The Zune 2 firmware upgrade turned my 1st generation Zune from a moderately useful MP3/video player to a decent media player with a screen I prefer to my iPod video’s screen (though nothing can touch the iPod touch’s display – pun intended). With its 30GB hard drive (compared to my iPod touch’s 16GB) and the new firmware’s ability to deal with podcasts, I thought it would make a great device to store and watch a bunch of video podcasts. Viewing video podcasts on the Zune (1st generation) is a good experience. The problem lies in actually getting those video podcasts from a PC to the Zune. From what I can tell video podcasts are store in a hodge-podge of file formats in the Zune marketplace. However, it looks like many (maybe most) of these file formats are not Zune ready video formats and requires transcoding that takes place during the sync process with the Zune. A half-dozen or so video podcasts can sometimes take up to an hour for this transcoding process. This is a far cry from the few minutes it takes for a similar batch of video podcasts to be synced to an iPod using iTunes.
So, after trying this idea (using the Zune as my main video podcast device) for a number of months (since the 2.0 firmware came out), I deleted the video podcasts feeds for the Zune. This is really too bad since it really does have a good LCD display and is a good video playback device.
The Zune’s awful video sync process ruined an otherwise good user experience like Windows Mobile’s ActiveSync/WMDC sync process often ruins a good WiMo experience. With the iPhone gaining a lot of traction and entering the enterprise space with its own Exchange Server ActiveSync and Google’s Android arriving soon, one can only hope that Microsoft will take pity on its existing customers and fix their awful sync experience for the Zune and Windows Mobile.
Comments
4 responses to “ActiveSync/WMDC and Zune Sync: Birds of a Sync Feather”
Andy: Thanks for the clarification. I have not tried the 2nd generation Zunes and did not know that.
It’s really worth pointing out that the newer Zune devices (the Zune 4/8/80, but not the original Zune 30) have hardware support for MP4, AAC, and H264 codecs, which are very prevalent for video podcast content. This means lots of podcasts that need to be converted prior to sync on the old Zune 30 that you were using do NOT need to be converted if you have one of the newer devices. So the experience there should be more on-par with sending those podcasts to an iPod.
Art: That is how podcast feeds work. You download them (audio, video, or any other binary attachment) from the source to your local store. What you are talking about is streaming media (audio or video) and is a whole different animal. People who download podcasts do so in order not to be dependent on having any connectivity that lets them, for example, listen to a podcast while driving to work. It is simple enough to simply let podcast feeds provide their content while getting ready for dinner or breakfast and then syncing a device immediately afterward. Your scenario may work for you but does not work unless you have connectivity and are willing to put up with unwanted stalls and other data errors due to a less than perfect or slow broadband connection.
Todd,
For a while, I was subscribing to a number of video podcasts (e.g. Cranky Geeks) in iTunes, and syncing them with my iPod touch. While you’re right to say that the syncing process is relatively fast, there are two disadvantages:
1. You have to wait for the podcast to download onto your computer before you can sync. That isn’t so fast.
2. The podcast takes up a chunk of the Touch’s limited flash memory while you’re getting around to watching it. There’s also a redundant copy on your computer.
So, I’ve found it preferable to bookmark the feed for the podcast on the Touch itself. That way, you don’t have to wait for the whole thing to download before you start to watch and you don’t have to think about deleting podcasts that you’re never going to watch (again).
Not all podcasts have a feed that links to an iPod compatible video file, but most of the ones that I’m interested in seem to.