Best Buy ads announce Zune HD for Sept. 15

by Stevie Smith - Aug 12 2009, 16:00

The current line of Zune multimedia players may have largely failed to either wow tech consumers or loosen the market grip of Apple’s iconic iPod, but Microsoft isn’t quite finished flogging this seemingly dead horse just yet.

Indeed, the Redmond-based software giant’s latest attempt to impose itself on Apple’s dominance is due to arrive in the form of the much talked about Zune HD, which, according to the sudden appearance of Best Buy in-store ads, will hit U.S. retail this coming September 15.

Technology site xbitlabs today reports that the leading American retailer has begun building expectation for the Zune HD in its stores and has also revealed that the newly revamped platform will be offered up by way of a 16GB/$220 USD model and a larger, more expensive 32GB/$290 USD model. 

For the final few people in the world not already armed with a multimedia iPod, Microsoft’s Zune HD will vie for your cash by utilising Flash-based memory, a built-in HD radio, support for online Zune store services, and high-definition video output to a resolution of 1280 x 720.

Powered by NVIDIA’s Tegra system-on-chip processing technology and GeForce graphics, the Zune HD will also come complete with a generous 3.3-inch display screen (480 x 272), Wi-Fi connectivity, decoding for MPEG4, H.264, VC-1, WMV9, encoding for MPEG4 and H.264, USB, HDMI and Parallel ATA.

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