The Zune HD Marketplace is, well... there, and will offer instant 1080i HD (and SD) streaming video content. Whilst the catalogue isn’t really that extensive at the moment, it does work and pretty damn well too.

There really isn’t much to say here at the moment, except maybe there is a dedicated GamerTV channel that may hint at something that Microsoft is working on. Regardless, it does exactly what it says on the tin, and I must say, as you’ll see in the video below, it does it really well. I suppose I must question whether it’s 1080i throughout though as you may see dips in quality in part of the Watchmen clip I captured in the walkthrough below.

Be warned though, to stream HD content, you'll need a fast enough connection to use it... it even tests whether you're quick enough! I felt like I was back in school.

You may notice a few things from the short intro as well, like the “News and More” which is MSNBC, Dilbert and The New Yorker, but as stated, they are US only. From the dashboard "My Community" tab, there is also quick access to the Avatar Marketplace, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

The Preview Program update e-mails for wave 1 are going out this week. If you haven’t signed up, check out the details here. The full update is coming soon. No specific date has been named yet, although November 17th is a good shout.

Check out the fall 2009 dashboard update gallery here for all the Zune HD (and more) screens.

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