Zune Performance Hog

"Have you:

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User devices:
 Zune HD 32GB

To all you people complaining about video conversion, there's a good reason for reencoding your videos. First of all, digitally reencoding your videos (the Windows Media format [.wmv] ones) can be done without quality loss. Here's the important part. Microsoft has said over and over that they are doing everything they can to improve performance, usability, and battery life. Using an improved version of the format improves battery life on Zune devices during playback, and may also reduce video file size.

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User devices:
 Zune HD 32GB

 MusicGamesPCs wrote:

Microsoft has said over and over that they are doing everything they can to improve ..., usability, ...

 

changing parameters without being able to tell current customers what you changed is unacceptable!  reducing the the acceptable parameters within the .mp4 is not improving usablility!

 

it wouldn't be any different than having to re-encode all your .mp3's because the zune team did a firmware downdate....obviously you aren't maintaining 2TBs of vids between your zunes and computers.  just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean it isn't an issue.

way to drop the ball zune tech support!  completely incapabable of even comprehending the issue at the level 2 supervisor level.......answer is.....cabac level had a minor change which requires it to be completely off now.

A small update. Somebody in this thread mentioned earlier a file called ZuneStore.sdf and that the Zune software was tampering with this file while it was taking 100% CPU usage. Since I've left my Zune 4.0 software on and it's still wasn't adding any music I decided to see what happens if I removed the ZuneStore.sdf file completely. I didn't really delete it, I just backed up the Zune folder in my Local Settings folder to my Desktop and restarted the software. The program went to the quick play screen, and then I clicked on collection. Within ~2 minutes of just sitting, the software finally started adding music! Although it's still extremely slow. In nearly ~1 hour I only got 12 albums added out of the 300+ I have waiting to be added and I'm simply not going to wait for this again. But this is a small solution I guess for those who can't get a single song to show up in their software. This is on the same PC in an earlier post. 800 Mhz P3 with 512 MB of RAM. Anybody here that's not using a Zune HD and is having a shitload of slow problems with this or isn't just working at all, I strongly suggest you just downgrade back to the v3.1 software until Microsoft decides to actually do something about this *** because it's been a *** month and there hasn't been a solution or any official word on the issue. If anybody has found any real solution to the problems, please post.

The zune software doesn't tamper with zunestore.sdf...it creates and uses it.  that file is an index to your entire collection.  

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changing parameters without being able to tell current customers what you changed is unacceptable!  reducing the the acceptable parameters within the .mp4 is not improving usablility!

 

it wouldn't be any different than having to re-encode all your .mp3's because the zune team did a firmware downdate....obviously you aren't maintaining 2TBs of vids between your zunes and computers.  just because it doesn't affect you doesn't mean it isn't an issue.

way to drop the ball zune tech support!  completely incapabable of even comprehending the issue at the level 2 supervisor level.......answer is.....cabac level had a minor change which requires it to be completely off now.

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I agree that the Zune software should tell you when it's transcoding and give you options to stop it or run it at a specific time. And no, I only have about 30 GB of video.

However, the Zune software shouldn't be killing your performance while transcoding. I've experimented with it on many hardware configurations (including other peoples' with more video than you) and I've found it to be even faster and lighter than version 3. Even on low-end netbooks, version 4 is superior to 3 (with the graphic setting turned off, of course). But it seems Microsoft has dropped support for certain hardware configurations. That's what I'm seeing anyway. Most people who are having issues with it have computers that are more than four - five years old. And anyone with a Pentium III CPU can expect it not to work. (I tried it on my old 2000 machine, and thought it was a bug in Zune at first. I even posted about it on this site.) So if your computer is older than five years, try getting a new one!

You don't seem to appreciate the complexity of video codecs. If Zune is transcoding your videos, it's not because of a firmware downgrade. If you find a compression algorithm that is simpler and produces the same video quality, it pays in battery life to use it. Your device will have less to process, and you won't lose quality.

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User devices:
 Zune HD 32GB

 NSILMike wrote:

 GhostBoy78 wrote:

A small update. Somebody in this thread mentioned earlier a file called ZuneStore.sdf and that the Zune software was tampering with this file while it was taking 100% CPU usage. Since I've left my Zune 4.0 software on and it's still wasn't adding any music I decided to see what happens if I removed the ZuneStore.sdf file completely. I didn't really delete it, I just backed up the Zune folder in my Local Settings folder to my Desktop and restarted the software. The program went to the quick play screen, and then I clicked on collection. Within ~2 minutes of just sitting, the software finally started adding music! Although it's still extremely slow. In nearly ~1 hour I only got 12 albums added out of the 300+ I have waiting to be added and I'm simply not going to wait for this again. But this is a small solution I guess for those who can't get a single song to show up in their software. This is on the same PC in an earlier post. 800 Mhz P3 with 512 MB of RAM. Anybody here that's not using a Zune HD and is having a shitload of slow problems with this or isn't just working at all, I strongly suggest you just downgrade back to the v3.1 software until Microsoft decides to actually do something about this *** because it's been a *** month and there hasn't been a solution or any official word on the issue. If anybody has found any real solution to the problems, please post.

The zune software doesn't tamper with zunestore.sdf...it creates and uses it.  that file is an index to your entire collection.  

There is a sticky post with ideas on how to speed the software up...with your very limited processor and RAM, you should take a look at it.

But, a couple of obvious things you should do immediately include:

1) set graphics to basic (zune software...not your PC.)

2) turn off metadata updates in the zune software (completely off...there are two settings.)

And, how did you originally tag your music content?  If for instance, you've set the files or folders to be read-only, that can severely slow you down (although turning off metadata updating should fix that.)

Good luck!

My graphics settings have been set to basic and have been on basic since v3.1 of the software. All the metadata updates are turned off and have been off since v3.1 too... I use WMP 11 to update all the meta data on my music so it appears correct on the Zune software. To the guy telling me it's time to upgrade, I really don't have the money for that. I also think it's complete bull *** too. I agree with everybody here 100% that this computer is a piece of *** and is old, and I do plan on getting a new computer when I get a job, but at this point I seriously think an update is not necessary. Zune Software v3.1 was able to add my 4000+ song library in less than 30 minutes with no software troubles at all or being unbearably slow, why should Zune 4.0 software be any *** different? What change did they make that makes adding music into my library terribly slow? I noticed that pictures and videos appear in the library, but my music is adding VERY *** slowly. I'm convinced this is a software problem.

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"If anybody has found any real solution to the problems, please post."

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Here's the solution: Get a new computer! I do not know of any computer as old as yours that is compatible with Zune software 4. Yes, version 3 worked, but Microsoft has dropped support for most hardware older than five years. The real solution is a new system, preferrably with Windows 7. Again, I've used this program on netbooks, some with 1 GHz CPUs and 512 MB RAM. As long as they aren't more than a few years old, they run Zune 4 beautifully!

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User devices:
 Zune HD 32GB

 GhostBoy78 wrote:

[snipped]

My graphics settings have been set to basic and have been on basic since v3.1 of the software. All the metadata updates are turned off and have been off since v3.1 too... I use WMP 11 to update all the meta data on my music so it appears correct on the Zune software. To the guy telling me it's time to upgrade, I really don't have the money for that. I also think it's complete bull *** too. I agree with everybody here 100% that this computer is a piece of *** and is old, and I do plan on getting a new computer when I get a job, but at this point I seriously think an update is not necessary. Zune Software v3.1 was able to add my 4000+ song library in less than 30 minutes with no software troubles at all or being unbearably slow, why should Zune 4.0 software be any *** different? What change did they make that makes adding music into my library terribly slow? I noticed that pictures and videos appear in the library, but my music is adding VERY *** slowly. I'm convinced this is a software problem.

You are just slightly above the minimum requirements, and well below the suggested requirements.  The fact that it runs slower on 4 than it did on 3.1 is not surprising...features advance.  Unfortunately, it's not a software problem.   Without a doubt it's disappointing... but that doesn't indicate a bug or software problem...

i can transcode the same vid file 5 times faster in 2 other programs with CONSIDERABLY fewer system resources than with the zune software.  it just isn't effecient for large collections or slow computers.  and since my computers exceed the min requirements for the device when i bought it, i expect it to continue to function on that setup, if zune wants to update for brand new computers, then tell me that this update has a higher min requirement and may not be for me!

 

the zune software has always had issue with library management/sync.  refer to my threads about tags.  many of you just have to get over the "hump" of getting through the first run.  if your collection is large or your tags aren't perfect then your computer/zune software can take a very long time; then add the borderline pc and you're in for a world of hurt.  a fresh library acquirement of more than 40K .mp3's with only a few missing tag fields resulted in more than a week for the software to recognize 85% of the files, and it kept on trying to access the files it couldn't recognize....used alot of system resources....all fixed when tags were repaired.

this software just chokes on large collections and bad tags!

i've run this software on a stripped down quad core 3.0 with 8GB of ram and windows 7.....it didn't function much different/faster than my 5 other well set up computers except that it did not max out on the vid conversions (but sure did use more than was necessary....more than windows media center playing hdtv/hauppage software recording hdtv/super converter running/mediamonkey playing music all at the same time).

 

*that being said, you're going to have a really really tough time doing anything sub P4, 1.25GB ram!

I have a 3.0ghz Core 2 Duo, Windows 7 64, 4GB of RAM and a GTX 285. My collection is 157GB, mostly WMA Lossless and Zune Pass WMA's. I haven't ever had a problem with the software, aside from the album art taking a second to load on launch. On my laptop, which is Windows XP, 1.4Ghz Pentium 4, and 512MB RAM, the software runs, but really bad, so I can't imagine it on a Pentium 3. You could always switch over to a lighter player for the meantime, like Fubar or something, and just use the Zune to sync/download.

The problem isn't in using the software, it's that it's taking 100% of my CPU and is adding songs to my library extremely slow, it takes like 20 seconds to add 1 song! I don't use the Zune software to play my music, I just use WMP for that, and the Zune software is just used purely for syncing. But the problem is in how long it's taking to add the MP3s! Since the software is taking 100% CPU, it makes using anything else extremely slow too. I also noticed the memory usage is about the same as v3.1, the problem is that it's taking 100% of my CPU, which is probably the reason why adding songs is going so slowly. I'll just stick with my Zune software v3.1, I don't even use the market place or any other feature on the Zune software but to sync music on my Zune anyway.