Zune 2.5 Software Player Feedback
Over the years I've tried a variety of different software music players including Winamp, MediaSource, iTunes etc. Of late, my complacency had me sticking with Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player under Vista, however, is slow and temperamental on my two primary machines. Because of this I started looking for alternatives again. I tried earlier versions of the Zune software, but things weren't quite ready.
Then 2.5 arrived. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but between the speed in dealing with large collections, the ease in exploring my music, the ease in exploring marketplace music and the social aspects, I finally found a good player.
More telling, perhaps, is that the Zune software has changed my music listening habits. I'm now buying music digitally (DRM-free). I'm back to listening to music whenever I'm at a computer. And oddly enough, I find myself exploring the Marketplace and exploring friends and random people's music tastes ... searching for something I might be interested in.
All that said, there are things things I would love to see introduced or updated. Some are uniquely Zune, others are simple improvements. Without implying a priority, here are my suggestions:
- Support subscribing to automated Zune/e-mail messages indicating when new content is available.
- Receive notifications for new albums from band/artists
- Receive notifications for new episodes for TV shows
- Optionally receive notifications for new albums/episodes from similar musicians/genres.
- Easily go to the Marketplace for purchasing.
- Support social experiences. These experiences could potentially be supported not only between Zune software players, but between software and hardware players. If it was the same back-end as the upcoming Xbox Live Party system it could potentially extend to friends on Xbox 360s.
- Listen to music together
- Watch slide-shows together
- Watch videos together
- Remote participants can easily go to the Marketplace for purchasing.
- Support audio/signal analysis for music similarity.
- Allow finding similar music in own collection
- Have auto-lists based on similar music
- Allow finding similar music in the Marketplace
- Find other users with similar tastes in music.
- Content collection sync support (this could involve Live Mesh as the conduit).
- Zune servers store the meta-information of all media a user has regardless of computer/device it is stored on.
- Support sync'ing content between physical locations; a person can request to bring local any content in their collection. The software will fetch from the appropriate computer/device that contains the content.
- Allow people to browse their friends content collection and provide a way to preview and purchase any content that also happens to be in the Marketplace.
- Support more player view modes. Examples:
- A proper full-screen mode (no Windows task bar)
- A Vista side-bar player (include a panel when viewing video content)
- A task bar embedded player (like the minimized Windows Media Player)
- A compact floating player
- Support more visualization options when listening to music. Examples:
- Playlist photos. Only shows images based on those in the playlist. Include artist/band photos from the Zune Marketplace.
- Friends. Have nice stylized view of friends with what they are/were playing.
- Make the photos, albums, friends all clickable. Clicking will bring you to the appropriate place in the Zune software player (almost everyone I know has attempted to click on albums cover shown in the current visualization).
- More photo browsing/organization options. Examples:
- Photo tags
- Timeline (similar to the music release year but more granular)
- Support more photo slide-show modes (also good for listening to music). Examples:
- Photo album. Make the screen look like a photo album with various layouts for photos. Transitions are page turns.
- Photo-drop. Photos drop into a pile.
- Photo-timeline. Photos are placed along a timeline and the transition has you move across the timeline/calendar.
- Miscellaneous UI and usability updates
- Turn off screen saver when watching videos
- Generally support the Video, Pictures and Podcast pages collection as deeply as Music (e.g. sorting/browsing options, etc).
- If I'm listening to or watching something but then browse the marketplace or friends list and decide to preview music or videos, or perhaps I launch media from Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer, allow me to go back to what I was listening to or watching. This means going back to the exact spot in the song or video.
- When I start-up the Zune player the player should be in the same state as when I had closed it. I particular, I should have the same playlist open and should continue playing at the exact spot in my last song or video.
- If I add music to a playlist and I'm currently playing that playlist, add the music to what I'm currently listening to
- Support creating video playlists
- Support fuzzy searching local and Marketplace content.
- Typing in the search box filters content immediately and updates as you continue to type. The Marketplace search could begin either when there is a sufficient pause in typing or the user hits the Enter key.
- Support removing friends from within the Zune software
- When I click the 'Save as Playlist' option on the 'visualization' page, it should default to the name of the current play-list. For auto-playlists it could pre/post-pend additional text so the user doesn't overwrite the existing playlist.
- The social tab commonly has a Zune overlay logo when loading items in the background. This makes it look like you cannot use the content that is under the overlay (even though you can).
- Cache more content locally on the last state of friends and their music. The Social's Friends and Me pages require waiting a fair amount of time for content to show up. I would rather it show stale content that is replaced with updated content when the updated content is finally retrieved from the server.
- The Social's Me page seems to use the server to show what I have listened to instead of the local data. To make it appear faster, use local information first.
- I wish the Social pages mirrored the data shown on the Zune web site. The data on the web site has more interesting data and has a slightly better presentation (though the Flash controls can be hard to use).
- Support more background options and colours.
- Allow viewing badges in the software player.
- Support more permanent badges.
While not strictly software-based, here are some highlights for what I would love to see in the Marketplace:
- Support additional information for videos including production photos, history of the series, actors/directors involved, reviews, etc. This would make it similar to the information available for artists and albums.
- Make the the Marketplace artist and album data (bio, related artists/music, etc) viewable regardless of the user's region. For example, there is no reason a person in the UK, who cannot purchase content yet, cannot view the background information of a band.
- Support renting/purchasing movies.
- Support more MP3s
- Support hi-definition video content.
- Support upgrading low-definition video content to high-definition content.
- Support for events. For example, right now there are ComicCon videos but they are not straightforward to find.
- Make it so Xbox 360 Marketplace and Zune Marketplace are one and the same.
- Content purchased in one store can be downloaded, without repurchase, off the other
- Support the same content in both stores. This includes, trailers, game videos, etc.
- Support streamed content
- Streamed live events like ComicCon, E3 shows, CES, music events, etc
- Streamed live music concerts. This may require MS points to watch.
- Support sending recommendations from the Marketplace
This list may seem large, but it is not due to annoyance with the software. On the contrary, I'm extremely happy with the software. The above items are really about continuing along the path Zune is already traveling ... a complete connected entertainment portal.
Of course I don't know the feasibility of many of these feature. Some depend on where Microsoft wants to take Zune. Do they really want to be an entertainment encyclopedia? Do they want to invest in events? For device related suggestions, is the battery capable of lasting? I have no clue.
For those curious, no, I don't actually own a Zune hardware player. If my commute was longer I would highly consider it. I will consider getting a Zune once my wife's iPod dies (it is temperamental) or some form of Zune Phone makes an emergence.
Until then, I look forward to seeing where Microsoft takes the software/service.
Oh ... I shouldn't forget my Zune Card:
i want zune player to include a notes section for each album where we can input personal information about the album, that would be an amazing addition !!
... so said 'Naush' on 03/20/2010 @ 05:30:52 PM [Direct Link]