugs have already been thrown out there and much of the talk is shifting to features. This post is intended for people that are not having software and hardware issues and want to know how they can use the Zune features to do what they need. I think most of us can agree that there are many undocumented features (the help pages are a little...light...) and I wanted to point out a few things.



To set expectations, I will only be talking about features designed into the software and hardware and not focusing on 3rd party apps meant to replace parts of the software, fix software issues, or hacks.




1. Store content on Zune but not on PC

The Zune has a feature called Guest syncing which can be used for this. Guest syncing provides the most control over what you put on your device and has several limitations. This feature is designed so that you can easily get DRM-free content from one Collection and move it to another. Features that will be impacted with Guest sync:

*No automatic sync
*You may not be able to move DRM content
*No automatic syncing of Podcasts
*No wireless sync (part of automatic sync)

In the software, if you go to Settings --> Device, you will find an option to Forget this Zune. That will remove the association between your device and the PC and the PC will no longer be its "Home" PC. Once your device is forgotten, when you reconnect the Zune, you will be prompted to connect as Guest or make the PC its Home. Connect as Guest.



After you connect, you will be able to move any non-DRM content from the Collection to the device. This will have to be done by either flagging the content with Sync To Device or dragging it to the Zune icon.



Once you have all of the content copied over, you can delete the content from your Collection. Verify that it did not delete from the Zune and you can then delete the content from your PC.



In my testing, the only real drawback I saw is that when you use the Zune software to browse the device, album art does not show up. However, album art is indeed on the device.



2. Drag and drop from explorer to Collection

There is a particular hotspot in the gui but I have successfully dragged and dropped music and video. For music, launch the software and go to the Collection --> Music tab. Select the files in Windows Explorer and drag them to the center pane where your album covers appear. The mouse pointer should change to a + and you can drop. A message appears at the bottom of the window stating X Media Items Found or Invalid Media.



You can do the same with movies but need to be on the Collection --> Movies tab.



3. Copy by Playlist

The software is now designed to make sure when you sync a playlist, it puts all of the necessary tracks on the device. Regardless of whether or not it is already on the device, create a playlist, add tracks, and Sync to device. If a song is not on the Zune and it is needed for the list, it should get synched.



4. Import playlist

You can import a playlist created by another application such as Windows Media Player. The playlist directory is a sub-directory of your media download location. To find this, go to Settings --> Software --> General. Make note of the location you selected for downloaded media. Browse to that location in Windows Explorer and you will find a Playlist subdirectory.



Create a playlist with a 3rd party application and save in m3u format. Copy the playlist to your Playlist directory and the Zune software immediately sees it. When I did this, I actually saved the list to that location and it created duplicates in the form of a .zpl, .wpl, and .m3u. I deleted all but the .zpl.



You can easily and permanently delete lists by deleting them from this directory. You can also quickly change the name of a list by opening the file in a text editor like Notepad and changing the name. It is just a few lines down from the top and easy to recognize.



You can also drag a playlist file to the Playlist window.



5. View your playcount

Playcount is now visible on Zune.net but you can also view this from within the software. Go to the Collection --> Music tab and on the right, you can select Browse or List. Select List. Right click on a column heading and select Choose Columns. Find Play Count and make sure it is checked. You can now view your Play Count for each track as well as sort by that column. This can give you a good idea of what you might want to rotate out, rotate in, or get rid of completely.



6. Shuffle...then shuffle more...

This was an update sometime back but may still be a little known feature. If a shuffled playlist isn't shuffled enough, you can continue to shuffle it. Without leaving the screen, toggle Shuffle on and off several times. It will shuffle the already shuffled list.



7. Zoom for that closeup

It is a bit limited but when viewing a picture on the Zune, hit the center button. You will get an option to Zoom In. When selected, you can use the wheel to pan and scan around the picture. A small icon appears in the bottom right that will show you where in the image your focus lies.



8. Use quicklist to repeat a single song

Unfortunately, there is no built in featue to simply select a song for repeat. However, you can add the song to your Quick List and set the Quick List to repeat.



9. RDS and the FM Radio

One of the much touted features of the radio is pulling in RDS (Radio Data System) information. Depending on what the station chooses to broadcast, you can get a wide range of information on the display of your Zune. Call letters are fairly common but I have seen others report one station actually broadcasts DJ information. Here is an article that outlines what is available through RDS.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Data_System



Keep in mind that the headphone cord works as an FM antenna. Also, even if the station sounds clear, you might not always get a strong enough signal to get the RDS info. Of course, not all stations broadcast RDS but it is still a pretty cool feature. With luck, in the future Zune users could get the same kind of info on the Zune display as many see with satellite radio.



10. Find location of file

Although we no longer have an actual menu item to Find Location, some may still find the need. Find Location was an option that appeared when right clicking on a file in the old software. It would automatically launch a Windows Explorer window that went straight to that location. You can still do so even though you aren't prompted.



Right-click on a file and select Properites. The path to that file appears in red in the Location area. If you click on the path, it will launch an Explorer Window. This is handy for jumping straight to a directory that contains a file or finding the directory if you are not quite sure how you organized it on the disk.


Feel free to add any other tips others may find useful. And please correct any incorrect information.

[chi]

thanx!
C

[Dizzy]

I wasn't aware of the drag and drop. That's a very commonly requested subject.

One question. If you connect your Zune as a guest, do your play counts on Zune.net get updated? I'm thinking not but I've never tried it.

[Khu]

I'm not sure... It seems like playcount that is reported is still a little wonky to me. Sometimes, I'm genuinely surprised by what shows up.

On the drag and drop, at times, others have told me that it doesn't work for them and they never find that hotspot with the + mousepointer. I'd be happy on any feedback with that one.

[Dizzy]

Once I play around with the new software myself, I'll let you know. I haven't for fear of my library!

[zombie278]

great post.... really informative.. thanx

[soccerdad]

Regarding importing playlists...

It's not working for me as described. First, the Playlists folder isn't under the location on the Settings->Software->General screen. That is configured to point to another box (a raid drive on a server). But when I create playlists using Zune, they go to the normal Users\{userid}\Music\Zune\Playlists folder (this is on Vista) - that's where I see the .zpl files get created.

So I dropped a .m3u file into that folder, and it's not getting picked up, imported / converted, or anything else that I can tell.

Any pointers on getting this to work? This would make my life a lot easier, getting existing playlists out of Media Monkey and into the Zune software.

Thanks,

Donnie

[Khu]

That's kind of strange... I have my files on a networked drive but I have to admit that instead of using a UNC share this time, I actually used a drive letter mapping. There was no Playlist subdirectory in your Media Download directory?

Have you tried to drag and drop the list? In the software, go to Collection --> Playlists. You should be able to drag from Windows Explorer and drop into the window. Look for the mouse pointer to change to a +.

Other than dropping the list in that same directory as your others or dragging and dropping, I am not quite sure what might be going on...

Are the tracks on the list already in the Collection? You can add tracks to the Zune by simply syncing a playlist but I believe you will actually need the tracks to be in your Collection for the the software to build the list.

EDIT: You might also try changing the extension to .zpl just to see if that makes any kind of difference. For the life of me I don't see why it would but if nothing else is currently working...

2nd EDIT: Changing the extension is not going to work. I just gave that a shot. I didn't have a problem with the MediaMonkey Send To --> m3u option though. That seemed to work pretty well. I got duplicates again because it saved the m3u and the software created a .zpl from it but that was expected. I really hate the whole "it works on my machine" thing... I really would like to find out why this seems to work for some but not others.

I'll also see if I can't play around with this a bit tomorrow and see what else I might be able to dig up.

[Khu]

A few more observations.

I created an empty playlist and gave it a m3u extension. I tried to add it thinking I would get an empty list but it wouldn't import. I got the + but no list.

As soon as I added a track by cutting and pasting using a text editor, the list showed up. I also was able to get a list to show up with only the following in the file:

#EXTM3U

If you can, give that a test. Create a new text file, give it a m3u extension, put the above text in the file, and see if you can import it. If you can, it may point to the Zune not recognizing either the paths or the media that is listed in the playlist. If you can't import it...well, I'm going to have to work on that.

[soccerdad]

I'll try your suggestions the next time I get a chance. In the meantime, are you saying your "Playlists" folder is on the network drive, the same place that your ripped songs / folders go to? If so, that's not what I'm seeing.

I have a folder to monitor for songs set to "\\server\Music". I also have my ripped songs set to go to "\\server\Music". Don't know if that would cause problems or not - it's that way because my initial collection was already in that location. I haven't seen any issues with this.

But, as I mentioned before, my playlists get created under the c:\Users\{userid}\Music\Zune\Playlists folder. That's the one I've tried dropping .m3u files into. Note that I've also tried creating a \\server\Music\Playlist and \Playlists folders and putting .m3u files there, but that didn't work either.

Donnie

[Khu]

Originally Posted by soccerdad

I'll try your suggestions the next time I get a chance. In the meantime, are you saying your "Playlists" folder is on the network drive, the same place that your ripped songs / folders go to? If so, that's not what I'm seeing.

I have a folder to monitor for songs set to "\serverMusic". I also have my ripped songs set to go to "\serverMusic". Don't know if that would cause problems or not - it's that way because my initial collection was already in that location. I haven't seen any issues with this.

But, as I mentioned before, my playlists get created under the c:Users{userid}MusicZunePlaylists folder. That's the one I've tried dropping .m3u files into. Note that I've also tried creating a \serverMusicPlaylist and Playlists folders and putting .m3u files there, but that didn't work either.

Donnie

I don't think using a share instead of a drive letter should make a difference. In version 1.0, I had used the share (\\server\directory) instead of a drive letter. For some reason, when I rebuilt my Collection at some point, I ended up using the drive letters instead.

A while back, I went hunting for the Playlist folder. What I found was that all of my new Playlists were going to my Downloaded Media directory. That is the directory you set up for downloads from the Marketplace. I would create playlists but wouldn't see them show up in my Windows profile folders. It did seem like the Zune software was finding and creating lists in various places but adding and deleting lists all seemed to show up in that subdirectory of the Downloaded Media folder. You can find the location you set up by going to Settings --> Software -- General.

In my case, my Downloaded Media folder is called Zune Marketplace and three subdirectories were created by the software: Playlists, Podcasts, and Received Pictures. If you didn't set up a download location, you might test how setting up a folder and letting it create a Playlist directory might work.

Even if that should fail you, I'm hoping the dragging and dropping might give you some relief.

[soccerdad]

I finally got a chance to re-try auto-adding playlists again. I won't go through all the steps it took for me to figure out how the Zune software behaves, but I'm fairly sure that I understand what it's doing and that its behavior is deterministic.

The long-and-short of the story is that the software *will* monitor for playlists under the folder that's specified for ripping and downloading. This is true even if that folder is configured as a UNC folder on another server, e.g. \\server\Music. It will also monitor under a folder that's specified for monitoring music. In my case, they're the same - "\\server\Music". But if I added the original monitor music folder as another monitored folder, e.g. C:\Users\{userid}\Music\Zune, it will pick up playlists that are dropped there as well. A couple of points here: a) I only tested dropping .m3u and .zpl files into a folder named "Playlists" under those folders. It may find those file extensions anywhere under the monitored folders. b) It saves the resulting .zpl files into the "Playlists" folder under the configured rip/download folder. That seems to be true even if it's a .zpl file that it found in the monitored directory (i.e. it would be a duplicate of the first .zpl file).

The reason I had problems originally is that I was using existing .m3u files that I had from another application, and the iRiver player I used which consumed those .m3u files didn't need the various "#EXT???" lines in the .m3u files. All my .m3u files consisted solely of lines with file names / locations.

When I took your suggestion to create a file consisting of just the line "#EXTM3U", the Zune software dutifully added the empty playlist when I dropped it in a monitored folder. However, when I used a .m3u file with that initial line and only one more line consisting of a file name / path, the Zune software ignored it. Making a long story longer, I used WMP to create a .m3u file. That file had a line preceding each file name / path of the form "#EXTINF:0,{filename}.mp3 (where {filename} is just the filename portion of the full path). The Zune software accepted .m3u files with those extra lines. So it would seem that the Zune software needs a more fully-formed .m3u file, even if there are applications / players that might work fine with .m3u files containing just file names / paths.

Finally, while people likely already know this, a lot of the Zune settings can be found in the registry at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Zune. The various paths that are configured are in the "Groveler" key under that location. My one comment is that it might be nice if the "Playlists" paths (monitored and saved) could be explicitly configured separate from the "Music" paths, but now that I understand how it's working, it's not unreasonable.

Hope that helps someone somewhere...

Donnie

[Dosed]

Thank you . VERY HELPFUL. Many questions answered..

[Rhaezorblue]

I have been running into problems getting audiobooks to play in the correct order.

I have the Pelican Brief novel that is ripped into mp3 format. For the sake of arguement, assume that the tags are not all correct, not perfect, and generally blank or messed up.

They are located in D:\audiobooks\Pelican Brief\Disc A (through Disc K)
Each folder has files in sequencial order such as "A Track 1.mp3" , "A Track 2.mp3"

I can't for the life of me figure out an easy way just to make sure the playlist in Zune is the CORRECT order. Other applications, such as winamp, its really easy. With the Zune I don't know if i need to add them to my "Library" first, and if I do they will all have messed up track info and be scattered to the wind in Unknown artists etc.

I don't really even care if the "artist" or title displays correctly while playing in the Zune, I just want to listen to the tracks in the correct order.

[Rhaezorblue]

Addition to my above post:

I thought that I had everything figured out.. I first tried editing all the id3 info with "Tag and Rename" application, copied the first 3 Discs of edited tracks into a subfolder thats monitored. Zune found the new media. I go to the John Grisham artist and find the "Pelican Brief Disc A" - C. Great. I check the Disc A album, and I notice some tracks are missing. I searched for them for a long time, but they are just not there. Gone. ???????? sigh. Why is this software so difficult.

I start from scratch again.. I created a M3U playlist in Windows Media Player, save it into d:\mp3s\zune\playlists and Zune finds it. I thought I had things figured out at this point, but there I noticed one spot in the playlist it plays tracks 7, 8, and then 7 again..

At this point would it be best to get an app that wipes clean all the id3 tags for these mp3s?

This morning in frustration I used the zune media library reset tool.

[Dizzy]

Here at ZuneBoards, we find MP3Tag works better for getting the desired tags. See this thread: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/gen...g-library.html

Personally, I'd change the genre of the audiobooks to "Podcast", add them to a monitored podcast folder, and sync them that way. Then you'll have the ability to resume where you left offf.

[Rhaezorblue]

If I use MP3TAG to modify some of my music files tags, I assume I should have the Zune software closed when I do this. Will the changes automatically get reflected in the Zune software when I relaunch it? Or is there a button somewhere to rescan for id3 info inside the zune software I don't see?

[Dizzy]

Chances are, you'll need to run the collection reset tool: http://www.zuneboards.com/forums/gen...agnostics.html

[wakeskater17]

thank you this was very helpful.