How To Download Music To Zune

So you just got your Zune player and you are excited and ready to download music but you're not sure what to do or where to go? Well this article will show you how to download music to your Zune player and review the different download options.

Downloading your favorite CD to your Zune player is really simple. First put your CD in your computer and open your media player. Then click on the song that you would like to copy to your Zune. Click on Rip and save the song in your music library using one of the following extension (.wma, .wmv, .mp3, .jpg, .mp4, .m4v, .m4a, .m4b, .mov). Plug in your Zune player into your computer via the USB cable. The Zune software will automatically search for music that is saved with the above file extensions. If you set the sync option by default when you installed the software all the music in your media library will automatically be copied to you Zune player when you plug it in to your computer. If not you will need to sync your files manually in order to get your music on the zune player.

The wonderful thing about the Zune player is that you can pull music from all kinds of sources. The most popular option is to download songs from a website. Websites offer two options for downloading songs. The first option is to pay a fee per song (usually $0.99 a song) and the second allows you to sign up for a membership and get unlimited downloads. Membership to these websites can range from $14 - $40 and your membership can last a few months or up to a lifetime.

The most economic way to download is to purchase a membership to a website. You will defiantly save money in the long run because paying $0.99 for a song can get very expensive if you are downloading a lot of songs. Most memberships offer access to the latest songs and they have millions of songs to choose from. Also some memberships offer access to videos, movies, games, tv shows and more.

Downloading to your Zune is as simple as clicking a few buttons and picking your favorite songs. Whether downloading music from your favorite CD or by purchasing a membership to a website these steps will allow you download your favorite tunes to your Zune.

How An iTunes Organiser Could Help You

Ever since the release of the iTunes digital music player and iPod, Apple's popularity has steadily grown. This has caused a number of different programs to be released by separate companies that improve the overall quality of the original software. iTunes is now the most used music player on the planet, with people that don't even own an iPod using it as a media player for all of the different files on their computers. It is due to this popularity that the iTunes organiser was developed. Software provides an easy and automatic way to manage and sort out your entire library and playlist. Here are some reasons why people download software to help them:

1. To fix details of a song that may be spelt incorrectly.
2. To fill in details that are missing; such as genre, year of release or artist name.
3. To add missing album or single artwork.
4. To see if any file is duplicated or missing.
5. To organise newly download songs and videos.
6. To change individual tracks, without changing the album.
8. To synchronize the media with other devices.

Most programs have the ability to perform all of the tasks stated above. Most software options will be able to fix all of your iTunes issues with nothing more than the click of a button. This can save you a great deal of time and stress, and will make the whole listening experience more pleasurable as you won't have the headache of searching for songs, or listening to duplicates.

How It All Works

After installation the program will scan your iTunes library, checking for duplicate songs, incorrect track information, and missing cover artwork for each track. It will then ask the user for permission to fix the problems found, and if granted will correct all the errors by retrieving relevant information from the internet.

What iTunes Organiser Should I download?

There are a number of different programs out there. Some are available as freeware whilst others must be purchased. Although there are all designed to perform the same function, the commercial software usually has an edge over the freeware, offering regular updates and a more extensive library.

The most popular software options out there are: Rinse, Media Monkey and Tune Up Media. Rinse is the only program that offers users the opportunity to download and use the software for free. There are other programs available to download off the internet, however these three are known for having the largest collections of music to compare with your library.

Review of the Top Sites For iPod Downloads

There are many iPod downloads sites out there in the market but you may be wondering which are the ones that score well in terms of usability, pricing, etc. I have reviewed 3 top iPod downloads sites based on the criterion set in my earlier article on "iPod Movie Downloads - 11 Tips On Finding The Best Download Site". I have promised to reveal those sites to you and they are covered in this article. Only the best download sites can make it here. I have made it necessary to check out the testimonials of users of each site and have ranked them accordingly.

Here's the summarized details and benefits of each site:

MyiPodownload - No. 1 Choice iPod Downloads Site of Most iPod Users

Most sites charge additional fee for DVD iPod downloads and extra cost for software, but not this one. They offer lifetime membership fee at $39.95 only. There is also the option of subscribing to 1 year or 2 years of their service. With over 96 million media files, MP3, MP4 and other free software provided, the price is very reasonable. The movie downloads are all full length DVD quality movies. iPod Music and other media files are of digital quality as well. They even provide a wide arsenal of iPod games, wallpaper etc.

Their 24/7 technical support is superb, as response is fast and they are able to troubleshoot your problems quickly. Some download sites claim to provide round-the-clock service but in actual fact, it is just part of advertising gimmicks and when you really need them, the help is not that forthcoming.

MyiPodownload also gives a bundle pack of downloading and DVD/CD burning software, spyware and adware removal applications. The software supports Windows/Mac/Linux. If you are not satisfied, there is a 60 day unconditional satisfaction money-back guarantee that you can fall back on.

FeedMyiPod - No. 2 iPod Downloads Site

This iPod downloads membership site comes in close as second. Lifetime membership is $38.95 and they also offer 1 or 2 year subscription. But it is only cheaper by a few dollars. The membership comes with a 58 day satisfaction money-back guarantee.
They have a huge iPod media library of more than 95 million media files to download to your iPod. As for free software, members are given free DVD to iPod Converting software.

Every other aspect of the site is comparable to MyiPodownload except for its interface which is not as user-friendly and the download speeds are not as fast.

iPod-Downloading.com - No. 3 iPod Downloads Site

iPod-Downloading.com trails behind the two in my opinion. The lifetime membership costs $34.95. Like the other two, there are options for 1/2 year subscriptions. There is also a 60 day money-back guarantee.

Other than some similarities, this site is unique in terms of its selection of audio/video books on Arts & Photography to Mystery & Thriller, Travel, Novels etc. There is a wide database of iPod media downloads - almost 90 million files. They are reputed to carry the latest collection of iPod Games.

Other membership benefits include softwares for antivirus protection, anti-spyware and adware, registry repair and CD/DVD burning.

These are in my humble opinion the best iPod downloads site you can find online. Read my blog and find out where you can download the latest iPod movies, music, and TV shows.

Home Theater Media Centers

Home Theater PCs aka HTPC or media center PC are a must for any serious home theater setup. An HTPC is essentially a personal computer that is configured for a lot of storage and quality video playback. They also will have a more aesthetically pleasing case that will fit better in a home theater setup as opposed to a standard tower type case of a typical personal computer. HTPCs will also have specific software installed to help manage various forms of media like, videos, pictures and music.

There are really two types of HTPCs, a more storage oriented system often called media servers and a lightweight net top system.

The more storage based system is, you guess it, used for storing most, if not, all of your media content. It is where the videos, music and pictures are held. This type of system is typically placed by your main television setup as it would be your base system where you manage all of your media files. These systems will often have at least a 1 terabyte hard drive; this will typically be an adequate amount of storage for the average user.
The lightweight net top HTPCs are more of a peripheral device that you would place in a bedroom. These types of systems are built with as small of a case as possible, with the primary objective of being discrete. Net top HTPCs typically don't have very much if any onboard storage, typically only enough to support the operating system. These are usually connected to the main HTPC or Media Server.

An HTPC can be used to consolidate multiple home theater components into one device. An HTPC can replace your Blu-ray or DVD player, your DVR, your receiver, and your entire rack of DVD and Blu-ray disks. Imagine having one set top device as opposed to 3 or 4 and getting rid of that huge rack of DVDs and Blu-ray's. Aside from replacing the different home theater components an HTPC will also allow you to access various web applications like HULU, YouTube, Netflix and Amazon video on demand. There are other devices that will allow you to access some of these types of applications like an Xbox or Wii, however an HTPC does not limit you on which ones you can have access to. An HTPC also allows you to do some basic things like surf the web.

The next major component to your HTPC is the software. The software is really what drives how the HTPC functions. There are many options out there. My personal favorite OS is Windows 7. Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Center included. Windows Media Center is a very well built interface for an HTPC. The big downfall to Windows Media Center is the inability to play certain file types like. MKVs. However this is quickly remedied by installing an add on to WMC called MyMovies. MyMovies provides a great content management system as well as a codec pack to manage and play any type of movie you would like. Other OS' can be used such as Linux based OS' or Apple OS'. If you choose to run one of these operating systems, my recommendation is to install XBMC for the media center software. XBMC was originally media center software developed for the Xbox, but has since been open sourced and made to function on almost any OS.

The last piece of the puzzle is the peripherals, such as, a keyboard, mouse, and remote. There are a few options for your peripherals. You will need a keyboard and some sort of mouse solution, since an HTPC is essentially a computer. Obviously wireless is the way to go with the peripherals. Also my recommendation is to go with a keyboard - scratch pad combo like the, Azio Keyboard Wireless RF 2.4GHz Multimedia with Trackpad. This helps eliminate the need to have a separate mouse. If you do choose to go with a mouse, I would suggest something like an air mouse, Gyration makes quality air mice. You will also want to have a remote for your HTPC. If you chose to go with Windows as your operating system and using WMC you can get a remote that has a dedicated button for WMC, which launches the application with one push. The keyboard would typically be used to setup things on your HTPC; the remote will be what you use on a more regular basis as it will speed up your navigation of the HTPC.

Setting Up a Media Centre PC

With a few tweaks you can turn Windows into the ultimate entertainment centre.

Last month we looked at creating a media PC. Now we'll tackle configuring the media centre interface (MCE) and playing your favourite video files.

MCE is built into Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. You can use it to play CDs and DVDs, as well as music and video files. MCE also lets you watch and record free-to-air television if you add a TV tuner card or USB dongle.

After you've run MCE's initial set-up wizard, in the main menu go down to Tasks and choose Settings. Under General you can set MCE to start automatically with Windows and always stay on top. Go into Visual and Sound Effects to kill off the annoying ping as you navigate the menus. Enable Optimisation to force the MCE interface to restart once a day to improve stability.

Thankfully an MPEG-2 codec is pre-installed with MCE versions of Windows 7, so you don't need to install separate software to watch DVDs and free-to-air TV. It doesn't offer native Blu-ray support, but most Blu-ray drives come bundled with Blu-ray playback software, some of which offer MCE integration.

If you encounter stuttering when watching live TV, you could have digital reception issues or perhaps your tuner card is overheating. If you only experience stuttering when watching something you recorded earlier, perhaps while recording something else, then you should consider dropping in a second hard drive just for storing your recordings. If you're recording to an external drive, you might need the performance boost of USB3 or eSATA.

When it comes to scheduling recordings, MCE can extract the Electronic Program Guide from the digital TV signal. You still might consider a third-party EPG service such as IceTV, which offers extra features such as scheduling your recordings via a web browser or your mobile phone.

MCE also makes a great DVD jukebox. If you rip your DVD collection to the hard drive as.vob files, MCE still lets you navigate the menus and access the extra features. You can add the folder containing your DVD collection to MCE by dipping into Settings, Media Libraries and Movies. MCE's Movie Library doesn't always display your DVD collection by default, but you can fix this by editing the registry. You can also install plug-ins such as My Movies for Windows Media Center, which downloads cover art and other metadata.