Going mobile with video is looking sexier all the time. So far, we’ve been watching:

Apple’s lovely new iPods, all with component video out
An HP gaming device from the future (which may never show up, but could also be implemented on the proliferating embedded Linux mobile boxes around)

Now, Microsoft has given the Zune a badly-needed upgrade. The best part: real video support. I’m waiting on my contacts at Apple for more details, but Paul Thurrott beat me to the video specs, so here they are from him:

About Zune 2.0 video compatibility

Here’s the story: Like the iPod classic, the new Zune 4, 8, and 80 support H.264, MPEG-4, and WMV formats up to 640 x 480 natively. This means you can load a 640 x 480 (or whatever) H.264 movie on to the Zune and it won’t have to transcode it to a 320 x [whatever] format, as was (and is) the case with the Zune 30. This is great news. On the device’s screen, video will be scaled down to QVGA (320 x 240) as you’d expect, and if you use TV Out, you get full fidelity. Excellent.