Zune HD is official, heading your way this Fall

[xtop]

Sure, it was fun to have Ballmer run us through a little demo of the new Zune HD, but we'd be remiss in our duties if we didn't spend some time manhandling the device ourselves. We managed to track down the beast and toy with it a bit, and we must say... the thing kind of rocks. In your hand the Zune HD has a nice, solid feel, with good heft to it and a surprisingly thin profile. The OLED screen looks absolutely stunning -- even at severe viewing angles, colors were super bright, edges were crisp, and text looked beautiful. The UI is an extension of the exisiting Zune interface, but way tricked out in this version, with lots of flipping images, scaling text, smooth scrolling, and an extreme emphasis on simple visual navigation. While the OS isn't finished, we didn't notice a single hiccup while jumping through menus or playing back HD video. We'll definitely have more on this in the near future, but for now, you'll have to manage with this handful of images.

video here...

http://gizmodo.com/5272228/zune-hd-h...and-video-tour

[Drew664]

Anyword on Xbox games on the HD Zune? That or any other kind of video game entertainment?

[SleeperAgent]

Any word on whether or not this could use Pandora with the wi-fi?

[swifty7]

that Zune HD is truly amazing, it should have also had phone capability to truly be the iphone killer. If only the next iphone looked like that with all the capabilities. The next iphone better icoporate an OLED screen or they will be in trouble.

[cosomotion]

I can't wait. I've been holding out on upgrading my old 5th generation 30gb Ipod for one of these all year.

Looking better everytime I see it mentioned.

[azncarbos]

same here!

[MaximusBlu]

All I can say as a 80gb Zune owner is, it better have an equalizer!

[mtbkr]

im curious to see if the o.s will fail like the blackberry storms o.s failed. "so far" nobody can button down the touch screen interface like apple has

[richieb1971]

What does Zune use as its native codecs?

Assuming WMV but just making sure.

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by MaximusBlu

All I can say as a 80gb Zune owner is, it better have an equalizer!

Well, it kind of does with different presets. Are you maybe meaning volume normalization? Because... I can definitely get behind that. I hate how the Zune doesn't have that feature.

[bigred7078]

that thing looks sexy, but im not sure if i can be torn away from my iTouch.

[MaximusBlu]

Originally Posted by aramis109

Well, it kind of does with different presets. Are you maybe meaning volume normalization? Because... I can definitely get behind that. I hate how the Zune doesn't have that feature.

The 80gb model has no EQ adjustments or presets. From what I understand the 30gb model has presets which I would love to have on my 80gb. In fact there is a petition for a Zune equalizer on the Zune forums. http://forums.zune.net/26668/ShowPost.aspx

[alansaysstop]

I don't know, I guess it LOOKS nice. I've only played with the zune instores, but I almost did get the Halo 3 edition because it looked nice. I'm an apple fanatic and in the mp3 market, you can't beat them. Plus all I have are macs and I don't think that would be allowed haha.

simply being hd and having an OLED screen doesn't do it for me, though. It needs to have something with a little more UMPH.

What kind of program does the zune use? is it like iTunes at all?

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by MaximusBlu

The 80gb model has no EQ adjustments or presets. From what I understand the 30gb model has presets which I would love to have on my 80gb. In fact there is a petition for a Zune equalizer on the Zune forums. http://forums.zune.net/26668/ShowPost.aspx

Oh, wow. I didn't know that. That REALLY sucks.

Originally Posted by alansaysstop

I don't know, I guess it LOOKS nice. I've only played with the zune instores, but I almost did get the Halo 3 edition because it looked nice. I'm an apple fanatic and in the mp3 market, you can't beat them. Plus all I have are macs and I don't think that would be allowed haha.

simply being hd and having an OLED screen doesn't do it for me, though. It needs to have something with a little more UMPH.

What kind of program does the zune use? is it like iTunes at all?

Not trying to start a war, but why does it have to be like iTunes? I actually greatly prefer Zune's software (though I'll admit it's a little bloated). I actually don't use iTunes at all- I've switched my wife's iPod over to using MediaMonkey which I greatly prefer over both of them for its simplicity.

[Blufury]

I'll wait for prices and reviews before upgrading my 120gb Gears of War edition.

[SlaughterX]

Where did you hear about a 120GB version? I don't think that's going to happen right now... Anyway I just got a 120GB Zune earlier this year, and it's half full now, I definately couldn't go down to any 32GB player, or I would have got a Creative X-Fi. By the time they do come with bigger hard drives I might think if replacing the Zune I just got... maybe, but that won't be any time soon.

[xtop]

http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=7345

There is a lot of news circulating today about some rumors of the new Zune HD using the NVIDIA Tegra processor. Several websites have been following the rumor, that started at donanimhaber.com, but apparently no one can confirm whether or not Microsoft's latest portable media player does indeed use NVIDIA's system-on-a-chip design.

Well PC Perspective can: the Zune HD does in fact use NVIDIA's Tegra processor. I actually learned this fact from some NVIDIA staffers over at Computex in early June but I guess I just didn't realize how "news worthy" the information was. No longer do you have to worry about "rumors" on the subject - Tegra has its first major design win.

NVIDIA Tegra likely won the design with impressive statistics like its ability to decode a video stream using just 150 mWatts of power and output audio at only 20 mWatts.

The Zune HD features a stunning 3.3-in OLED touch screen display with a resolution of 480x272 and can playback just about any video including high quality H.264 content. While the resolution on the screen is somewhat limiting, the Zune HD has an HDMI output that will support HD video up to 720p - thus the need for a powerful graphics-based processor like NVIDIA's Tegra. The device also includes an HD radio receiver, IE-based web browser, Wi-Fi and accelerometers for rotation support. Overall I think it will make a great competitor to Apple's iPod touch line up when it comes out later this year.

[bhampton]

Last time I bought something from Microsoft it was the retail version of Windows 95 on release day.

(I still can't forgive them for that,... Windows 95 would eventually work a few years later but only when you bought it over again as "OSR2". Microsoft is simply the worst, everything they make is crap in my opinion.)

Either way.. I'm more a dedicated HT enthusiast than a "watch movies on my cell phone" type.

[SleeperAgent]

Originally Posted by bhampton

Last time I bought something from Microsoft it was the retail version of Windows 95 on release day.

(I still can't forgive them for that,... Windows 95 would eventually work a few years later but only when you bought it over again as "OSR2". Microsoft is simply the worst, everything they make is crap in my opinion.)

Either way.. I'm more a dedicated HT enthusiast than a "watch movies on my cell phone" type.

Good job on the thread crap.

I will be upgrading my 2nd gen iPod to this day 1.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by TheSoviet

Good job on the thread crap.

I will be upgrading my 2nd gen iPod to this day 1.

yeah,... i guess you're right, I'm sorry.

The OLED screen is cool though, hopefully more devices will use those more.

-Brian