Zune HD Shortcomings and Alternatives

[Robertsonland]

Hello, I have two Zune HD 32GB players. We bought these mainly for travelling purposes.
Vacations:
* For the kids to watch in the car while on road trips. We set up the Zune HD in it's dock and feed 2 LCD screens for video and sound using the Composite out on the dock
* In the hotel we have one dock for each Zune that we use to connect to the TV to watch while we are in the hotel.

Business Travel:
* One the plane
* In the hotel connected to the TV in the evenings

I rip movies using Handbrake to an h.264 MP4 with constant bit rate of 20. I have the zune set for optimization for the TV output since that is where I use the Zune the most. I also have Handbrake keep both an AAC and Stereo version of the sound since I have these movies served up on my home server as well.

Now my problem comes in when I move the MP4 or an AVI to the Zune. It always runs a conversion and it takes quite a while, uses up a lot of space for the temp file and doesn't delete it and the show looks horrible when played on the TV in the hotel. It will do this for my MP4s or AVI files which are of TV Shows that I've recorded and converted to avi as well.

Another problem I have is when travelling the zune that is in the dock for the kids doesn't always travel well. It has a slight buzzing coming from using the analog connection as well as bumping around sometimes can knock it over and thus it falls out of the dock.

So I'm wondering is there something out there that is similar to the zune and has/does the following:
* Has Remote
* Has HDMI & Composite Out (without a dock)
* Plays MP4, MKV, AVI and doesn't have to convert to WMV
* High Storage or Removable Storage support
* Bigger Screen (7" might be too big for portable but maybe not)

I really like the zune but probably don't use it as it as intended. We mainly use it just for a portable video station and don't use the other stuff at all.

Thanks,

[Locke]

First things first:

Is video set for TV output?

[Robertsonland]

Thanks for your reply. I've been travelling and haven't had a chance to check the boards.

I have tried both settings on the Conversion Settings screen. They both do a conversion and both seem to take quite a while. Even TV Shows like The Daily Show that I move over are converted when they are mp4. XVID AVI seem to move better at times but most of my movie collection is in h.264 MP4.

[tomcruise]

Robertsortland thanks for the informative post !
But i have a problem, first i didn't get a chance to check out this and secondly i do not use zunebords much !
I have only 1 Zune 16 GB player for my kids to watch some interesting thing on TV or in a car, but it is corrupted, can you tell me the place or any help from where i can recover it ?
Thanks
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