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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Background Information

For Christmas we got our kids (ages 8 and 11) each a Sandisk Sansa 1GB MP3 player.  So, first I’d like to give some impressions on this little player.

It’s very affordable, easy to use and set up and works great for someone not looking to put their whole library on it.  The instructions guide you to use “My Computer” to copy files to and from the player, but I soon learned that you can also use WMP 11, which I find much easier for these things.

The Problem

If you’ve used WMP you know that when you delete a file a dialogue box pops up and asks if you want to delete from the WMP library or from the whole PC.

Well, (1) I have a Zune, which runs on its own software.  (2) My kids subscribe to a podcast from which they are slowly building a library of shows.  (3) These podcasts are pulled over automatically into the Zune software and loaded onto my player.  (4) I don’t want these shows.  (5) I have gotten tired of deleting them from my Zune.  (6) The other day I decided to just delete the podcast from the Zune software.  (7) No box popped up asking if I wanted to delete them from the PC.  (8)  I obviously did NOT want them removed from the PC and didn’t know they would be.  (9) Today, “Dad where’s all of our shows?!”  (10) Here I sit re-downloading LOTS of episodes!  (11) Thanks Microsoft!

Yes, I know you can click show settings and choose to save them all and not Sync, but for some reason every once in a while it would sync them anyway..which is what lead to my deletion the other day.

Is it too much to ask for the same simple courtesy that WMP has given for years?!

Do you have a nice receiver in your home entertainment rack? Do you have a desktop PC with a lot of music stored on it? How about a wireless router and laptop? Or do you at least have an MP3 player? Well, if you would like to enjoy all of that music on your PC or MP3 player through that receiver in all of it’s surround sound glory then you can do it for $10 (or less)!

A quick trip to Radio Shack, Best Buy or any other place that sells a variety of audio cables is all you need to make. Just ask for a Y-Cable. They usually come is 3 or 6 foot models and run only a few dollars.

When you bring home your cable you will find a mini jack on one end that will plug into your headphone out port on either the laptop or MP3 player (or desktop PC if it happens to be close to the receiver). On the other end are 2 composite (or RCA) jacks (usually red and white) that can be plugged into a free Audio-In port on your receiver.

That’s it! Now either play your MP3 player through the home stereo or use the laptop to access the music on your PC via wireless file sharing and hit play!

NOTE: I have never used 802.11b, but, I assume, within reasonable range it would be fine for streaming audio. But, if possible, use 802.11g or 802.11n for best results.

Zune version 2.3 has been released. From Zune Insider:

Quick FYI: Zune will be issuing a software update today around 10am Pacific. There are no new features in this update, but it does provide some performance enhancements around set-up, sync and as always general reliability.

If you are like me you want to see your album covers while you’re playing your music.

I use Windows Media Player 11 to play my music on the PC.

But, when you rip some CD’s the art (and sometimes the other info) doesn’t appear. For those times I have used Amazon to fill in the gaps. Find the album, right click the image and choose “copy image”

then, in WMP, right click the blank cover and choose “paste album art”.

Sometimes though, Amazon isn’t good enough. And, for those times, I recently found (via LifeHacker) the site AlbumArt.org. They have hight quality CD and DVD covers and a pretty comprehensive listing.

To test them I chose a cover I had been missing for some time - a rare CD “EP” of the British band The Charlatans entitled “Indian Rope”. I searched for the term “Chartlatans Indian Rope” and was told 3 matches were found, but nothing was displayed! On a side note, this same problem popped up on another search - I can’t remember what for - so it may be an issue with the site. I then searched under just “Charlatans” and found about 70 matches. After paging through 3 or 4 pages of hits I found the “Indian Rope” cover!

Next up I am going to test it on my Stone Roses CD singles!

So, use Amazon when you can and AlbumArt.org when you must, and between the two, you should be able to fill those gaps!

I just read on Gizmodo of the upcoming release of the Ziova CS615 (press release). This sounds like something I have been looking for for sometime now. For a couple of years I have been looking at all the options for pulling the content off of the PC network and into the living room.

Recently I have been using a Y-cable plugged into the Yamaha RX-V661 A/V receiver (the other end plugged into either the laptop or the Zune) to access our music collection on the external hard drive in the office.

Our TV (Vizio 37″ LCD) has a PC monitor (VGA) input, but I have yet to hook the laptop to that to try video and pictures yet.

I had been planning to pick up a used PC on the cheap and add RAM, a large hard drive, TV tuner card, etc and run XP MCE, but perhaps Ziova will change my mind on that option.

I am hoping to get a test box to review and we will see from there if things live up to the hype.

For over a month my children (ages eleven and eight) have obsessed about getting an MP3 player of their own. They have eyed the new Zune I bought. They begged for the old Gateway MP3-Photo Jukebox I passed to my wife (a casual user of these devices).

On Black Friday, I passed on the crowds and craziness of the brick and mortar stores and went to CircuitCity.com and purchased 2 Sansa Sandisk 1GB players.

This has been highly rated and, last time I checked, was the number one seller on Amazon.

Now I am looking forward to their presents on Christmas morning so that I can see what all the rage about these little devices is all about.

Stay tuned for a review.

I have been using the new Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation) player now for about 3 weeks and I think it’s fair to give my review.

The Interface

I can’t say enough about the new user interface on the Zune. It’s clean and the menu is large and easy to read.

A big addition is the support for podcasts, which is the main source of my daily listening. In addition, it does pictures, video and, of course, music. The settings menu allows you to use one of your pictures as the wallpaper as well.

The “Squircle” (Microsoft’s word not mine) is actually quite easy to use and scrolls very nicely through long menus.

Video

The video produces a surprisingly clear picture for the screen size. I would have no trouble watching a show on it while on the road.

The nice part about this is that videos play in wide screen format and when you turn the Zune sideways for viewing the “Squircle” turns with it so you can still control volume, forward and rewind in the logical way.

Wireless Syncing

There is a misconception I have heard several times now, even from Leo Laport. It goes like this: “The wireless syncing can only be done when the device is plugged into its dock.”

This is absolutely NOT true. While wireless syncing happens automatically when you plug the Zune into its dock, it is not the only way. You can go into the Settings menu, choose Wireless and then choose Sync Now and it will sync wirelessly.

A word of caution though - wireless syncing is SLOW. I used it a couple of times just to see how it worked, but now I just plug into the PC.

The other wireless feature - sending a song or podcast to another Zune within WiFi range - is something I have not tested.

Zune Software

Nothing major to report here. The software is clean and easy to use. The podcast category is growing quickly. The only issue I have is that non-podcast video content (music videos, etc.) is hard to find.

Output to Another Device

I used a standard Y-cable to connect the Zune to our A/V receiver and played music through the stereo with no noticeable loss of sound quality, even at high volume.

The 4 and 8GB versions do not do video output so I will reserve comments on this for now. But maybe an 80GB player with video-out is in my future…

One Issue I Have

I have encountered one very strange issue. When I plug the Zune into my PC, my scanner (Canon Canoscan LiDE90) immediately calibrates. This is followed by a message from the system tray that an unrecognized USB device has been encountered and could not be installed. For lack of any other solution I now unplug the scanner first.

Wrap-Up

As you have probably gathered by now, I am very happy with this player. I have no problem recommending one to others. The only problem you may have is if you have invested money in music from other services. The DRM for Microsoft’s Play-For-Sure and Apple’s ITunes is not compatible.

Well, this is the first in what will probably be a series of articles as I get into using the new Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation).

The package arrived in fine shape and the unpacking was as dramatic as any product I’ve seen. The box was well-packaged and contained the player, headphones and USB plug.

I went to the Zune Site and installed the software (a fairly large 32MB file which downloaded VERY fast). The first time I ran it, it did hang up and I was forced to reboot, but I have had no problems since. Everything is very simple to use on both the player and PC software. My first concern was Podcasts and that was very easy to set up.

But, I did have a small issue with trying to stop it from downloading EVERY episode, which, of course, meant all of the ones I’d heard before. Fortunately, a right click on the file produces both the “Cancel Download” and “Mark as Played” options and clicking those fixed this. My next biggest concern was setting up wireless syncing, and here I will need to do more work. The setup was simple enough in the Zune software. The first connection failed, but a trip to my router’s dashboard to add the Zune to my list of allowed network devices was very simple - the Zune even provides it’s MAC address in case you need it. So far I’ve been able to connect to my network and get a message saying that sync has completed, but I have NOT seen the new files appear on the player.

I will continue to play around with this and will post more on it soon. In the meantime, I have seen that Toys ‘r’ Us has listed the Zune 30GB for $79.99 on Black Friday and my wife wants an MP3 player…and the 2nd gen software in available for upgrade to first gen machines…and I hope she doesn’t read this…

Okay, I confess, I am not an Apple fanboy. I never wanted to be roped into the inescapable world of ITunes. I have over 700 CD’s worth of music ripped into WMA format (before you say it, yes, I know I can convert them). When I bought my last PC I got over-zealous and added in the Gateway MP3-Photo Jukebox (since discontinued) which has served me reasonably well for about 3 years - more than enough for any MP3 player. For the past year or so I have procrastinated about getting the Creative Zen Vision M. The Zune was in the back of my mind, but it didn’t seem quite ready for prime-time. Then I started hearing about the second generation players, complete with wireless syncing and podcast support and I could no longer resist. I should have the new Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation) in a few days and I will post a review as soon as I’ve had a little time to put it through its paces.

I signed up for Spiral Frog the day it went live. I couldn’t wait to listen to and download all of the music I could think of! After signing up for the free account I was unable to download any music, but it was early and the servers were working overtime, so I waited. And waited, and waited…. After a couple of weeks everything seemed to be working. I browsed the site and found “Hey There Delila”, a song I knew I had heard and liked, so I clicked the “Download”. A little slow, but it’s free so I can live with slow. The song eventually downloaded. Now I can play my new music, right? Well, not so fast…. I try and I try, but the DRM seems to be an issue. After clicking through a few messages it tells me I need the “latest” version of WMP (which I am already running). So, I bite and download a new codec for the latest version of WMP (which I am running, but Spiral Frog doesn’t know it). and I STILL can’t play this song!!! After several failed tries I deleted the song, uninstalled the Spiral Frog “Download Manager” and swore I would NEVER, EVER use this service again! The concept may be good, but when you DRM it to death it becomes meaningless!