Pictured: The Zune HD

[griffed88]

if it wasn't for zune's clunky and slow music software, it might be worth a shot. I have an 80gb zune and the zune itself is pretty good, its just the crap software.

 

[etichi]

again Microsoft copies. Nothing new, Nothing innovative.

 

[will_chellam]

There's absolutely no point having a 3.3" HD capable screen, if you look at tv's you dont actually need 1080p unless you have a 40" that you are sitting less than 5 metres from because the human eye cant resolve that amount of detail - for the zune hd to have a 720p screen youd need to hold it about 8 inches from your face to see any real beenfit.

 

[PLATTERMAN]

I like and use a Sansa View, you can get micro SD HC 4 8GB and higher cards that will give you 16GB minimum if you start with the 8GB player they make a 16,32,and 64GB versions as well. You can use many types of pc audio/video converters, WMP, and play music at full pcm bitrate sound and the screen is pretty good.

 

[joesapp37]

internet has no flash capabilities? seriously??

 

[dark_lord69]

I have a Zune and think it would be sweet to have one of these. Will I buy it?... no.. I don't waist my money on expensive MP3 players especially since my phone will play them and everything else. With an 8GB memory card.. I'm not complaining. It will be quite a while until I buy anything like this.

 

[crom]

Does it play games? C'mon Microsoft, if you want to compete with Apple in this space you've got to give it some killer games. Here's a thought. Ditch the Zune brand all together, and rename this the Xbox Portable or something like that. Give it a bit more of a gamecentric focus, but also link it to other media like mp3s and video.

 

[eccentric909]

[citation][nom]will_chellam[/nom]There's absolutely no point having a 3.3" HD capable screen, if you look at tv's you dont actually need 1080p unless you have a 40" that you are sitting less than 5 metres from because the human eye cant resolve that amount of detail - for the zune hd to have a 720p screen youd need to hold it about 8 inches from your face to see any real beenfit.[/citation]

Why does no one understand that the output is HD. It has an HDMI port so you can connect it to your TV and display HD content.

[citation][nom]spanky deluxe[/nom]Because soooo many people actually connect their portable media players to their TVs...[/citation]

Umm, I do. I use to connect my old Toshiba PDA to my TV all the time. I've also connected my PSP to my TV many times (via Component/YCbCr) to watch UMDs, since you can easily find new UMDs for $5, last one I bought was Resident Evil Apocalypse.

There are actually quite a lot of people who would, besides just myself, especially with how popular it has become to sell episodes of the latest TV shows and with a lot of new DVDs offering a free digital copy of the movie you just bought. It's also nice for if you go to a friend's house, you can bring a portion of your library to watch on their TV, or many other possibilities.

I'm thinking you're more bashing on this because it's a MS device and you love to show your dislike for them and pimp Apple at any chance you get.

 

[eccentric909]

Why does no one understand that the output is HD.

I shouldn't have said "no one", but instead "Why a lot of people not understand". >

 

[Nightsilver]

Given the horrible failures that were my first two Zunes (first one died after three months of light use, its replacement died after a week), something tells me I'm not going to drop anymore money into such a sinkhole.

 

[bootleghooch]

[citation][nom]joesapp37[/nom]internet has no flash capabilities? seriously??[/citation]

Just like my ipod touch. Why is this surprising?

 

[steiner666]

personally, i'm not interested in this product at all. I have a creative mp3 player that works perfectly, has great audio quality and battery life, and fits comfortably in my pocket. Last thing I want is some big honkin thing shoved in my pocket if i'm on the move, or to be compulsively wiping finger smudges off of the display every time i look at it. If i need a mobile form of entertainment i'd just bring my slightly larger netbook and enjoy the larger, higher resolution screen and fuller list of features. I mean c'mon, no flash video support? get with the program M$, please. cause i'm really sick of the ipod commercials and apple popularity in general.

 

[Platypus]

All I'm looking for in an MP3 player is for it to look like a pair of sleek headphones (not too heavy, not too flimsy). Build the MP3 player right into the headphones, and eliminate the cables altogether. You know what... make it waterproof, too.

Do we have this kind of technology yet?

I've got the iPod Shuffle and the accompanying headphones which do the trick, but they're a bit flimsy and it's certainly not waterproof.

The concept of "I want to hold my MP3 player so I only have 1 free hand" escapes me. It also forces you to have a cable running from your ears to your hand/pocket, which will occasionally get yanked out of your ears if the cable gets caught on something. It just doesn't seem practical to me for people who want their entertainment "on the go," which is exactly how these are marketed.

(Obviously none of this applies to the video playback capability. I'm just discussing the music portion.)

 

[tester24]

It's pretty, can't say I would get one. I love my Zune (80gig) because it can hold a lot of stuff I would hate to go with anything under 60 gb. That being said if they ever made this into a phone I would totally buy it. But Microsoft would have to be smarter about it and make it available on all networks to succeed.

 

[dimar]

If it doesn't play 192Khz 24-bit wave/flac files, it's not HD, No! No! No! Who's gonna watch or store 1080p 20GB movies on it anyway? I was looking forward to this player, but I guess I'll stick with Samsung for now.

 

[azxcvbnm321]

[citation][nom]Platypus[/nom]All I'm looking for in an MP3 player is for it to look like a pair of sleek headphones (not too heavy, not too flimsy). Build the MP3 player right into the headphones, and eliminate the cables altogether. You know what... make it waterproof, too.Do we have this kind of technology yet?I've got the iPod Shuffle and the accompanying headphones which do the trick, but they're a bit flimsy and it's certainly not waterproof. The concept of "I want to hold my MP3 player so I only have 1 free hand" escapes me. It also forces you to have a cable running from your ears to your hand/pocket, which will occasionally get yanked out of your ears if the cable gets caught on something. It just doesn't seem practical to me for people who want their entertainment "on the go," which is exactly how these are marketed.(Obviously none of this applies to the video playback capability. I'm just discussing the music portion.)[/citation]

What you're looking for isn't want the Zune is supposed to be. Zune and the newer players aren't just MP3 players, they're internet surfers, and eventually I see them being a E-book reader too. Basically Microsoft wants to give you a portable computer that can do all the simple stuff most people use their computer for. That is surfing the web, listening to music, and e-mailing friends. The idea hasn't been perfected yet so we see all these different methods out there. You have the IPhone which integrates phone, but also allows internet connectivity and music. You have the IPod which is an older technology that Apple clearly sees as IPhone-Lite. And you have the netbooks, Kindle, and so forth. We've yet to find the perfect way to accomplish giving you a portable computer that is truly easy to carry and also easy to do what you need to do away from home.

 

[cracklint]

If you can't watch youtube or flash videos (tube8) then what's the point of having a browser on a device geared toward entertainment. This is an epic failure when your direct competitor is able to.

 

[cracklint]

If you can't watch youtube or flash videos (tube8) then what's the point of having a browser on a device geared toward entertainment. This is an epic failure when your direct competitor is able to.