Pepcom Show Touts 720p Zune, New NVIDIA Toys, And Phones Galore 66
MojoKid writes "Recently, at the Pepcom Digital Experience show in New York, NVIDIA demonstrated the capabilities of the upcoming Lenovo S12 netbook, which features a single-core Atom CPU and an NVIDIA ION graphics processor. However, probably more interesting to some, NVIDIA was also showing off its new Tegra system-on-a-chip CPU, which will be powering the recently-announced Zune HD portable media player. The device was being demonstrated in a netbook form-factor and was streaming full quality 720p HD video over HDMI. On the networking front, Belkin was displaying its Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit — a speedy alternative to wireless networking."
Zune! (Score:3, Insightful)
The Zune HD! Wow! (Score:2, Insightful)
The Zune HD features 720p on a tiny, tiny, screen...or at home, where I can watch TV on a computer, console, or cable box. Not to mention, I'm sure the "720p" is compressed to shit just like all the movies on Xbox Live (and probably PSN for that matter). I guess this will make the Zune more attractive to a few people, but I'm not sold. I'd rather they took it more in the direction of a portable console, but I guess they are too chicken to fight Nintendo.
Re:The Zune HD! Wow! (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, given that the Zune display is expected (as MS hasn't announced anything) to still be sub-standard definition, there isn't much point to having 720p video on the device UNLESS you also commonly carry around a dock so you can connect the Zune to another display that IS 720p.
Otherwise, it would be better for the video to be encoded at the resolution of the Zune's display.
Getting on my Apple soapbox now, this really looks like a 'bullet-point' type feature, like FM-radio, or that bizarre wireless-sync feature MS touted with the last version of the Zune (where they conveniently failed to mention that the Zune still had to be physically plugged into a power source to sync, making the feature at best 'remote' sync and not wireless sync at all). This kind of marketing has been shown over the last 5 years to be completely ineffective against the iPod.
Re:Belch-kin kit (Score:2, Insightful)
"Belkin was displaying its Gigabit Powerline HD Starter Kit...."
Does this have that wonderfully innovative Belch-kin mis-feature where the device will hijack your connection randomly to show you ads for other Belch-kin products?
Seriously - I would NEVER put Belkin gear any place where it could theoretically modify the communications. Add to that Bletch-kin gear is usually overpriced for what it is....
What did you purchase that was giving ads? I have never had this problem with any Belkin networking devices and they have always worked well. **shrugs** Besides Gig-E over power sounds promising if actually works.
Re:The Zune HD! Wow! (Score:3, Insightful)
The Zune HD features 720p on a tiny, tiny, screen...or at home, where I can watch TV on a computer, console, or cable box. Not to mention, I'm sure the "720p" is compressed to shit just like all the movies on Xbox Live (and probably PSN for that matter). I guess this will make the Zune more attractive to a few people, but I'm not sold. I'd rather they took it more in the direction of a portable console, but I guess they are too chicken to fight Nintendo.
The Zune HD's screen isn't HD - it's 480x272. The "HD" just indicates the device is capable of driving an HD display, such as a 720P television.
"streaming full quality"??? (Score:5, Insightful)
While I suppose from a very technical point of view, you're "streaming" over hdmi, that's no more streaming than it is over a vga cable or over the air. What it *does* do is confuse consumers by making s.t...re...am....i.n.g sound like a good thing. "streaming full quality" is an oxymoron in normal contexts.
Re:The Zune HD! Wow! (Score:1, Insightful)
Your wrong on the wireless sync comment.
Zune can be sync'd wireless by selecting it from a menu option or will automatically sync when docked after 1 minute of inactivity.
For example, I have a Zune FM Transmitter in my car that also charges the device. When I pull into the driveway, the Zune sync's automatically to update my playlists and podcasts.
You can also download directly from the Zune Marketplace wirelessly.