Hands-on ZExperience from Europe

[winkieflash]

Hello my friends,

This thread will be all about my Zune and me, and we're both in The Netherlands.

This thread will cover everything from unpacking it, to installing it, to the user experience I'm expecting some kind of trouble since I'm in Europe; and I thought it would be a good thing to share any kind of solution(s).

Here is a picture made by the guy selling me the Zune
Kinda hard to see on the pic, but it's a Brownie

Also, I will be testing the Sennheiser HD 202 headset; it will hopefully arrive the same day my Zune arrives.

So far for now; my Zune will probably arrive tomorrow, if not the day after. Expect a full range of pics of me unpacking it

Stay Zuned!

[update]

Just a quick update to offer some insight, and no, unfortunately, no Zune yet! But 'the guy' ensured me he mailed it today, so fingers crossed!

As stated in my previous post, I bought a Zune.

How you ask? The Zune won't come out in Europe for at least half a year, and I'm not so lucky that I own a credit card (credit cards are not a standard in The Netherlands; they are ridiculously expensive, so everyone just 'wires' the money everywhere in NL).

Now, in Holland we have a little something called "Marktplaats" (literally 'marketplace'), and it works kinda like eBay. People put their new & used stuff on it, and it offers everything from old raggy furniture to sparkling new television sets.
Being a huge gadget freak myself (obviously), I was hoping some fellow freaks had made the travel to the USA or ordered it on Amazon.com, and somehow got bored with the Zune already (couldn't possibly happen to myself) and thus, put it up for sale.
And a lot of people did! I found an entire range of Zunes, mostly black ones, and a few white ones, price ranges between 180 euros to 300 euros.
One of the people offering their Zune was someone who had bought a Brown Zune whilst being in the USA, but wanted to sell it now because he needed the money to go on holiday. (again, I would never do such a thing, but by him doing so, he's gonna make me very happy!)

So, long story short, I wired the money (over the internet; 'Internet Bankieren' or internet banking as it's called), and right now I'm waiting for my Brownie; expecting it to arrive tomorrow. (as for the Sennheiser; no word on that yet, expecting it to arrive thursday)
Here are some more pica's for the zanatics; click, click and click

Stay Zuned!

[update]

So I rushed home today, after finding out that my package would actually be delivered today, and guess what I found... Yeah, I missed the mailman! So normally, the mailman puts this note in your mailbox, stating that you can pick up your package at the post office. But no, this kind man puts a note in my mailbox, stating that he'll be back tomorrow! Yes, that's right, and I am one of those unfortunate people with a full-time job, so I won't be home tomorrow either when he gets here... Lets just hope I can pick it up tomorrow evening!

Sorry to keep you waiting my friends, but I promise you, the suspence will only make the arrival so much better

Stay Zuned!

[update]

It's here! It finally arrived yesterday, and I have unpacked it but don't worry - I've got the pics to back that up

Sorry to keep y'all waiting, but tomorrow I have to buy myself a new CF card (Flash memory) for my digital camera (right now I only have 1 - of 32 Mb) and a external hard drive for all my music (I'll explain tomorrow), and when that's all in the pocket - expect a great review!

Here's how I've planned it:

part 1 - unpack-party
-> cue the cheesy inspirational music!

part 2 - the software issue

part 3 - hands-on zexperiences; transferring
-> no sharing since there are no other Zunes around!

part 4 - hands-on zexperiences; mobility
-> and scrobbling with Zenses to Last.FM

So, once again, Stay Zuned!

[David]

keep this up to date and i'll sticky it.

I think all users should do something like this.

and I hope it's nothing but good news lol.

[trnmariners09]

yea man this is really interesting i hope it all works out, it should be a book, zune-not here for another day. or sumting like that

[winkieflash]

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Keep on reading for click-through-photos, or click here for an album
or look at this for a short version, or read on for the long version!


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Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I present to you:

*cue the inspirational cheesy music* My Brownie! *clapclap*

So it finally arrived, and as you can see, the box is rather small. I don't know how big I expected it to be, but to me it just seemed smaller than it looked on all those press pictures.
That made me a little worried (did he even send a Zune? what if all I got were his old socks or something?).
But I unpacked it, and there it was, the box!!!


It looks a bit 'used', but hey, that was to be expected.
I opened the package, and oh my... there it was, in all it's brown beauty... The Zune.


I really liked the ribbon underneath it to pull it up, made me feel like I was unpacking an expensive piece of jewellery or something.
So I pulled out the Zune, put it on an old iPod-sock (don't ask) for protection, and continued my exploration of the box.



As you can see, the earbuds that came with my Zune are not the original ones.

'The guy' told me that his earphones 'kinda broke down', so instead he gave me his raggedy old PSP-earbuds. Thanks! Good think I already bought the Sennheiser HD 202 Headphones
On with the quest.

At the back of the box was a booklet, filled with:

the software cdrom, some mandatory warranty book-thingies, and an empty 'this is where your case should be' thing. Damnit, he forgot to send me the protective case! I've emailed 'the guy' about it, but so far, no luck yet.

So now that the box is empty (good packaging by the way, it really looks original and that makes it fun to explore), back to the Zune.

I gotta say, reading all about those people with brownies, I kinda expected it to not look so good as they all said. Boy was I wrong.
The brown combined with that green edge really gives it that little something, and everyone I showed it to went 'Wow...' (maybe Microsoft should've used the Vista marketing-campaign for the Zune?)


After finding out the Zune is as good as perfect, I went on with my new headphones. Remember how I told you I ordered them? Well, I got an email saying that they were out of stock, and that the phones needed to be ordered. Delay: 2 weeks. Okay, that's not acceptable!
I cancelled my order, went to this big multimedia-store, and bought the headphones there :p They were even cheaper there, too, so it's a win-win situation for me


First impression; boy, those are some huge headphones. I wonder how much energy this thing is gonna cost my Zune...

After putting them on, I noticed how comfortable they are. You can adjust the headphones to match your ears, so it's a guaranteed fit for everyone.
And then - the sound-check. I've got some Incubus-albums on my pc which are converted at a really high bitrate, perfect for testing.
So, how does it sound? Well, I have to admit, it takes some getting used to. Ofcourse I was used to using small crappy headphones, so this burst of music came as a suprise to me.
The high tones are done very well, but the high bass volume kinda screws the high tones up. Nonetheless, if you're on your bike or behind your computer, youre assured that you don't hear any background noises. At all.
For a safety issue it might be better not to use these phones while youre cycling to work, because you really can't hear ANYTHING but the music. But, from a music-lover's perspective, these headphones are perfect!

So stay Zuned for part II - the software issue, where I go in detail about how to install the Zune software on a European version of Windows XP SP2, and an attempt to install it on a European version of Windows XP 64bit SP2.

[winkieflash]

[update]

Just a quick update; 'the guy' mailed me that he had actually misplaced the original Zune cover (that was missing from the package, check the last post), and that he is gonna send it to me anyway

Hurray!

Expect pictures to appear here when I receive it.

Stay Zuned!

[Aden]

Another Europe Zune owner here! UK owner had da black biatch since december 25th.. i love xmas.

Anyways i love my zune.. as do you i guess. Look after him/her and maybe one day i will come to the netherlands... ip trackyou down and we can squirt each other.

[David]

any new news from europe?

[winkieflash]

[update]

Hello everyone!

So sorry for the delay, but I thought I'd give the user zexperience a week or two to fully sink in - so I can write about it more detailed and less noobish.

I finally got my original Zune cover - yay! And here it is:


I gotta say, it's a lot better than I expected it to be. It's nice and soft, and I don't know if you've read all that stuff about it being too solid, not being able to feel the buttons through it? It's not true. Unless you have saucage fingers, it works like a charm


The story about the software is almost done, I'm hoping to post that tonight as well.

And as I mentioned, the actual user experience is finally an experience instead of a first impression, so expect more of that after the sofware story.

Stay Zuned!

[David]

cool

[winkieflash]

[update]

First off, some apologies are in place here. I deeply apologize for the fact that this post has been delayed for like 3 weeks.

And now! The good stuff.

Okay, let's start with my home situation first.
I've got 2 workstations. One ASUS laptop, running WinXP Home, and one big pc (home built) running WinXP Pro 64bit edition.

So before I actally bought the Zune, I wanted to see if the software worked AT ALL on any European system, so I downloaded the Zune.exe file from the Zune.net website.
On my computer it instantly gave me an error. Damnit, but that's what was to be exptected; hardly any software works instantly on that OS.
So on to the laptop. There it worked! But, consistant as I am, I got it to work on the 64bit OS too! Here's how.

Windows XP Home
Let's begin by starting the Zune.exe file. Almost immediately I got an error, stating that I have to update my OS first if I were to continue. (you can't continue if you don't)
Allright, let's do that, it has been a while. Ran windows update, and started the Zune file again.

Now, because I am on a non-US version of Windows, I had to make a little work-around to get the file to work properly. If you don't do this, youre gonna be stuck at the installation at 95%. That sucks ofcourse, so here's what you have to do to avoid that: (from the microsoft website)

1- Click on START , RUN and type cmd click on OK.
2- One new windows will open with : ( C:\Documents and Settings\<user-name>)
3- Type : net localgroup USERS /add <ENTER>
4- Type : net localgroup INTERACTIVE /add <ENTER>
5- Type : net localgroup USERS <user-name> /add <ENTER> (Username found in step 2)
6- Type: net localgroup INTERACTIVE <user-name> /add <ENTER> (Username found in step 2)
and replace <user-name> with your OS's user name.

Now, the installation went perfectly! I couldn't name my Zune (cause I didn't have one yet) or anything, so it was straight to the UI for me.
First impression: Looks a lot like WM11 but with another skin, and way cooler I really love how the edges of the program are blueisch, like the black Zune. Very cool.

So I got the Zune, connected it, setting it up was very easy, transferring music and videos went EXTREMELY FAST! But maybe that's just me, I was used to the Sony Connect software. (google it for a good laugh)

But then. My girlfriend wanted a Zune too (ofcourse), so I got here a black one. I tried to hook it up to my laptop as well, but that gave me lots of weird sync-errors. Makes sense of course; it's a totally different Zune.

Only solution I had? Install the Zune software on my pc.


Windows XP Pro 64bit edition
Now this was a whole other deal. I coulnd't even start the Zune.exe file, so what to do?

The guys over at Zune-online.com have made a very easy to use workaround for this problem.

Only one requirement; you need a working version of the software on another OS (you need some files).

Step 1: downloading WM11. Like I said before, the interface looks a lot like that from WM11, so I guess it's only logical that you need it.
Step 2: go to the c:\Program Files\Zune folder on the other OS, and get the Zune.inf file. Copy it to e.g. your desktop
Step 3: open it and make these changes to it:

Replace:

[Manufacturer]

%MfgName%=Microsoft,NTx86

[Microsoft.NTx86]

%Zune.DeviceDesc%=ZuneMTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTPZ

With this:

[Manufacturer]

%MfgName%=Microsoft,NTAMD64

[Microsoft.NTAMD64]

%Zune.DeviceDesc%=ZuneMTP, USB\MS_COMP_MTPZ

Step 4: Plug in your Zune. The OS won't recognize it, so you have to point the install wizard to the .inf file we just created. It will bitch about not being signed and all, but just click OK and go ahead.
Step 5: Copy the c:\Program Files\Zune directory from your other OS to the c:\Program files (x86)\Zune dir on your 64 bit OS.
Step 6: Now, you have to register all the 'foreign' .dll files in that folder. To do that, press WIN + R, type CMD and enter this:

cd "\Program Files (x86)\Zune" [press enter]

for %f in (*.dll) do regsvr32 %f [press enter]

A lot of pop-ups will come up. Click OK on all of them. Some are error-messages, but that's fine. Click em away.
Step 7: Copy the Zune.exe from the c:\Program Files (x86)\Zune directory to your desktop and run it.

That's it! The first time you will get some weird errors (pop-ups without any text on them, gave me a good laugh) but hey, if that's what it takes

Syncing music and videos should be no problem now. The only difference I noticed was the software didn't recognize the Zune-type my girlfriend has. Like e.g. on my laptop when I connect my Zune, I see a little Brownie-icon when I sync. On my pc, I only see a generic Zune-icon (white borders shaped like a Zune).

But what the hey, it works!!!


Stay Zuned for the rest of the updates. The next one, part III - hands-on zexperiences will be very interesting, since I can now test the wireless sharing! I love my gf for getting a Zune too

[Chiups]

dude the white text is killin' me.

[Elijach]

that stuff for win xp home works fot latinamericans too

[jessy]

wow i didnt know they gave colored pouches to match your zunes color.

[Eurydius del Ark]

Yeah, that Brownie is soooo sexy o.o

[Tamiro1992]

its nice to hear how people get their zunes. i am hoping to get mine 1 day.