Hard drive Zunes

    * It's called the Zune 80 and, shockingly enough, it has 80GB of storage.
    * Uses the new Zune Pad -- four way touch-sensitive d-pad (with up, down, left, and right buttons).
    * It will sell for $250 (with "premium" headphones).
    * Available only in black (to start).
    * Screen size has increased to 3.2-inches (from 3-inches). As far as we know the resolution is still QVGA.
    * Dimensions are 61.1 x 108.2 x 12.9mm (2.4 x 4.25 x 0.5-inches), some 1/3rd smaller than the classic Zune.
    * The classic Zune will now be known as the Zune 30 -- it's not going anywhere. More on that in a sec.

New flash Zunes

    * Zune 8 and Zune 4 are the names for the 8 and 4GB flash based models.
    * Also uses the Zune Pad.
    * These will sell for $200 and $150 respectively.
    * Both will be available in pink, green, black, and red.
    * It will feature a 1.8-inch screen (compare to the nano's 2-inch screen).
    * Dimensions are 41.4 x 91.5 x 8.5mm (1.6 x 3.6 x 0.33-inches) -- compare to the new iPod nano, at 69.8 x 52.3 x 6.5mm (2.75 x 2.0 x 0.26-inches).

Everything else

    * New Zunes ship in November, date not yet announced.
    * All Zunes (including the Zune 30) will have a new, redesigned interface and feature parity. In other words, early Zune 30 adopters will have all the same software features as new Zune 80, 8, and 4 users.
    * Additional native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 -- users no longer need transcode those file types to WMV.
    * Zune can FINALLY sync video from your Media Center PC! Jeez, took you friggin long enough, guys!
    * WiFi sync to host computer! Includes moving over music, movies, photos, podcasts, etc.
    * Podcast support! (Sorry, no over the air downloads -- sync only.) Podcasts can also be shared via WiFi.
    * The 3x3 song sharing DRM has had its three day restriction removed, but users can still only play files three times.
    * There is still NO wireless music store.
    * The Zune software is all new and rewritten, and is supposed to actually be more than a rebadge of WMP10 now. Friggin finally.
    * The Zune music store is going DRM-free, with over 1m MP3 tracks being made available for download. Other details (like which labels, whether there is a DRM-free upgrade path is for users who've bought music with DRM, price differences, etc.) are not yet revealed.

Astrotoy7:

@Chris....I cant think of anyone sane that would deploy mpeg2 on a pmc... :)  !!  Native H264 is the way to go. MS must be paying attention !

astro

jagowar:

* Zune can FINALLY sync video from your Media Center PC! Jeez, took you friggin long enough, guys!

Does this mean that those MS-DVR files will be just copied from Media Centre over to the zune and no (time consuming) converstion will be done ?

Also - If I just plug the zune into my PC via USB does it appear as a drive and can I then just copy stuff to and from it or is there anther load of bloatware to be installed that does all the syncing ?

Chris - Moderator:

Transcoding is still going to be needed.  Putting 2GB-8GB files on the device isn't going to work too well.

Interface looks good, device looks nice.

I wouldnt mind transcoding, as long as it supports my DVRMS-HD recordings as some movies are 15GB each.

And it looks like I wont be getting my biggest wish:  Sideshow support.  In my eyes, this is the next best thing.  Why woudnt MS include it in their portable device?! 

Let me use my Zune80 as a wireless controller for Windows Media Center and Im sold on day one.

Jmeachem
www.cyacene.com/wordpress

Chris - Moderator:

Astrotoy7:

@Chris....I cant think of anyone sane that would deploy mpeg2 on a pmc... :)  !!  Native H264 is the way to go. MS must be paying attention !

astro

Nope, VC-1/WMV.  Zune will never support transcoding to H.264.  No reason for it too.

Additional native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 -- users no longer need transcode those file types to WMV.

jagowar:

    * Additional native video codecs for h.264 and MPEG-4 -- users no longer need transcode those file types to WMV.