Microsoft's Zune HD AV Dock and Power Pack up for pre-order
By Darren Murph 
posted August 13th 2009 8:24AM
posted August 13th 2009 8:24AM
[Thanks, Thomas]
Read - Zune HD AV Dock
Read - Zune HD AV & Power Pack
posted August 13th 2009 8:24AM
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Not yet, and reading between the lines of Nvidias latest statements, I'm afraid it's not going to.
Hope it will though.
It's funny because Tegra has hardware flash support, so I wonder if that's something for the future or not.
Actually, AFAIK it doesn't yet. Nvidia is working with Adobe to make Tegra the first device with GPU accelerated flash.
It's supposed to be done by end of year, around the time that the Tegra smartbooks should launch. Which is why I'm afraid that the HD is gonna get skipped when it comes to flash.
Never heard of firmware updates jon?
Yes, because technical limitations drive all business decisions.
I didn't mean they couldn't add it, I meant I'm afraid they won't.
I use my Zune80 dock daily. I love it.
$90 is hard to swallow... I like the concept, but I think I'll be waiting for it to come down in price (or for a really good deal). Deciding factor might wind up being whether the remote is IR or RF - I'm not going to buy a dock that doesn't work with my Harmony.
What I'd really like to see is an improved interface for viewing videos on the 360. It's a total disaster for video that is meant to be viewed sequentially (eg, TV seasons). Maybe in the winter update? I know Microsoft knows how to do this right, they have superb interfaces for the Zune, both on the device and in the software.
Wasn't there a new update released for the 360 a few days ago? I know Video marketplace is being renamed.
i would easily pay 100 extra if it was a phone... easily
Except, take a look at the prices of high-end Winmo phones. Turning this into a phone is gonna cost you more than an extra c-note.
This really is exciting stuff.. I haven't owned an MP3 device that wasn't an iPod probably ever.. But I think this may well be one of the first times, i'd actually consider moving to the Zune HD from my 1st gen iPod Touch - its one of the perks of not being such a massive fanboy towards either brand ;) .. Shame it isn't being released in Europe though.. That's almost cruel!
One thing though, wasn't Tegra supposed to be able to handle 1080p video? Why relegate it to just 720p? Also, what are the 720p formats it supports? Hope it isn't just WMV-HD... Finally, sound? Dolby? DTS? There's no optical port on this dock which makes it extremely annoying for people like me with a Z-5500 Logitech that doesn't have HDMI but solely optical and Coaxial..
"Tegra" is a lot of different chipsets. The 1080p one is for netbook-alikes.
There is an optical port on the dock.
It should be released in Europe, details forthcoming.
Only larger(netbook sized) Tegra SoCs can play 1080p.
Don't know about file support, the official page just lists the SD file limits.
Ooh right, thanks for clearing that up... It really is a shame though.. Well, here's to the next generation of Zune HD players with 1080p output support...
Better question: does the dock have component output available? Dumb as it sounds to some people, I'd rather run it using component+optical to my receiver, since I've got 1080p upscaling on the component inputs...
"does the dock have component output available?"
Doesn't look like it. Composite, HDMI and Optical only.
Time for a new receiver. ;)
Quality 1080p files are huge. Until they price in flash storage comes down, I don't see there being a practical size of flash drive in the Zune, or iPods for that matter, to accommodate a reasonable library of 1080p movies.
To be honest, even a quality 720p movie would be a little too big for a 32GB flash drive.. You'd be able to stuff a max of what - 2-3 films or less if you have a big music library... Hell, I can barely stuff all my music on my 32GB iPod Touch... An awesome DLNA feature to stream movies from a PC would be good for the future..
wait this still isn't making sense to me
1st question:
Could you get the old zune dock pack $19.99 http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Zune-Dock-Pack/product/459A58FC or the zune home AV pack http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Zune-Home-AV-Pack/product/2D76C101 and get tv output on the Zune HD? (not HD obviously, but i don't have an HD tv)
2nd question:
so you can't buy just the Zune HD AV & Power Pack http://store.microsoft.com/microsoft/Zune-HD-AV-Power-Pack/product/66C30489 and go straight from your Zune HD to the TV? (it says "Connect your AV cable to your docked Zune HD to play music, HD Radio, and audio podcasts through your home audio system")
1. possibly, we don't know if the zune HD will work with older docks.
2. No, you need a dock for video out.
so in other words, the zune hd av power pack is useless unless you already own the dock, making it useless to just buy the dock
I guess if you have nice computer speakers, and if you can play music through them off the docked Zune, the I guess being able to control that with a remote might be nice.
But for the most part, you're right, I don't really get the point of the dock when you get a sync cable with the zune.
human and jon, thanks. that makes sense. yeah, I'm thinking the $90 isn't really all that bad when you consider how much cables and stuff are these days. And this would be great to have set up even just for music, to pipe through my system. And the fact it displays the same UI on the TV as the music player is really cool.
You know, I've been thinking about why I would want this over the iTouch, and personally, here's my reasons. The iTouch yes, has more features, but the features the ZHD has, appears to do those better. And not to sound like a geezer, when vinyl went away, it took a part of my music listening experience. I remember listening to an old double live album with my gigantic headphones on and would study the album cover. Like looking at the same cereal box every morning during breakfast, didn't offer anything new, but it almost helped me be there. This ZHD seems to bring some of that back in a sense. What with the bio, photos, etc. I really like how they've centered on few items (music, video) and made it an enriching experience. Now you've gotten that done, onto games and downloadable movies! :)
Cheers.
u forgot to mention the fact that the sound quality coming out of the ipod touch is trash
thats should be the NUMBER 1 issue when considering a mp3 player
If any PMP has ever needed to ship with a dock more, it's the Zune HD. One of the selling points for me is the HD output, but if I really want that, it looks like I need to shell out $90 more (unless my reading comprehension is a little low this morning). So in order to enjoy a feature in the name of the device I need to spend a little less then half the cost of it's base model in addition to the cost of the device itself. I could see Microsoft making some headway into the PMP market, and I would seriously consider buying one if it shipped with the dock, otherwise, I'll stick with the docking PMP I already have docks/speaker systems for.
I cannot wait for this device to come out. I'd like to get the 32GB version but if I'm gonna be spending this much on the dock I may have to settle for the 16GB which should be plenty anyway.
But I was wondering if you get the Sync Dock ($50) if you can just buy a separate HDMI cable instead of the HD AV & Power Pack to save some money. Can the Sync Dock be powered without being plugged into usb or the HD AV & Power Pack? Does anyone know?
Anyway, I hate people saying there's no way this device is going to kill the iPod Touch. I don't think Microsoft cares about killing the iPod Touch. All they're trying to do is release a kick-A product that knows what it's main purpose in life is and does pretty darn good job at it. I've never owned an iPod but out of all of my friends and relatives that have an iPod Touch I don't think I've ever been shown the Music player. All anyone wants to show you is the latest app or game. I think mostly because very little has ever changed with the iPod music player except maybe the addition of Cover Flow (eye candy - beautiful, but still eye candy). From the few videos I've seen of the Zune HD interface I've been blown away. It looks to be such a more personal and immersive experience with the fullscreen album art, bios, similar artists.
And to end my post, I see no reason why they wouldn't add support for apps in the future. I believe I read the OS is based on Windows CE so it shouldn't be too hard to have the huge amount of apps available for Windows Mobile phones running on here. Or at least to already have a wide developer base. I read a complaint that the Zune interface would never be able to handle Apps because you don't have icons on the front, but I think that's garbage. The Zune interface is organized instead of a jumble of screens of icons with no semblance of order. And the main screen left sidebar with Pins and History would be awesome to hold your most used apps.
Anyway, I'm not a MS fanboy I just think they deserve credit for coming out with something truly different instead of trying to copy Apple.
the word soonly bothers me so for some reason and I usually don't look for misspellings or whatnots...
I most likely will be pre-ordering soon then.
Even though the retail price of the Zune is going to be lower than the iPod, you can always find online stores that are discounting the iPod, however, i don't see this as much with the Zune. Hopefully if this starts getting put on sale around the holidays i might give it a try. I've already made a list of the MP3 players I'm interested in getting and am using a free shopping service called ZingSale.com to let me know when any of them go on sale. http://www.zingsale.com
Look at it this way, even paying the extra $90 for the dock, remote and cables, it is still cheaper than a touch and outputs at 720p.
In what world is $309.99 (cost of 16 gig Zune HD after the dock, as you suggested) cheaper then $299.99 (the cost of 16 gig iPod Touch)? Any way I slice it, I'm still only getting a $10 difference. Which is not to say that the Zune HD isn't a pretty good deal, but come on, hyperbole much?
I also have a feeling that the price disparity will be closed come early September and the traditional iPod media event.
$399 32gb Touch vs $380 32gb HD and accessories, plus, given the choice, I would rather pay $10 more for the HD and have 720p output.