Just got a new rig for X-mass, running vista, with full audio and video hookups... etc.
using WMP 11 (coming from Mac)

Now for the fun, looking to purchase a hard drive player, thought about Zune 30GB HD Player,
is it a good audiophile quality ? ( for those whom own one )

It would appear that it does work with WMP 11

Second, WMP 11 can rip into wma lossless format? would that be the best way to go ?
or should I rip into mp3?

Looking for some suggestion.

Thanks -

The only software that a Zune player works with is the Zune software. I suggest you download the Zune software and make sure that you like it before you invest in the player. It has some quirks that you might find annoying.

i don't recommend using lossless on a portable. on the road, you're highly unlikely to hear the difference between a lame -V5 mp3 and the original. you won't fit a lot of songs. your battery life will suck.

i suggest keeping the lossless files on your pc and and using lame -V5 mp3s on the portable.

also look into ripping with a secure ripper like eac, dbpoweramp or foobar2000.

I use V4 - V3 in all equipment . The extra headroom works great, bitrate is under 192k and no more transcoding. Beats lossless IMO.

I've found that the Zune hardware is so deeply complicated (or encrypted, or whatever), that even the experts are saying it's gonna be a LONG while before anything but the Zune software will work with it.

In other words, you won't be seeing MediaMonkey and Anapod and things like that (which sync with iPod's) doing anything with the Zune for a Loooooong time.

I'd love to be proved wrong, since my daughter has a Zune . . . and I hate having to use ONLY proprietary software windows explorer can't simply drag-and-drop to/from.

~jordan

I don't get why it would be such a big deal to rip everything separately and import it into zune software just to sync? It's the same with iTunes and iPods for most people, yet we use lame or aac from our own encoding...

Did I miss something?

With a small hack the Zune was able to be used in Windows Media Player 11.

Currently there is work on a hack for the Zune version 2 software in progress to allow that same function to be done with the new firmware. As the new software is a little bit less than the first one due to it being an entirely new program as opposed to a skinned WMP 11 program.

Link to information on the new hack

Plus a install file of the Zune v2 software that will install on pretty much any version of Windows and skips the online download process of the normal install: Link

The Zune 30 does not support WMA Lossless.

The Zune 80 does along with being able to support MP4 and h264 video. It does not come with an equalizer but has a finer tuned audio output to make up for that.

Get the 80 and have both video and audio on the road or a sizeable collection of WMA Lossless.

Lossless will be overkill if you can't hear the difference between WMA Pro, Lame Mp3 or comparable AAC encoder (iTunes/Nero). You can use foobar2000 to perform a simple ABX test.

The only one you have to setup foobar2000 to encode for in a test will be WMA Pro. Link to info

I have both the Zune 30 and Zune 80 plus have used the software since Jan. 07. If you have any questions feel free to PM me.

If you MUST have lossless via WMP11, WMA lossless is the best way to go. Otherwise, don't bother with the format. Lossless for portable players makes little sense. Just rip to MP3 and archive to Monkey's Audio or FLAC using EAC.