I was at the Bellevue, WA Best Buy this Saturday morning and was present during a ZuneHD demo. Frustrated after reading on Engadget/HD of the lack of Zune support of HDTV recordings, I thought this was a good opportunity to hear this news (disappointing) information from the Rep myself. When I explicitly asked the Zune Rep “Will the Zune HD support OTA HDTV content recorded from Media Center?”, he responded “Yes, it will.” I immediately clarified my question to be very specific in my questioning asking “So, that means the Zune HD will convert or support AC3 audio?”, and the Rep affirmed my question again with a “Yes” and affirming his own frustration of previous Zune’s lack of this capability. Now I stand with a little confusion in finding the "true truth"…. Time will quickly tell as this impressive device comes out.
Other notable items I learn today were:
- The Zune HD screen seemed to dim (the gorgeous) OLED screen during video playback. Possibly a way of extending the battery life? Which was cited at 8 hours during video playback.
- The Zune HD dock seemed to have a secondary processor contained within it. The Zune HD will not output any video w/out the dock as previous versions could. (The HD Dock was cited at $70 and IF there is a processor contained within it, could somewhat justify this outrageous price)
- The Zune earbuds act as an antenna to assist in the capturing of the HD Radio signals. (So much for my old buds while listening to HD radio! :-( I wonder how I am going to hook this up to my car’s 3.5 input jack and listen to the Zune's HD radio?
- There is a SECRET contained within the browser – the Rep refused to show us the browser stating that it was the only thing they were not allowed to show. He also said they needed to withhold some information (for marketing reasons?) and that more information is forthcoming. I am not sure what this “secret” is, but I doubt it is Flash or Silverlight support as those two suggestions were hinted at by the crowd, and quickly denied by the Zune Rep.
The phone has 256MB of RAM and a 1GHz processor, which do the job reasonably well, though the Anna interface will likely leave something to be desired for many smartphone users.
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Hi Ben, Steve and Richard,
I was at the Bellevue, WA Best Buy this Saturday morning and was present during a ZuneHD demo. Frustrated after reading on Engadget/HD of the lack of Zune support of HDTV recordings, I thought this was a good opportunity to hear this news (disappointing) information from the Rep myself. When I explicitly asked the Zune Rep “Will the Zune HD support OTA HDTV content recorded from Media Center?”, he responded “Yes, it will.” I immediately clarified my question to be very specific in my questioning asking “So, that means the Zune HD will convert or support AC3 audio?”, and the Rep affirmed my question again with a “Yes” and affirming his own frustration of previous Zune’s lack of this capability.
Now I stand with a little confusion in finding the "true truth"…. Time will quickly tell as this impressive device comes out.
Other notable items I learn today were:
- The Zune HD screen seemed to dim (the gorgeous) OLED screen during video playback. Possibly a way of extending the battery life? Which was cited at 8 hours during video playback.
- The Zune HD dock seemed to have a secondary processor contained within it. The Zune HD will not output any video w/out the dock as previous versions could. (The HD Dock was cited at $70 and IF there is a processor contained within it, could somewhat justify this outrageous price)
- The Zune earbuds act as an antenna to assist in the capturing of the HD Radio signals. (So much for my old buds while listening to HD radio! :-( I wonder how I am going to hook this up to my car’s 3.5 input jack and listen to the Zune's HD radio?
- There is a SECRET contained within the browser – the Rep refused to show us the browser stating that it was the only thing they were not allowed to show. He also said they needed to withhold some information (for marketing reasons?) and that more information is forthcoming. I am not sure what this “secret” is, but I doubt it is Flash or Silverlight support as those two suggestions were hinted at by the crowd, and quickly denied by the Zune Rep.
Any idea what this could be?
Great Show! Keep up the good work!
Joe