Zune HD scheduled for Sept 15 release (US)

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Zune HD scheduled for Sept 15 release (US)

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28 posts

Geek

#258046 24-Sep-2009 12:18

My Zune HD has arrived! w00t!

(trying desperately not to sound like whatever the opposite of an apple fan-boy sounds like)

billgates

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#258047 24-Sep-2009 12:18

mine arrived yesterday w00t w00t!

Do whatever you want to do man.

wakarua

16 posts

Geek

#258097 24-Sep-2009 15:40

oh man!
dont rub it in haha

Well, I was thinking of waiting until they created a 64 gig .

reckon that will happen?

Because 32 is just not enough

richms

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#258098 24-Sep-2009 15:47

Does the zune do any of the more recent codecs, or is it stuck with LC AAC like the iPods are?

Richard rich.ms

vrtual

28 posts

Geek

#258143 24-Sep-2009 18:25

I'm a compulsive 'must buy now' kinda guy, but I think your idea is much better. 64Gb must be around the corner. There have been rumours posted and it seems sensible.

Having previously overflowed my 80Gb Zune with music I'm having a hard time picking and choosing stuff to squeeze into 32Gb currently!

Initial impressions: beautiful unit, much smaller than I imagined though. Screen is amazingly sharp. User interface is really nice - very responsive and fun. Web browser... well... haven't played a lot with it but it's a wee bit small to be particularly useful. The HDMI dock is wicked. Bang it straight into the side of a big LCD screen and off it goes, remote control included. Must be some smarts in the docking station as the first thing it did was download an update for it :-)

vrtual

28 posts

Geek

#258145 24-Sep-2009 18:32

According to *ahem* wikipedia it does LC AAC only. But as none of my stuff is in AAC format I'm not too fussed.

For the audio purist it may be worth noting it supports windows media audio pro, and within that you can do multi channel and lossless audio so I don't think they're too bothered supporting enhanced AAC. I've encoded some tracks using that (via media player) and it plays fine on the zune. The zune software can also be configured to automatically down-sample media to reduce size on the player. It'll do that on the fly as you sync. You tell it what rate to start limiting at.

mikerussellnz

283 posts

Ultimate Geek

#258150 24-Sep-2009 19:13

Where do they get the HD from, 720 x 480 pixels last time I checked was NOT HD. 720p is 1280x720!

Seems like the HD is really just scaling, up rezzing and pixel shifting......

Equinox IT

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vrtual

28 posts

Geek

#258160 24-Sep-2009 19:41

Last time I checked HD was a generic term for a number for formats including 1280x720 progressive scan.

http://www.hdtvfaq.org/hdtv-formats.html

* 720p - 1280x720 pixels @ 50/60Hz Progressive
* 1080i - 1920x1080 pixels @ 50/60Hz Interlaced
* 1080p - 1920x1080 pixels @ 24/25/50/60Hz Progressive

Satch

1985 posts

Uber Geek

#258170 24-Sep-2009 20:48

vrtual: I'm a compulsive 'must buy now' kinda guy, but I think your idea is much better. 64Gb must be around the corner. There have been rumours posted and it seems sensible.

Having previously overflowed my 80Gb Zune with music I'm having a hard time picking and choosing stuff to squeeze into 32Gb currently!

Initial impressions: beautiful unit, much smaller than I imagined though. Screen is amazingly sharp. User interface is really nice - very responsive and fun. Web browser... well... haven't played a lot with it but it's a wee bit small to be particularly useful. The HDMI dock is wicked. Bang it straight into the side of a big LCD screen and off it goes, remote control included. Must be some smarts in the docking station as the first thing it did was download an update for it :-)

How about the sound quality of the unit (given this is one of the main uses of it)? How does it compare to the woeful iPod classic SQ, if you had any experience with the classic before?

paulspain

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#258199 24-Sep-2009 23:02

Mine arrived early Monday morning when a friend fly in with it... VERY pleased with the sound quality. By all accounts it trumps all iPods on audio quality

Paul Spain
Founder: Gorilla Technology, NZ Tech Podcast

richms

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#258200 24-Sep-2009 23:04

Can it drive a decent set of headphones to a good level? The N97 is slightly better then the N95 was but still well short of what I expect. That and its 10 or so volume steps mean that its always too loud or too quiet.

Richard rich.ms

billgates

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#258224 25-Sep-2009 00:24

It drove these crap free Bacardi speakers that I got for free with a 1ltr bottle to an astonishing level. The same speakers connected to a PC can hardly be heard even on full volume.

Do whatever you want to do man.

vrtual

28 posts

Geek

#258245 25-Sep-2009 08:25

Can't comment on iPod quality but my Zune 80 is/was awesome and comparing the two last night they sound comparable. I run it with Sennheiser buds. The 'premium' buds that shipped with the Zune 80 were fantastic (lost those) but they're back to regular crappy looking ones with this release (haven't even unwrapped them).

The volume ranges from 0-30 so there's a smooth and subtle transition between levels. The HD has an equalizer (presets only - your tacky 'pop', 'jazz', 'classical' etc) but it's a joke to keep complainers happy - keep it on "None"!. Never needed an EQ on the 80 with decent headphones.

The dock has an optical out (and HDMI) so you can let your amp to the DAC work. CNet review says the HD has the same Wolfram DACs as the Zune 80 http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12519_7-10303243-49.html which "is good news".

bigbob

38 posts

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#260542 2-Oct-2009 13:08

Well my Zune HD (32GB) arrived this week and after having a few days to check it out I am very happy.

Initially downloading the Zune software was a pain (you need to set your PC's location to the US to be able to access the Zune website), but after this was sorted and a Zune account setup it updated the firmware and sync'd my collection.

Audio quality using a mix of 320k/b mp3's and lossless WMA tracks is most impressive. I would say better than any ipod, based on what I have listened to. My listening has been mostly Jazz, Van Morrison, Fleetwood Mac, Silverchair, and Paul Mac so far. I am using a pair of Ultimate Ears Super.Fi 5 Pro earphones which are quite revealing of the good and bad.

Podcasts (video and audio) download and synch nicely via the Zune software and the video podcasts look really good, check out cnet's HD Loaded.

Video's look great, but the native codec support is poor (no Xvid or Divx), I have yet to find the perfect transcoding software that has a Zune HD profile, any suggestions ? I didn't get the HD dock, maybe later.

The few app's that are available are interesting though I am more interested in good audio primarily.

Overall build quality is excellent and battery life so far is promising, need some more time to assess this.

If the Zune Pass feature comes to NZ or if anyone knows how to access this without a US credit card, please share.

Rob

billgates

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#260551 2-Oct-2009 13:19

Bigbob, setup your computer regional settings to US, make an hotmail account using any US address and then you can buy Zune pre-paid cards on ebay to subscribe to Zune pass.

Do whatever you want to do man.

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