Trixter of the Moon CouncilFinally found my old Zune HD last night but now I can’t find where the charging cable ended up during the move. 😭
Aw shit y’all it’s ON
I don’t actually run Windows on anything anymore — I picked up an iPod as my retro player last year because I’ve fully moved to Mac with some Linux on the side — so this is going to be an *adventure*.
Huh, it looks like it has pretty much my entire music collection circa 2010 on it, I might not even need to bother syncing it with anything.
Apparently the best music transfer application to get mp3s from MacOS to the Zune right now is called "Android File Transfer for Linux" and you know what, that's it, I'm going home
So now I'm torn between using my old Zune HD or the iPod Nano 2nd Gen I picked up last year as my EDC retro player. The Zune is the superior device in every way except actually getting music onto it now that I've completely migrated away from Windows. Is it worth maintaining a Windows 7 VM and manually converting anything I want to transfer from ALAC to MP3? ...Maybe it is?
Bonus: I was so all-in for the Zune back in the day that I have a fancy engraved Zune Originals one, custom-ordered.
It goes with this, which was one of their signature art pieces to show off the fancy screen on the HD.
Current Zune Status: I’ve got a spare Windows 10 drive in my old desktop for when I absolutely have to use something that I can’t use on anything else, and I’ve loaded up the Zune software on that and it syncs great. The trick is I’ve been going with ALAC for my recent downloads, so I might need to convert things and then maintain a separate MP3 library on the Windows machine for the Zune.
I should probably reinstall Windows, though, because that old install seems to have developed some weird issues. And when I say “old desktop” I mean it was built for the WoW: Legion expansion. 😬
Might have to call in Trying To Get This Fucking Windows Install Fixed to work tomorrow.
My favorite part of a fresh Windows install is turning off and declining all the bullshit I absolutely do not want.
I’d love to be sorting through my storage bins to find stuff to sell while installer progress bars go brrr but Benjen has decided I have to stay in Lap Mode.
(Between Stupid Sexy Rodimus and Liokaiser and that Skybound G1 collection I desperately need to sell some stuff. 😭)
I originally planned to use the old desktop as a media server so I installed Ubuntu Server on one of the drives but in practice I don’t think the hardware is up to reliable 4K video streaming so maybe tonight I’ll switch that other drive to AntiX. 🤔
I’d love to stress-test my Zune’s battery but I keep needing to plug it in to mess with syncing stuff. It does seem to be holding up really well, though. I don’t think it was down more than a quarter after I watched all of TFTM.
🤖Robot Enby Xero🤖@trixter It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it!
@trixter (also that is a gorgeous baby 
)
)@xerozohar He is my oldest and my Number One Boy 💙
Mystery Babylon 
xcorvis@trixter I like https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 for that, and they have an uninstaller that can clear out the permanently installed garbage.
@trixter I was an Archos child myself. But nice!
JA Westenberg@trixter I just started using my old iPod again - and it’s super easy with a Mac even running the latest OS
@Daojoan I knoooooooow... I got it, plugged it into my M1 MacBook Air, and it thought about it for a few minutes and then said, oh, I've got this, and then it just worked. Over 15 years later!
normis@[email protected] @[email protected] If you haven't already, look at Rockbox firmware, it allows for modern file support and all kinds of customization. I also recently got an iPod classic, but wanted FLAC support
NikT@trixter that's amazing and it is totally worth keeping the Win7 VM around for that killer Zune UI.
What headphones do you use with them?
@NikT I’ve got some little Moondrop Quarks that I keep in my bag for when I need wired ones (I have an Analogue Pocket, too). I also have some Beats Studio Pros but I can’t get away with wearing big over-ears at work.
yequari@trixter I actually tried this and it's kind of a pain in the ass lol. I couldn't get windows 7 to work with a shared drive between my host and the VM (I was using qemu, you might have better results with something else). Getting the Zune software was actually easier than I expected, someone is maintaining an update server at http://www.zuneupdate.com. Also, It only supports ID3v2.3 for music tag metadata. So, if your files are tagged with ID3v2.4 you'll have to convert them first.
@yequari I’m using UTM and yeah, it can see the drive but doesn’t seem to want to transfer anything over. Worst case, I have an old desktop with a Windows drive I haven’t booted in years (it’s dual-boot with Linux) and I kind of wanted that to be a media archive server anyway. I’ve been really glad to see that the community has stepped in to keep all the software available and host firmware updates! Because Microsoft sure hasn’t.
@trixter for real, it's wild how Microsoft has tried so hard to scrub itself clean of any acknowledgement of the Zune's existence, but you can still plug in an iPod to any machine with iTunes, which you can still download from Apple, and it just works.
Glen Mastodon ☠@trixter
Sound test? Does one sound better than the other?
Sound test? Does one sound better than the other?
@viktorTheBoar I’ll have to get out the Fancy Headphones once everything’s set up!
Badass Britt 
@trixter dope!!!
This makes me wanna to go charge my Vita…
Arti 🇺🇦@trixter still love metro ui 
@arturguglya It’s a good look!
jae@trixter honestly, that design language is so good.
Mighty Orbot@trixter “Three HUNDRED songs?!”