Zune HD AV Dock

So obviously I bought a Zune HD a short time ago, and like you I heard that you could attached the Zune HD to a HD TV and watch 720p output from the Zune HD to the HDTV. I will state up front that I was not only skeptical, I flat out expected this not to be able to keep up without skipping. I am happy to report that this whole system actually works and works perfectly.Couple things threw me.This needs a power source. You either power it from the USB power of a PC, or you use the USB to AC adapter which is included. You can't just throw the Zune HD in the doc with nothing for a power source.If you use it with your PC's USB port for power, it duos as a sync dock. That means, Marketplace will auto start and want to sync with your Zune. And it's up to you to quit that software so that the Zune HD will display it's menu on your LCD or Plasma TV. It help s to read the manual, but who's kidding who here. Manuals? I thought those were just extra box padding, right?I actually believe it's best to place this right next to your TV and use AC power. Leave the remote right next to the dock by your TV. Then all you ever have to do is place it in the dock when you want to use it with your TV. I'd rather keep using the sync cable that came with the Zune HD as the sync method, and leave this exclusively for the TV.So enough of that hardware and on to the good stuff.You won't get all of the menu items on your Zune HD on your LCD TV with this. I was actually hoping you would. I was hoping you'd get to browse the internet on it or something. Wouldn't that be cool. Here is what you do get:- Music- Videos- Pictures- Radio- PodcastsI truly wanted this to watch video podcasts and movies on my 32" LCD TV. Many podcasts will not look too good, but at least I can watch Jim Cramer's Mad Money on CNBC on my TV via the podcast. That's pretty great in my opinion. So on to the movies:I bought an HD movie on Zune Marketplace called "Battle for Terra". If you do look for this title, cause it's great for kids, you mostly see TERRA in the title. "Battle for" is written smaller. So just look for something like TERRA in big letters. The movie is very good and worth watching. So how did it look?I am in utter awe of this now. You will be too. Right at the start when the intro starts, you see how crisp and clean the video is on your wide screen HD TV. And just that quickly you see where your money went, and oh boy is it worth it. WOW! I still cannot believe this little tiny Zune HD drove my 32" HD TV without any compromise. It's perfect, five stars wow. You get a remote too, so sit back and enjoy the movie. In fact, I like this so much, I am now trying to figure out who to write a letter to so as to convince them to make a much smaller portable version of this dock for travel. They should make an app for PowerPoint viewing as well. I'd love to have a single small cable that just went from Zune to HDMI so I could walk into a hotel and plug this right into their TV and watch MY Movies, not what the hotel offers. This is the world's smallest video library as far as I can tell.The Zune HD's Tegra video chip works! It really works. I have small laptops that can't produce video output this well. We are entering into a new age. I can see so much more opportunity for technology like this. But to keep this review on point, I'll just state that the movie, which I watched from start to finish, was crisp, clear and perfect. No skips of any kind. It's in fact better than DVD or Blu-ray for one simple reason... You can't have any disc issues. You're playing the video off NAND memory. No moving parts! And that means stability. I'd rather have this than a DVD or Blu-ray player. Why not just buy or rent our movies and get them right over the internet. You know why that has always sounded like a bad idea? Because never before could you really take that movie with you somewhere. Not truly anyway. Portable means you can go to your friends house and watch the movie you rented there. And with this, you can do just that. Of course they have to have a dock too, or you have to take yours with you. Which is why I state that a portable cord would be the killer app for this. We're so close to making digital purchase and rental truly perfect. I know that's what I want. I want to rent or buy a movie, and I want to be able to watch it on my friend's TV or mine. For now, I am watching on mine and I can watch it on the device itself. Which is by the way so much better than an iPod Touch. Why? One huge reason...OLED vs LED based LCDAll Zune HDs use OLED, not LCD. And the difference isn't rocket science. I'm sure your friends have an iPod Touch or iPhone. Watch the screen and tilt it in your hands. Because the light source is behind the screen you will notice that the picture gets horrible the more your angle changes. Okay, this is why many devices tell you what the viewing angle is.OLED doesn't have a light source behind the panels. It's all just one technology. The results are far better image quality and from virtually any angle. See for yourself. The Zune HD's video performance is the best screen you likely own. I know it sounds like I'm a nut, but it's true. See for yourself. The Zune HD has a OLED screen and an nVidia Tegra video processor. This little Zune is state of the art for video. It will rival many laptops for video performance.Anyway, the Zune AV blew me away. Watch Podcasts on your TV. I love that, though the picture quality of your average podcast is not great. But buy or rent movies on the Zune HD and you will be so very impressed.Now, the AV dock comes with EVERYTHING you need. I know the first two reviewer said things like, buy the other dock, and buy your own HDMI cable. Neither of them actually state that the $50 dock as an HDMI or not. So I still don't know, but I am guessing that's what they mean. But before you do that, consider this.In the AV dock for the Zune HD, you get the following:The dock itselfA USB power adapterHDMI cableThe regular RCA type cables in case you don't have an HDMI based TVAnd a remoteThe dock even has TOSLINK which is that fiber type connector.In other words, you buy this kit and you're covered. Everything you need is here. The Doc has a built in cable that is USB on the other end and that goes into the PC for sync or attaches to a power block with AC prongs for AC power in any standard power strip. There is a built in FM HD antenna as well.There is one thing I wish it had. I wish it had the Zune Marketplace right on the menu when you are docked into your HD TV. It would be even better if you could dock it, and then go to the marketplace and watch previews and then buy or rent right from your HD TV. Microsoft is perhaps one generation away from the next big leap forward. Perhaps the next generation Zune will finally put the nails in the coffins of DVD and Blu-ray. We're very close to having a system that just replaces both of those silly old technologies.This thing is $89 but it's so worth it. Call me crazy, but I'm seriously considering buying another one of these docks and giving it my friend for his TV so I can plug my zune in over there when I visit. Maybe one for the HD TV in the office AV room as well. Microsoft should really create the next zune to easily attach to any TV with just a single cable.

I was kind of skeptical when I originally bought this product. It was kind of expensive and some of the other reviews were not as good as I had hoped. I am however glad to report that this product is just what I was looking for. The Hd Videos from Zune look just as good as my bluray player when I tested it with the "Family guy Star wars Trilogy". Even the SD Videos look pretty good, I would have to say near DVD Quality when tested on "The Departed". The Samsung TV I tested the dock on confirmed that the output to the TV was in fact a 720P HD Signal.Overall if you already have a bunch of DVD's then it is probably not worth the money to buy this dock. However if you travel a lot and are always buying new movies I think it is a good two in one problem solver. With this I can take any movie in my Zune collection and take it on the go to watch BUT if I want to watch it with a friend or family member I can plug it into my dock and watch a quality movie/video at home as well. I have found that downloading the digital copies through Zune is much easier. No ripping DVD's to my laptop and then to the Zune to watch. It is plug and play all the way.It also comes in handy for music. Plug your Zune into the dock and the album displays on the TV. This feature in my opinion would come in handy for parties and such. No-one really wants to watch the album name and pictures of the band float across the TV screen but it does add some background movement. The sound comes through the TV speakers in this set up so it may not really be practical at all depending on the stereo equipment you have. I would use this dock mostly for movies.I have heard stories of people having troubles setting this dock up. There should be no reason for this unless the unit received is defective. It took me a total of five minutes to set this dock up. It is literally plug and play. All I had to do was plug the Zune dock's USB cable into the USB wall charger (provided), plug the HDMI cable (Also Provided) into the back of the dock to the back of the TV or switch, and last Plug in my Zune and use the remote (provided)to select either music or videos. Quick set up and Easy to use.I would recommend this product if you want movies on the go and occasional sharing time on the big screen.

I wasn't happy with spending this much money on a simple dock but it ended up being worth it. There isn't much out there for Zune HD docks so you might as well spend the money and get this if you have a TV in the room where you would use it the most. Some buttons of the remote don't seem to work (ever) but the fwd/back and home keys all work great and that's all I really need. It's nice to see the artist/album pictures while the song is playing because you can quickly look up and see all of the information. I haven't watched a video on my TV yet so can't comment on that. I have the dock hooked up through HDMI to my TV at all times and when I get home from work I set my Zune in the dock and it charges for the next day. I have plenty of HDMI cables at home but the included one is decent and has a good length. It also has the zune logo so that was one cable I didn't need to label.Make sure the Zune is off before putting it into the dock or you are going to have problems with it not working! I also took my dock home to my parent's house and used the composite cables and that worked fine too except I had to go into the menu and change the settings. Spent a couple hours looking up artists/bands that I (and my parents) hadn't heard in a long time and it was a lot of fun.