Zune HD vs. iPod Touch: which is better choice?

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The history of Zune versus iPod Prizefights is long and bloody, filled
with enough cutting criticism to send devout fans on both sides of the
ring into fits. Now iPod and Zune Prizefight than ever more fiercely
with Microsoft introduced Zune HD on September 15. Compared with the
iPod Touch, Zune HD has what characteristics and what different
advantages, has become the most heated discussion at the topic. Zune HD
is a platform without a purpose. It's a single device in a multipurpose
world. Zune HD gamed iPod Touch, with better design, better hardware
components, more appropriate size and outstanding digital content
consumption experience. It?s a brief summary, let?s go on!
Zune HD?s main features:
· large screen size (3.3 inches), lightweight (2.6 ounces),
High-resolution (480*272 pixels), beautiful (Platinum, Black, Red,
Green, Blue), large capacity (16GB/32GB), Multi-Touch;
· Battery life ups to 33 hours for music and 8.5 hours for video;
· Glass-covered full-color OLED display;
· ARM 800 MHZ CPU
· HD radio tuner
· Buy, stream, and update your music?and download free games?wirelessly
via a wi-fi connection.
· Surf the web anytime, including tap-to-zoom technology, built-in
accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.
· Support 720p HD movies, TV shows, and videos in high definition on
your HDTV through the Zune HD AV Dock (sold separately).
· Quickplay gives instant access to your stuff with shortcuts to
favorites, recently downloaded or played music, videos, and more.
[image:
http://www.nidesoft.com/forum/zune-vs-ipod-hd/zunehdipodtouch.jpg]
Compared with iPod Touch, although the Zune HD screen measures a
slightly smaller 3.3 inches diagonally, it's uses cutting edge OLED
technology, which delivers brightness and contrast unlike anything you
can find in a LCD which iPod Touch applies. And slight another three
hours of music may look, the extra 2.5 hours of video stands out to us
as a significant advantage.(iPod Touch ups to 30 hours for music and 6
hours for video).
Besides hardware, what differences in other aspects?
For HD Radio
Zune marketing continues to highlight the Zune HD's radio-tuning
ability (which they've had since the original Zune) as its break-out
functionality over the non-radio iPod. The internal tuner has gotten a
little cooler now with HD radio and a feature that lets users "tag" the
song playing, so that they can easily buy it later, which is neat.
Both of them are heavyweight media player for videos, audios and
pictures. But they are different in many details.
Zune HD supports video formats: WMV, HD WMV, MPEG-4, H.264, DVR-MS and
HD MPEG-4. audio formats : Windows Media, WMA, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, WMA
Lossless, AAC(no FairPlay) and MP3. and video output: 720p with optional
dock.
iPod Touch supports video formats: H.264, MPEG-4. audio formats: MP3,
AAC(including FairPlay), AAC+, Apple Lossless, WAV and AIFF. And video
output: 480p or 576p with optional cable.
Although both are advanced media player, they couldn?t support all of
video and audio formats . So I go to 'Nidesoft Inc'
(http://www.nidesoft.com/) to get program 'Nidesoft Video Converter'
(http://www.nidesoft.com/video-converter.html), which could convert
video or audio files between all popular formats. Fortunately, this
video converter not only could support Zune HD and iPod Touch, but also
supports all of the popular multimedia devices, such as iPhone,
Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, Sansa, Google Phone, iTunes and so on.
Personally I select an AVI file and have tried it. Below is what I do:
Firstly, I download this software form
http://www.nidesoft.com/downloads/video-converter.exe
Install and Run it.
Step 1: Load files.
Click "add Files" button and import the AVI video from my computer.
Tips: EDIT the video with the function button: Crop, Effect, Trim,
Options
(1) Remove the undesired area or just convert part of the video area
from my video file in ?Crop? function.
(2) Select gray effect or Negative effect from Special Effect or tune
the Brightness, Contrast, Saturation and Volume to get special effect
movie in ?Effect?.
(3) Click ?Trim? button to get my favorite segment.
(4) Click the white box besides "Merge into one file" to merge your
selected titles into one video.
[image:
http://www.nidesoft.com/forum/zune-vs-ipod-hd/video-converter-hd.jpg]
Step2. Select the out file format
Click the ?format? drop-down list to select the output format. The
software provides many profiles to support different devices and
players. I select MPEG-4 Movie (*.mp4).If you don?t know what formats
your device supports, you can just select the format according to the
device name.
Step3. Click the "Convert" button and start the conversion. Wait a few
minutes before the conversion succeeds!
After conversion, you could open the folder and find the output video
files there, try to play it on your PC first, and also you could load
the converted file into your player. For iPod, you could use iTunes to
sync the files to the device; for Zune, you need to download the Zune
software to manage the media content. Now you could enjoy video with
your favorite player. In addition, maybe you want to enjoy dvd movie
with iPod or Zune and need convert dvd to ipod and zune. I also find
'Nidesoft DVD Ripper' (http://www.nidesoft.com/dvd-ripper.html) could
help you convert DVD to all popular video or audio formats easily!

As for connectivity
The Zune HD is able to stream music over Wi-Fi, something the iPod
Touch cannot do out of the box. But the iPod Touch can stream music over
Bluetooth (via A2DP) to compatible players.

Feature-by-feature, the Zune HD and iPod Touch are very similar and now
the lower price puts advantage over the Zune HD. But in long time, iPod
has been occupied the major markets. Can Zune HD win iPod Touch? We have
to wait.


--
MJboy
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