Zune HD Wireless Media Player Now Official

Microsoft officially launches its Zune HD wireless media player, which will be released in stores on 15 September. Powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra HD processor, the Zune HD does high quality video playback and supports 720p HD videos through the HDMI AV Dock.

The Zune HD has a 3.3-inch glass OLED touchscreen with 480×272 resolution and integrated FM radio and HD radio receivers. It supports built-in WiFi 802.11b/g and comes with an internet browser. Zune HD plays WMA, MP3, AAC audio; WMV, MPEG-4, H.264 video and JPEG images.

The new wireless media player is available in 16GB Black and 32GB Platinum, which are priced at $219.99 and $289.99 respectively.

Audio Support:

• Windows Media Audio Standard3 (WMA) (.wma): Up to 320 Kbps; constant bit rate (CBR) and variable bit rate (VBR) up to 48-kHz sample rate. WMA Pro 2-channel up to 384 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz.
• WMA Lossless
• Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) (.mp4, .m4a, .m4b, .mov) – .m4a and .m4b files without FairPlay DRM up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz.
• MP3 (.mp3) – Up to 320 Kbps; CBR and VBR up to 48-kHz.

Video Support:

• Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv) – Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync.
• MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video3– Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync.
• H.264 video – Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate; 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second). Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync.
• DVR-MS4 – Zune software will transcode at time of sync.

[zune]