From the Zunerama blog:We welcome many of you who unwrapped new Zune players this Christmas. Congratulations on making Santa's nice list this year.

Our forums have been buzzing with new Zuners celebrating their unboxings, and also with start-up questions as they get their Zunes installed, synced, and out into the world.
We've uncovered useful nuggets that every new Zune owner should know... and that may not be immediately obvious. Here then, are...
7 TIPS THAT EVERY ZUNE OWNER SHOULD KNOW ON DAY ONE
1. Sync reliably. Connect your sync cable to a USB port on the
back of your computer - not one of the front USB ports. This takes care of many syncing issues.
2. Be current. Make sure your Windows is up to date before installing Zune software. It should be Windows XP, Service Pack 2; or Windows Media Center with current rollups.
3. Patience, Grasshopper. Your first sync will take awhile, while your Zune software finds content on your PC and prepares it for Zune. Go drink an eggnog with your family.
4. Do the trial thing. To activate your 14-day trial Zune Pass subscription: make sure you're signed in, select Account Management (it's an option under the sign-in icon), and select "Redeem Prepaid Card". You'll see that option under the ZUNE PASS section of the window.
5. Got (a lot of) content? If you're lucky enough to have more content (music/pix/video) than will fit on your Zune, that's okay - Zune will load your music first, then pictures, then video, until your 30GB is consumed. If you want to, you can control what gets loaded - including prioritizing your playlists, or even telling Zune software what folders to sync to and what folders to ignore. You can prioritize which music playlists get synced (see
this FAQ for how). And, you can tell Zune to only sync certain folders of music, pictures, or video - just follow the steps in
this FAQ.
6. Play DVDs on your Zune. To make your family DVDs playable on your Zune requires 3rd party software. There are freeware and paid software packages that will do this for you. The trick is to set up the software so that the video gets converted to a Zune-compatible format. check out our
How Tos board for step-by-step tutorials.
7. The key to longer life. To get the most life out of your battery, use
this simple trick for the best way to turn the player off: press and hold <down> on the control pad and hold down the <back> button.
Got other questions? - Check out our
Zune FAQ - it's searchable and contains many answers to commonly asked questions.
- Search our
Zune forums. Various scenarios and questions are discussed and resolved here every day.
- Post a question in our
Tech Support board.
Enjoy that new Zune!