Matt Akers, host of the Zune Insider Podcast, talks with Nate Muller, a PM from the Zune team, about the awesomeness that is the Zune HD firmware update.

Highlights include Smart DJ and using the Zune HD on a TV through a Zune HD dock.

We haven’t tried this – because we’re still chafing from our experience with the original brown Zune – but the Zune HD 4.5 update actually looks pretty swank-a-dank.

If you’ve tried it, let us know what you think!

New in Zune HD 4.5:

• Smart DJ
• Native AVI and XVID support
• Marketplace on TV-Out
• Picks on-device
• Artist view and now playing feature multiple artist background pictures, rather than just one.
• Performance increases. Faster thumbnail loading and smoother animations.
• Improved browser.
• You can rename your browser favorites. Press and hold a favorite then click “rename”.
• You can save pictures of a webpage to your device. Press and hold on any non-link part of a webpage to do so. You can do the same for individual images!
• It now warns you that deleting your browser history takes forever
• In artist view, you can now play all albums or songs, or add them to now playing.
• In the marketplace, you can see more than 3 of an artist’s top songs.
• Playlists now have a transparent background in Quickplay.
• You can now connect to wireless networks that don’t broadcast an SSID. They show up as “hidden network” on the device.
• Games no longer have ads in front of them.

via Zunited