Zune

I was pondering late last night how can I get along with the new Zune software. No more name calling and bashing the moderators at Zune.net forums. I needed to be a responsible Zunian(no I am not an alien. Just of Zune citizenship) and do more investigating. Here is how the XML is laid out for both the Windows media playlist file and the Zune Media Playlist file.

Here goes my case:

Windows Media Playlist or WPL

<?wpl version="1.0"?>

<smil>

    <head>

        <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 11.0.6000.6344"/>

        <meta name="AverageRating" content="0"/>

        <meta name="TotalDuration" content="5676"/>

        <meta name="ItemCount" content="1"/>

        <title>Happy</title>

    </head>

    <body>

        <seq>

            <media src="Fun\mikedopp_This_is_mikedoppcom.mp3"/>

        </seq>

    </body>

</smil>

Zune Playlist or ZPL

<?zpl version="2.0"?><smil>

  <head>

    <meta name="generator" content="Zune -- 2.1.888.0" />

    <meta name="itemCount" content="1" />

    <meta name="totalDuration" content="5458563" />

    <meta name="averageRating" content="0" />

    <title>7Habits</title>

  </head>

  <body>

    <seq>

<media src="C:\ZUNE\Music\New\mikedopp_dropitlikeitsdopp.mp3" />

    </seq>

  </body>

</smil>

So the difference is?

<?wpl version="1.0"?>

and

<?zpl version="2.0">

In my logical thinking as a Zunian I figured lets just make a template and be happy.

First things first in order for the Zune software to see your mp3’s, wma’s or wmv’s you need to point the software to the right directories. This will assume you already know how to do so.

You will need to edit using notepad or my favorite notepad2 the <meta name="itemcount" to make sure the content number equals the correct number of well items in the mp3 etc directory.

The <media src=""> tag is very important in that you need an absolute path defined for where the media is vs. Happy directory \ song name.

Another concern was does the Zune care about the <meta name="totalDuration" content="5458563" /> ? The answer is no not so much. So my answer would be don’t worry too much about this as the playlist will work just fine without it.

So here is the .zol file you can rename to "whatever.ZPL" and add your own tags and or information ie mp3 and or video.

<?zpl version="2.0"?>

<smil>

  <head>

    <meta name="generator" content="Zune -- 2.1.888.2" />

    <meta name="itemCount" content="1" /> <!-- make sure the correct number of itemCount per song-->

    <meta name="totalDuration" content="0" />

    <meta name="averageRating" content="0" />

    <title>Happy</title>

  </head>

  <body>

    <seq>

      <media src="C:\ZUNE\Music\New\mikedopp_dropitlikeitsdopp.mp3" />

    </seq>

  </body>

</smil>

<!-- Zune Playlist notes:

     you definitly need to use the itemcount and keep it accurate. total duration can be 0 as well

as averageRating Make sure you have absolute paths with media src and type them out.-->

Or you can open up Windows media player drag all the songs you want to be in a playlist as long as they can be seen by the zune software and save the playlist that was just created into the folder that you have the music and the zune software can see..

Once created right click on the .wpl file and rename it to .zpl. The zune software will do the rest.

Enjoy!

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The Web 2.0ish in Video

mikedopp — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:40:35 GMT

Someday Active X will be abolished. IE8?

Reset the Zune Media Database

mikedopp — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:43:01 GMT

So with all the craziness of the new zune software. I have been hanging out at the Zune forums and found this little nugget.

Zune media collection reset info:

Link

Also here is a link for the diagnostics.

Link

How to make a .M3U playlist

mikedopp — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:47:23 GMT

So as you all know I purchased a Zune two or three months ago.

I love the Zune however since the last great Firmware/Software
update the playlist system has become a overly big time waster. I was able to work with the old playlist system fairly quickly(meaning make and distribute playlists with ease).

So after some research(mostly dumb luck) I found that the Zune software will and does respect the m3u playlist structure. Woo hoo or something like that.

So the next adventure was to create m3u playlists. I knew that winamp created these types of playlists. However being very picky and not liking crapware(unless I have no choice (zune player software ring a bell))

So after hours of googling and trying a way to create m3u’s without winamp. I found a simple solution.

@echo off

dir /o:n /b *.mp3 > Playlist.m3u

Open a text file. Copy and paste the two lines above and save as Playlist.bat yes

this will make the file a batch file.

Go to the folder in which you have the Mp3’s you would like in a playlist.

**Of course you probably want to change the "playlist" name in the batch file and the batch file itself.

Other software you can use:

Playlist Creator

Itunes Playlist to M3u converter

Zune Firmware Hacked

mikedopp — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 10:19:19 GMT

Access your Zune30 as a extra hd.

Source: Phaleux.com

I highly recommend backing up these registry values before modifying anything. If you don’t know how to do that, I don’t recommend that you even attempt this right now =)

   1. Make sure your Zune is not plugged in and your Zune software isn’t running
   2. open up regedit by going to the start menu and selecting “run”. Type regedt32 and hit “OK”
   3. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\ControlSet001\Enum\USB\
   4. Search for “PortableDeviceNameSpace”. This should be contained in the Vid_####&Pid_####\########_-_########_-_########_-_########\Device Parameters within the above …\USB\ The ##’s listed here will be numbers and letters specific to your Zune
   5. Change the following values:
          * EnableLegacySupport to 1
          * PortableDeviceNameSpaceExcludeFromShell to 0
          * ShowInShell to 1
   6. Plug in your Zune, and make sure the Zune Software starts up.
   7. Hopefully at this point you can open up “My Computer” and browse your device, though it does NOT show up as a drive letter.

Right now I can access it both as a harddrive and sync through the Zune Software.

My Zune....

mikedopp — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:54:13 GMT

Sorry Just had to show off my new(refurbished(woot.com 'd)) Zune.

With the 2.0 firmware no less.

Ipod versus Zune(refurbished(woot.com 'd))

Make a WPL a ZPL (do it yourself)

mikedopp — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 02:21:05 GMT

Windows media playlist (wpl) Zune media playlist (zpl)

Convert them using notepad. The only diff between a wpl and a zpl is the headers.
this is at the top of a wpl

<?wpl version="1.0"?>

<smil>

 <head>

 <meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Windows Media Player -- 11.0.5721.5145"/>

 <meta name="AverageRating" content="53"/>

 <meta name="TotalDuration" content="10069"/>

 <meta name="ItemCount" content="40"/>

 <meta name="ContentPartnerListID"/>

 <meta name="ContentPartnerNameType"/>

 <meta name="ContentPartnerName"/>

 <meta name="Subtitle"/>

 <author/>

 <title>Hip Hop Massive</title>

 </head>

and this is at the top of a zune playlist:

<?zpl version="1.0"?>

<smil>

 <head>

 <meta name="Generator" content="Zune -- 1.0.5341.0"/>

 <author/>

 <title>Hip Hop Massive</title>

 </head>

paste the zune header into the wpl and it works perfect.