The new software update for my first generation Zune has finally addressed one of the gripes I've always had with the Zune. Namely the complete lack of integration with my Windows Vista Media Centre. Because there was no support for recorded TV I never installed the Zune software on the Media Centre. Since the new update supports this I installed it and set about syncing my Music, Pictures and Recorded TV to the Zune. It took an age and I held my breath and navigated to the Videos folder on my Zune. I played an episode of Futurama... I marvelled at the spectacular picture - crystal! Only then did I start to wonder why I could not hear anything...
As it turns out none of my recorded TV had audio. I did some investigating and found that this was because all of my recorded TV was recorded from HD channels. It is not that the Zune does not support HD, per se, but it does not support Dolby Digital audio that inherent in the HD stream.
As an experiment I recorded a movie off a channel that is not HD and lo and behold it plays fine. This at least gives me a work around. All of the channels that are available in HD are also available in standard format. Now I can semi easily get my recorded TV on the train.