Adding codecs post launch
Another repeated question below - can we add codecs after we launch?
Yes, codecs can be delivered to Zunes via firmware upgrades and/or updating the client software.
Monday, September 18, 2006
About Me
-
- Name: David Caulton
A Zune contributor by day, I'm also an avid hiker, biker, and father of three, I also work doing industry analysis and strategy. In previous lives, I've been a backcountry ski patroller, worked on the Windows Media Player, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Team Manager 97, been a researcher in Cognitive Neuroscience, a grad student, and a kid.
Previous Posts
- Michael Gartenberg - Sonos + Rhapsody = Music Nirv...
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- The awesomeness of Zune Central Command, 24 hours ...
- The very first Zune Prototype
- My first Zune Office
- The first Zune Meeting room
- Crater Lake Photos
- Ever more codecs...
- WMV file limitations
- ogg and flac revisited
17 Comments:
MS-DVR...
Please (:
NICE! This will be a major advantage over other players. Lookig foward to see this implemented. Also make the adding codecs feature optional.
Zune updater divided in two parts:
Critical Updates
Optional Updates
Much like Windows Updates.
this doesn't mean that they will.
case in point the XBOX-360 can add more codecs but the decisions makers have said no.
the net effect for Zune, it won't happen so why string potential buyers? it will only make us bitter. and right now you don't have the market share to do as you please. you need to concentrate on winning people over not stringing them along.
remember its the holiday season and iPods have just dropped down to $249...how bad do you want users?
you probably have more resources than most companies so the real reason why you haven't added the codecs is because you don't want to.
i am not trying to be a negative person but dishonesty does not make a person buy a Zune.
The codec support is how you really stuff things up.
All those Portable Windows Media Center devices that Microsoft designed had the lovely "feature" that all video had to be encoded to WMV first. Mmm, that's fun.
Sony played that game with all its early portable audio players, demanding to convert all your MP3s to ATRAC. They were well ahead of the other players, but lost their lead with games like that.
People like MS need to realise that the world isn't a fluffy place where everyone pays for their downloads. Most of the people that buy devices like this are warezing all their content from dodgy web sites, and the current flavour of the underground are the codecs you really need to support.
Homebrew people.While I am not an advocate of this. I'm sure someone out there will create their own Firmware with lots of added codecs and features. And i will most likely upgrade my Zune with one of these.
David,
While more codecs beings avalible for update are great, when would you estimate flac and ogg being updated on the zune? I want the Zune very badly but I dont want to wait a long time. How sure are you that these will be added later?
I just read the price for the Zune will be $282. Seriously, you will need to drop that to compete with the iPod. A comprable iPod is $250 so the Zune as of what we know costs more than an iPod. Thats not a good way to kill the iPod.
I posted a reply to this, but you can be certain that Zune won't be undercut on price by iPod
Speaking of codecs, how does Zune handle WMA Lossless? Does the player support it natively (I know it says "WMA", but 80% of WMA-supporting players don't do WMA Lossless)? Does the software give you the option to compress it further on the fly to cram more stuff onto a portable, the way WMP does?
Lossless will be like WMP - it gets converted on the fly to wma for the device.
So no native WMA Lossless, unlike PMC devices?
Hey David,
The early addition of being able to read SHN and FLAC lossless formats directly would be beneficial to the Zune. The people who use these formats already represent the vision proposed for the product, a community engaging around music.
These two formats are generally the most popular for tapers of live performances. There is a special bond shared between music fans and tapers and the way they are released and shared through bit torrent.
A great example is Dave Matthews Band. This is perhaps the largest band in the United States with an open taping policy. All taped recordings begin as SHN's and FLACs and indeed the most core fans of the music listen to them in these formats.
Eventually, recordings are distilled down to mp3's and shared in to the broader community--but during the adoption phase of the Zune, you should be working hard to gain this core audience by including codecs for these important lossless formats.
Amen to the above post. If there was a portable player- wireless or not- from a big name with a competitive price tag that supported MP3, WMA, OGG and FLACC that would be amazing. (Even if it was in the form of codec updates a month or so after the release of the device.)
Play for sure and MS-DVR
Andre: the difference in 360/MCE and Zune is Zune already has support for a wide variety of codecs, so many that most people thought microsoft would never support them
My question is... does "Mpeg4" imply divx/xvid support?
re: divx.
No, mpeg-4 and divx aren't exactly the same so divx won't be supported at launch.
Dave The Cat:
You can convert from SHN/FLAC to WMA Lossless without any loss of quality.
The device plays WMA Lossless apparently.
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