Hold your breath someone is about to tell the greatest lie EVER!
Although downgrading will get you more flexibility in the Zune software, for me, I would lose some very nice features. The Podcast subscription support is something I have long wanted and I use the wireless sync almost daily with my home dock. I also like the improved album art. One thing that can be said about most Windows products is that there is more than one way to skin the cat. With just a bit of effort, one can still have as much control with their library as before.
I had finally gotten to the point where I considered myself an advanced user of the software and was able to control and maintain my library at a macro and micro level. I also felt that a lot of the intuitiveness was removed. However, a few posters on this board suggested a couple of tools which actually give me more flexibility than I did before. Granted, that means that I don't have a single source for library management anymore but I can live with that.
For those having problems with tags, I would recommend you download one of the free library managers that allows for files renaming, retagging, and embedding album art. Use the library manager to get and keep your library in order. Use the Zune software for transferring files and managing Podcasts (and buying music if you use the Marketplace). The level of frustration will drop significantly when you find other tools to do what you need. Some suggestions:
Library Management: MediaMonkey. This app has some very robust tagging features and will imbed album art in the file if possible. This also has a feature much like the old Find Album Info and you can lookup and tag groups of files all at once. I use this to make sure my files are squared away before I bring them into the Zune Collection. MP3Tag is also an excellent utility.
Audio CD ripping: Exact Audio Copy combined with LAME. These tools will produce good quality mp3s (plus various other formats) with very little setup. Typically, I will load the CD and copy/paste info from either the Zune software or WMP or some other program that pulls all the album info.
I will typcially rip with EAC and copy/paste album info using the info pulled with the Zune software or WMP. Once the CD is ripped with correct filenames and other info, I will use Media Monkey to get all album info and embed the art. Then I will bring the new album into the Collection. Although this does require a few more tools than using the Zune software by itself, I get the quality of file I want with all of the correct album info and everything is displayed/sorted/grouped correctly on the Zune.
I also would like a lot of the old functionality back. However, the new features combined with a few new tools are making for a much better experience in my case.
Microsoft Support Articles for Zune
st0icr4ven wrote:you know you screwed up when you wanted a device to manager your mp3's and had no intention of using the marketplace feature so instead of buying something by creative or sansa you bought the zune which is dedicated to software.
Therin lies the problem: the old Zune software WASN'T dedicated to one bit of software. With the old Zune I could buy music from Urge/Rhapsody (which I did) and play it through both WMP11 and Zune. Even Urge stated clearly that it was 100% compatible with the Zune. That was the reason why I bought it. Then once I get it I find out they've updated it and the $50 or so I spent on music from Rhapsody/Urge has become useless! In order to use it I had to find away around it. That is what's so frustrating.
And you have to remember, consumers are used to simple, easily understood products. Not everybody wants to spend hours upon hours surfing through forums and reading manuals to figure out how to make a media player work. If you have that capability then glitches and bugs won't really bother you. But most don't have the knowledge, time, or patience to deal with it. If you think about it, one really shouldn't HAVE to spend hours searching for workarounds and fixes for a device that has already been made excruciatingly simple by a competitior!
If I remember correctly the old Zune was: install software. Plug in Zune. BAM! Your entire music library is on your player. Then MS releases an update and suddenly metadata is lost, playlists don't work, the device wont sync, features go missing, and everyone goes "What the *** just happened?" So I can't really blame the OP - he (she) obviously doesn't feel like screwing around with fixes and patches and dealing with sarcasm in the "support" forums. So they go back to the version that works instead of spending a bunch of time fixing what was broken by an update meant to fix what wasn't broken in the first place. Can't really blame them for that. And they're not the only ones that share that frustration, so they do what a "support" forum is meant for: they share their newfound info.
On a side note, I haven't had too many problems with my player - this new version is the first time I've used a Zune. The old version was used to sync with my 360 until I found WMP11 had the same capability. My only issue was finding out Urge/Rhapsody tracks were no longer compatible with my new player (even though I own them outright). Once I found a workaround I was able to get my music back and now I do all my music buying through the Marketplace. Since I had no previous experience with Zune and this new version is all I really know, I'm quite happy with it, but that's probably because I didn't use the old version extensively enough to know what I'm supposedly missing.
Well,I'm glad to see that there is a way to downgrade (Although this probably voids warentees).But people honestly need to stop acting like this is the end and that they are never going to patch it.First, alot of the gripes of missing features can be done with 3rd party applications (i.e. tag editing, autoplaylists) or people don't even spend 2 minutes with the software to learn how to browse by genre because they have no patients.Does everyone want to use different stuff? No, but stop acting like Zune is the ONLY way to edit tag data, or to create auto-playlists. Most people with larger libraries like myself used 3rd party apps for this stuff anyways, even before the patch.The missing features are missing for an obvious reason, WMP is no longer the Zunes software backbone.It's nice that The Zune Team wanted to be completly independant, but we want those features back. They have been taking our feedback and they have stated some of these are coming back soon.
And alot of the software bugs people have been having are user generated or library issues with crappy codecs that nothing even supports anymore, illegal downloads with crappy tags, overall crappy organisation, 3rd party applications (Don't even try and argue that, I can post at least 90 threads where people started from the beginning they used Unzoone or System Restore, both of which don't even rollback the drivers, and UnZoone doesnt even support uninstalling 2.2). Also "bugs" with people not using windows update in 5 years or even knowing what .net is or not updating their video/sound drivers are not even "bugs" they are just incompitance and laziness. New software requires new updates. It's always been that way, get used to it and stop complaining about it. You are the same people that still use a crappy machine with Windows 98 even though it's nearly a decade old and wonder why your USB keyboard won't work with it. Get with the friggin program and stop acting like it's everyone elses fault that you can't keep up gramps.Sure, there are a few (metadata, resyncing, video) that are annoying but fixable and a few that are not even fixable. But thats any software honestly.All in all, I'm too happy with my new features to bother complaining over little things like a few tracks I had to edit or a playlist gone bad to even care.My only complaints with the new software:- Default GUI is pink- Font on device too big- New rating system sucks.
- Justananomaly Tools: Mp3tag | MusicBrainz
Justananomaly wrote:First, alot of the gripes of missing features can be done with 3rd party applications (i.e. tag editing, autoplaylists) or people don't even spend 2 minutes with the software to learn how to browse by genre because they have no patients.
Justananomaly wrote:Does everyone want to use different stuff? No, but stop acting like Zune is the ONLY way to edit tag data, or to create auto-playlists. Most people with larger libraries like myself used 3rd party apps for this stuff anyways, even before the patch.
Justananomaly wrote:The missing features are missing for an obvious reason, WMP is no longer the Zunes software backbone.It's nice that The Zune Team wanted to be completly independant, but we want those features back. They have been taking our feedback and they have stated some of these are coming back soon.
That's a step in the right direction. However your "get over it, it's no big deal" attitude is NOT the one that impressed upon the Zune team the importance of those features. While you label some of the complainers as "whiners", they placed the necessary emphasis on the importance. If the Zune team listed to you and people like stoicraven, they would conclude that they made the right decision in eliminating those features.
Justananomaly wrote:My only complaints with the new software:- Default GUI is pink- Font on device too big- New rating system sucks.
WillysJeepMan wrote:You can't learn to "browse by genre" in the new software because that function simply does not exist. You may think that "sort by genre" is the same, but it is not. And why do you dismiss the missing features as 'no big deal' because workaround exist? Isn't it a problem that those features were removed in the first place?
WillysJeepMan wrote:So you have decided that YOU are the arbiter of the correct way to manage libraries? That anyone who doesn't do things your way has no legitimate reason to be upset? That using more than one tool to manage your library is preferable to having a single tool?
WillysJeepMan wrote:That's a step in the right direction. However your "get over it, it's no big deal" attitude is NOT the one that impressed upon the Zune team the importance of those features. While you label some of the complainers as "whiners", they placed the necessary emphasis on the importance. If the Zune team listed to you and people like stoicraven, they would conclude that they made the right decision in eliminating those features.
WillysJeepMan wrote:Your main complaint about the new software is that the default gui is pink? LOL For someone who claims to have a large library, I'm surprised that the limitations in management of the sync queue haven't risen to the top of the list....and like your compatriot stoicraven, you complain about the complainers who do nothing, and complain about the complainers who take action.Why are you feel so threatened by the fact that the OP downgraded his device, is now happy again, and no longer complaining?