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[Crispy]

Does MC12 support Zune's or if not is it planned? The Zune 2 looks really good and I want to get one since my Ipod is acting flaky and my music collection has grown too big.

They have done a brilliant job improving the hardware and UI on the player but in a cruel twist, the pc app is horrible. The new Zune software is completely dumbed down - it only supports a single star rating (not 1-5), has no smart playlists, search by genre, etc etc. I can't even imagine using it after getting used to Media Center 

[glynor]

Unless a lot has changed with the new version, I would guess that this still applies: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=43413.0

Stupid Microsoft.  What the heck is the point of that?  It's almost like they don't want them to sell.

[Crispy]

Thats bad news
Read this review (http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/complete-zune-guide/complete-guide-to-zune-2s-software-and-firmware-321605.php)
to see just how crap the new Zune software is - its almost like they took out every single useful feature in a music app - it pains me to say this but it makes iTunes look good! And thats no small accomplishment.

So is it some special transport protocol the Zune uses? AFAIK it uses MTP with special extensions MTPZ which no one else can do.

For a long time Ipod's used to work only with iTunes. But they were so popular other players had to add support. I hope this happens sooner rather than later with Zune. JRiver seems like they have pretty good programmers so I'd think this is an excellent way to further differentiate themselves and get another must-have feature.

[glynor]

Ipods have worked with MC (and MJ before it) for a long, long time.  MC supports just about every MTP and MCP handheld under the sun.  I also know (do a search here for "Zune Experience") that JRiver sent one of its employees out on launch day to buy one of the first gen Zunes with every intention of finding out how to get it working... They failed.  From what Matt has said, it looks like Microsoft not only broke the software, but they broke the hardware such that no one else can get their software to work with it either, and did it on purpose!

Really too bad, because the hardware (in v2) doesn't look all that crappy.

[Crispy]

It seems I was mistaken about iPod support, forget I said that! I'm not too surprised Microsoft did this on the Zune - its too bad that this is going to effectively make me reconsider my purchase.

[mlagase]

I've been toying around with my Zune lately and it associated piece of crap software. I was trying to find a way to sync MC playlists to the Zune. No way to do it through the front door, but I found a hack which sucks, but does allow me to sync stuff from MC to the zune.

The only way you can get this to work that I have found is to first install Media Monkey. Media Monkey creates a playlist which is compatible with the Zune. You don't have to use the software, just download, install it and fire it up one time. This creates a playlist called MediaMonkey in Zune and Windows Media Player.

Now here is the crappy part. Once this playlist is setup, you can take the playlist items in MC and drag and drop them to Media Players Playlist. If you then add these files to the MediaMonkey Playlist, they will magically appear in the Zune Software. Once that has updated, you can now sync. Unfortunately, if you try to sync another playlist, it does not overwrite the stuff that has already been synced.

Is there any way to find out how MediaMonkey is creating this playlist as they are the only folks that appear to have some type of integration here with their playlists.

Just thought I would provide some insight in how to get stuff from MC to the Zune, albeit, you need 4 pieces of software to do it, but does work in the end.

[p7389]

I'm surprised that the Zune doesn't work with MC. But not very much so. Good to know, even though I wasn't really planning to get a Zune.

[JimH]

Zune is a closed world.  Microsoft did this intentionally.

[pank2002]

I really like the Zune hardware, but no way I am using the software. What a bunch of hypocrites! PlaysForSure?!

Either way, has anybody tried out the zAlternator software? (Login: zunni password: 123456). Will MC work with it?

-Rasmus

[dramthun]

Just loaded up zAlternator and this thing rocks!  So simple.  Yes, there is an "unlock" step that has to be done, but allowing me to use MC12 to load up all 30G of music and playlists far outweighs this.

David

[pank2002]

Cool! I think i am going with the Sony A818 though. The Zune looks very tempting, though, but as Matt (or Jim?) says somewhere, one needs to vote with one's wallet in this matter.