Convert Your Videos for the Zune with Windows Media Encoder

[Damion Chaplin]

The Zune is a fantastic device for watching your videos on. With its 30-gig hard drive and its vibrant 3&rdquo; LCD, watching videos on the Zune is a dream. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn&rsquo;t make it real obvious how to convert the videos you already have to watch on your Zune. If you&rsquo;re like me, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11672">you&rsquo;ve already ripped many of your DVDs to DivX files.</a> These files are perfect for watching on the Zune, but the Zune software doesn&rsquo;t include a converter. I&rsquo;m guessing they&rsquo;re expecting you to use Windows Movie Maker, but the lack of controls in WMM makes converting just about anything a nightmare. Don&rsquo;t get me wrong: I&rsquo;ve used Windows Movie Maker numerous times with positive results, but for converting full-length movies it&rsquo;s not the best tool.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/VideoOnZune.jpg" /><br /><br />For power users, the answer is Windows Media Encoder. Windows Media Encoder has grown up though the years, but it still remains an obscure and neglected program, &lsquo;dusty&rsquo;, as Jason puts it. However, the fact remains that WME is still one of the best ways to convert your videos to .WMV format. In fact, many of the programs out there that promise easy encoding to Zune format are simply using Microsoft&rsquo;s WME engine. My advice is this: Don&rsquo;t pay for a Zune video converter without first trying this Windows Media Encoder method. After having used it to great success for the past couple months, I&rsquo;m not even sure what it is those other programs are charging for.<br /><br />Ready to start converting your videos for the Zune? Read on&hellip;<br /><div style="page-break-after: always;"><span style="display: none;"> </span></div><br />Using Windows Media Encoder is a simple process, though there are a few steps involved. For those new to video encoding, it should prove simple to learn. Veterans of video encoding will feel right at home. The first thing you&rsquo;ll have to do is <a target="_blank" href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5691ba02-e496-465a-bba9-b2f1182cdf24&amp;displaylang=en">download the Windows Media Encoder from Microsoft&rsquo;s website</a> and install it with the default settings.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep1.jpg" /><br />Run Windows Media Encoder. The first thing you&rsquo;ll see (after the splash screen) is the New Session window. Select Custom Session and click OK.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep2.jpg" /><br />You will then be presented with the Session Properties dialog box. Everything you need to do will be in this window. First, in the Sources tab, select the &lsquo;File&rsquo; radio button in the Source from: line. Click the Browse button next to the File name: field, find and open the video file you want to convert. For this test, we&rsquo;ll use the <em>Aliens</em> file <a target="_blank" href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11672">I ripped from my DVD</a> (a two-and-a-half hour movie coming in at 2.73GB). There will be a few-second pause as WME goes &lsquo;gulp!&rsquo; and crams the hefty file into memory. When ready, click the Output tab.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep3.jpg" /><br />In the Output tab, uncheck the &lsquo;Pull from encoder&rsquo; option and check &lsquo;Encode to file&rsquo;. Click the browse button next to the File name: field, browse to the folder you want your .WMV file to end up and name it. In this instance, I have a folder where I output all of my encoded-for-Zune files, and I have given my output file the name &lsquo;Aliens&rsquo;.<br /><div style="page-break-after: always;"><span style="display: none;"> </span></div><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep4.jpg" /><br />Next, click the Compression tab. Change the Destination: field to &lsquo;File download (computer playback), the Video: to &lsquo;DVD quality video (1 Mbps VBR)&rsquo; and the Audio: to &lsquo;CD quality audio (CBR)&rsquo;.<br /><br />Now comes the one tricky part in the whole process: determining the proper resolution for your output file. This step is unnecessary if you&rsquo;re encoding a TV show or other video that&rsquo;s at standard 4:3 ratio, but if you&rsquo;re encoding something in widescreen format (as most movies on DVD are), you&rsquo;ll need to determine what the proper video height is. We already know what the output width will be: 320 pixels to match the width of the Zune&rsquo;s screen. If we were to simply encode the file at 320 x 240, we would get a .WMV file that&rsquo;s &lsquo;stretched&rsquo; vertically. So we&rsquo;ll need to find out what the correct height will need to be in order to maintain the proper aspect ratio. This is actually much easier than it sounds.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep5.jpg" /><br />Click on the Video Size tab. There, in the dark gray area on the right of the window, you&rsquo;ll see the original video size listed, in this case 720 x 400. Just below that you&rsquo;ll find the aspect ratio. We want the value that's listed under &lsquo;Cropped:&rsquo;, in this case 1.80:1 (in case you&rsquo;re wondering, 720 divided by 400 = 1.8). Since we know the output width will be 320, just divide 320 by 1.8 and you&rsquo;ll get the proper output height to maintain the correct aspect ratio, in this case 177.78. You&rsquo;ll always need to round to the nearest even number, so we&rsquo;ll round up to 178, giving us a final output resolution of 320 x 178.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep6.jpg" /><br />Click back to the Compression tab. Click the &lsquo;Edit&rsquo; button next to the Destination field. This will bring up the Custom Encoding Settings window. In this window, click on the tab labeled &lsquo;1073 Kbps&rsquo;. Change the Audio format: to &lsquo;128 kbps, 44 kHz, stereo CBR&rsquo; and enter the output resolution determined in the last step in the Video size: fields. Go down to Video bit rate (average). You can leave this at 1000K if you like, and it will give you a great quality video, but one with a large file size. Dropping it down to 500K will give you a good compromise between file size and video quality, which is what we&rsquo;ll do here. You might want to play around with this number to achieve the desired quality/file size ratio. Click OK to exit the Custom Encoding window.<br /><div style="page-break-after: always;"><span style="display: none;"> </span></div><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep7.jpg" /><br />Back in the Compression tab, click the Apply button at the bottom. There will be another pause while WME loads the settings before it shows you the video encoding screen. Click the button at the top labeled &lsquo;Start Encoding&rsquo;.<br /><br />The encoding is a two-pass process, so Windows Media Encoder will first run through the entire length of the film, examining it for bitrate changes. Then it will run the second pass, applying the variable bitrates that it determined in the first pass. The speed of this will depend on the speed of your processor. Mine took just under three hours to transcode the 2.5-hour Aliens file.<br /><br /><img alt="" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/zt/2007/WMEstep8.jpg" /><br />When it&rsquo;s done, you&rsquo;re ready to sync it to your Zune. It should also be noted that since most Pocket PCs have the same screen resolution of the Zune, these instructions can be used to create a nice .WMV file to play on them as well. So have fun! And try not to give those people who paid money for a Zune converter too hard of a time.<br /><br /><em>Damion Chaplin is a graphic artist and digital media connoisseur living in the San Francisco Bay Area with his lovely wife Lorri and His Most Imperial Highness Grimalkin (The Kitty). He really wishes Microsoft had included a WME plugin with the Zune software so tutorials like this were unnecessary.</em>

[Jason Dunn]

GREAT article Damion! I wish we didn't have to do this with the Zune (they should have included better transcoding options), but it's good to know what CAN be done.

[darrenjohnson]

This article is great. I use DVD Shrink to "backup" my movies onto my computer, which creates them in a format that can be burned to a normal DVD (.VOB, .IFO, etc.) and the Audio_TS and Video_TS folders. Is there any way to take those files and use the media encoder to convert them to WMV's just like an AVI file?

If not, what would you recommend using to take a normal DVD and rip it and then convert it to WMV?

Thanks for the great article.

Best,

Darren Johnson

[zomigi]

I have the same question as Darren. I've tried the trial version of PQ DVD to Zune Converter and really like it, but I don't always want to rip a DVD exclusively to watch on the Zune. I may have a single DVD that I want to rip in order to watch it on my computer, burn it onto another DVD, and watch on my Zune. Is there a single program that can do all this for me, or do I need to use multiple programs and/or rip each DVD multiple times -- one to rip the DVD to DVD-burning format, one to rip the DVD to watch on my computer format, one to convert one of these formats to WMV to play on the Zune? I would pay good money for a program that would let me rip once and output in a variety of formats, either at the time of ripping or later through a conversion tool bundled in the same software.

Zoe

[Damion Chaplin]

Is there any way to take those files and use the media encoder to convert them to WMV's just like an AVI file?

If not, what would you recommend using to take a normal DVD and rip it and then convert it to WMV?

Welcome Darren! Thanks for you kind comments. As it turns out, both Windows Media Encoder and Windows Movie Maker (at least the Vista version, I have to check in XP) will import the .VOB files directly. If it's a regular 4:3 movie, just use Movie Maker and add all of the .VOB files to the project. When you click on 'Import Media', drop down the file types drop-down and select 'All File Types'. Then just select the .VOB files. It works on some DVDs and not on others. I'm doing some testing now, using WMM and WME, and I'll write up a follow-up article as soon as I have the data I need 'cause I would like to know as well.

[Damion Chaplin]

there a single program that can do all this for me, or do I need to use multiple programs and/or rip each DVD multiple times -- one to rip the DVD to DVD-burning format, one to rip the DVD to watch on my computer format, one to convert one of these formats to WMV to play on the Zune? I would pay good money for a program that would let me rip once and output in a variety of formats, either at the time of ripping or later through a conversion tool bundled in the same software.

There probably is a program somewhere that will rip a DVD to any format you want from one interface. I haven't found one, but I haven't really been looking. I prefer to do things the long and free way. The problem is, no one has really been able to find out what the Zune's 'native' .WMV format is. Most of the time I use the method in the article here and the Zune software just syncs it right over. Sometimes though the Zune software still wants to convert it, and I haven't figured out why. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Two episodes from the same show converted with MCE at the same time using the same settings won't always get the same results... :confused:

[mp34play]

Damion-

Well done. My only knock is that your instructions were specifying the 320x240 video resolution and the screen shot (video size) states 640x480. Only brought it up as it may cause some confusion to video transcoding newbies.

I was looking to do a similar guide (to post on my website & forums) since I made the switch from an 80GB iPod video to my new Zune 3 days ago. I have been encoding video with WME for a number of years now for various file conversions But since you did such a great job I may just link to yours. With your permission of course.

Well done.

[Damion Chaplin]

My only knock is that your instructions were specifying the 320x240 video resolution and the screen shot (video size) states 640x480. Only brought it up as it may cause some confusion to video transcoding newbies.

Quite right, though if you follow the steps one at a time, you'll notice that it says 640x480 right up until you change it in the Custom Encoding Settings window, which is one of the last steps. Yeah, a little confusing, but I think anyone who follows the steps will realize what they're looking at.

Thanks for your comments and please feel free to link to this article!

[mp34play]

Quite right, though if you follow the steps one at a time, you'll notice that it says 640x480 right up until you change it in the Custom Encoding Settings window, which is one of the last steps. Yeah, a little confusing, but I think anyone who follows the steps will realize what they're looking at.

Thanks for your comments and please feel free to link to this article!

Very true. Again, job well done, my comment was a small observation and I spoke about it only for the newbies interested in following your guide. Which they should I might add as it will save them from spending unnecessary cash on other programs.
Also worthy of noting is the use of the 640x480 screen resolution or (640x356 widescreen) using the crop settings from your guide :D. While that screen res will be output to a larger file size, it will be a much better quality video for those who would like to use the TV-Out or play video files through their Xbox 360.

Regards,
Doug

[richg]

Great article Damion! I've been looking for a way to convert divx / xvid avi's to wmv files to play on my Windows Mobile device and stumbled across this post.

Previously I tried Media Encoder 9 on Vista (with the recent hotfix) but it comes back with errors when starting the conversion. After reading your post I thought I'd give it another try, but on XP this time and it works flawlessly on the same file.

Have you tried this on Vista, and did you hit any problems with it? Source is avi - mp3 audio and xvid video...

[zomigi]

Damion,

There's a problem with the tutorial about using DVD Decrypter and AutoGK: you never specify that you need to switch DVD Decrypter's mode to IFO instead of File. It starts in File mode by default. I followed your directions (not switching to IFO mode) and of course did not end up with an IFO file, only one VOB file. I tried converting this to AVI anyway, and it worked, but it was only one segment of the movie. Being a complete and utter newbie at this, I had to search around online before I finally found a site that showed a screenshot of the Mode menu, from which I was able to guess that's what I needed to change. So I finally got it working, but you may want to amend your original tutorial if you can to add that very important step. Other than that, it was great. Thanks very much for showing a free way to rip DVDs. Is there any advantage of DVD Decrypter over DVD Shrink?

Unfortunately, I cannot get Windows Media Encoder to work. I follow all the steps exactly, but when I click Start Encoding it pops up a box saying it encountered errors and can't encode the file. If I look at the error log, all it tells me is that it encountered unsupported or corrupt data, which is not helpful at all. If I then try to click start encoding a second time, the program crashes. Do you have any idea why this might be and how I can fix it?

Thanks,
Zoe

[zomigi]

Oh, one other thing. At the end of your original tutorial, Damion, you say it's ok to delete the VOB files, but you don't indicate whether I can delete the agk_tmp folder that AutoGK created or its log file. I did delete these, so that all I had left at the very end was the AVI file. Could this be the problem with converting it in Windows Media Encoder?

Thanks,
Zoe

[michael82]

I get encoding errors too. The error log says it encountered problems when it started messing around with audio. All I am left with for an output file is a 50-60kbs video file.

[Damion Chaplin]

There's a problem with the tutorial about using DVD Decrypter and AutoGK: you never specify that you need to switch DVD Decrypter's mode to IFO instead of File. It starts in File mode by default.

You're using an older version of AutoGK. They did away with the DVD mode a version or two ago. You want to leave AutoGK in File mode and select the .IFO file, not the .VOB files. The .IFO file points AutoGK to all the appropriate .VOB files, in their proper order.

Is there any advantage of DVD Decrypter over DVD Shrink?

Not that I know of, other than AutoGK was meant to work alongside DVD Decrypter. If you attempt to rip the .VOB files using DVD Shrink and then try to process them with AutoGK, you may get an error message that states "Be sure you used DVD Decrypter to rip the files" or something like that.

Unfortunately, I cannot get Windows Media Encoder to work. I follow all the steps exactly, but when I click Start Encoding it pops up a box saying it encountered errors and can't encode the file. If I look at the error log, all it tells me is that it encountered unsupported or corrupt data, which is not helpful at all. If I then try to click start encoding a second time, the program crashes. Do you have any idea why this might be and how I can fix it?

That's a new one on me. I've never encountered any errors from Window Media Encoder when I try to process an AVI file I've ripped using my AutoGK method. I just did Alexander the Directors Cut last night (Lorri won't watch it with me, so it's all about the Zune and a 90-minute commute).

Hope this helps a little... :confused:

[Damion Chaplin]

I should also mention that AutoGK (really the Virtual Dub Mod) has a problem with Vista. Alas, I have been unable to use my DVD ripping method ever since I upgraded to Vista. Thankfully I still have a laptop with XP on it...

So if you're using Vista, that may be the source of your error messages. I've never encountered an error using WME or DVD Decrypter in Vista, just AutoGK...

[ryalt7]

I'm having the exact same problem. I successfully ripped my DVD and converted it with Auto GK to an avi file that is playable, but when i use windows media encoder I get a message saying there are 33 errors, corrupted files, etc. etc. and when I try it again, the program shuts down.

[Damion Chaplin]

You guys are really throwing me here! I've used this identical procedure dozens of times with two different computers and I've never had WME error out on me. :confused:

I wish I knew what you guys were doing so I could duplicate it here. However, if you say you're following the directions precisely, I'll have to assume it's not something you guys are 'doing'.

So, what happens if you rip the DVD into an Xvid file? Same errors? Have you ever got it to work using any AVI or MPEG file? Try encoding a file you didn't rip from a DVD. Try installing the latest Divx and Xvid codecs (do not uninstall Divx 5) and see where that gets you (install Divx, then Xvid). Re-download the WME and reinstall it. Copy the AVI file to a different drive and try to encode it from there. Do you have any special video accelerator programs running? What programs do you have running that may interfere? How about older video encoder programs that you installed and tried out but don't use? Performed any registry changes lately?

These are the simple procedures and questions I would begin with if it were happening to me...

I'd be interested to know the results...

[zomigi]

You're using an older version of AutoGK. They did away with the DVD mode a version or two ago. You want to leave AutoGK in File mode and select the .IFO file, not the .VOB files. The .IFO file points AutoGK to all the appropriate .VOB files, in their proper order.

No, this is not related to AutoGK. This is a setting in DVD Decrypter I'm referring to. You have to manually set it to IFO mode, which you don't specify in your tutorial, and which thus screwed me up the first time I worked through it. Just pointing out a small oversight. :-)

By the way, I'm not on Windows Vista, I'm on Windows XP Media Center. I haven't tried using WME again, though. I will try to use it on a non-DVD ripped file and let you know how it goes.

What's a good way to rip a bunch of TV episodes off of a single disc so that each is a standalone video file? I would prefer not to have to select one, convert it, select the next one, convert, etc, but instead select and convert them all at once. It doesn't look like I can do this with DVD Decrypter, right? Can DVD Shrink do this?

Thanks,
Zoe

[esmith4]

work great. just one question. how do you save these settings?

[tonster91]

it keeps on telling me i have a codec problem:


"The following error occured while setting up the source 'Source 1':

One or more codecs required to open this content could not be found.(0xC00D1B83)

[kevo777]

Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t make it real obvious how to convert the videos you already have to watch on your Zune.

The reason for this is because Microsoft knows what "stirs the Kool-Aid". We all have to do it, but ripping Hollywood DVD's is illegal in the U.S. Microsoft's hands are tied. While they want us to use the Zune to it's full potential, they can't piss off the content owners. I imagine that converting home video to the Zune is at a very small percentage.

Great tutorial, Damion! I only use Windows Media Encoder for my Zune. I agree with what you say about those other converters on the market regarding the WME engine. It's a scam to charge for software that is run on WME. I use it's command-line interface in conjunction with AviSynth so that I can use any file type as a source instead of just AVI and MPG.

[backstept]

hi folks
I just got a zune this week and everything's great. music, pictures, podcasts all sync just fine, but when using the Zune software, or WME to transcode video all that happens is massive processor and memory use and not much else. WME won't respond after I start encoding, and if I try it in the Zune software by syncing the file it stays at 0%
I even tried it overnight with no progress . . .

you'd think that the Zune software should be able to handle video podcasts from the marketplace, but it doesn't seem to be working for me

should I uninstall/reinstall my codecs, or WME? I'm stumped, because it just sits there
what can I do to fix it?

thanks

[Jason Dunn]

should I uninstall/reinstall my codecs, or WME? I'm stumped, because it just sits there

This is a hard problem to debug because there's no error code, no crash, nothing to go on. I'd suggest uninstalling the Zune software, the Windows Media Encoder, and if you happen to have one of those 400 in 1 codec packs (which are nothing but trouble), uninstall that as well. Reinstall the Zune software and see how it goes...let us know.

[backstept]

seeing as how my Zune was brand spankin' new, and I was basically trying to sync my whole library at once which basically was too much at once I figure :D
so I did things in stages, music, pictures, podcasts, and the videos one at a time, and it's all good now

now I've got to read up on the file duplication issue :confused:

[Remiel]

I've tried this technique numerous times, and each time the 2nd pass ends up starting part way through the source! The resulting WMV truncates the beginning of the film by 10 to 20 minutes (it seems random each time).

Any idea what could be causing this?

[Josã]

I Used the other section on how to rip a dvd and i successfully got a working .AVI file but when i try to encode it with WME i keep getting an error message and the program closes out What am i doin wrong please help

btw very useful info and very easy to follow

[cohoman]

If you check out my Blog I explain how I use WME to convert my video files to WMV format (which do not require transcoding during syncing). I use the Windows Media Encoder Batch interface which is much simpler than the standard WME GUI.

[BamaGoatt]

I was getting the same errors on XP but this little download took care of that you guys should google it to find the link it's called ffdshow hope this helps. I also found an add on to wme that allows for multiple avi files at one time which could help with encoding tv shows. If the link does not work for it just copy and paste it nice tutorial though. Get his profile and the SDK for WME from the site and ffdshow is just codecs for it.

http://zunetips.wordpress.com/video-conversion/

[sisniper]

the process works brilliantly, however the output seems to be always a random section of the movie not the entire movie. Im converting a mkv file using the instructions and get no errors.

ouput log as below

Action: Convert file

Sources used: L:\Blade.Runner.1982.Final.Cut\Blade.Runner.1982.Final.Cut.mkv

Output files: L:\Blade.Runner.1982.Final.Cut\Blade.Runner.1982.Final.Cut.wmv

Content duration: 00:01:05:41 (dd:hh:mm:ss)
Session duration: 00:01:48:16 (dd:hh:mm:ss)

Session:
Bytes encoded (total): 472.73 MB
Bit rate (expected): 1064.04 Kbps
Bit rate (average): 1006.03 Kbps

Video [1000.0 Kbps]:
Bytes encoded (total): 442.63 MB
Bit rate (expected): 1000 Kbps
Bit rate (average): 941.99 Kbps
Frames per second (expected): 25.00
Frames per second (average): 23.98
Frames (total): 94507
Frames (dropped): 0
Profile conformance: MP@LL

Audio [64.0 Kbps]:
Bytes encoded (total): 30.1 MB
Bit rate (expected): 64.04 Kbps
Bit rate (average): 64.04 Kbps
Samples (total): 21223
Samples (dropped): 0
Profile conformance: L1
************************************************

1st stage of processing scans the entire file however the end output is always abouut an hour or ~400MB

thanks for any advice

[onlydarksets]

It could depend on the source file codecs. Take a look at this thread to see if anything jumps out at you:
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=636953

[Beckee]

Thank you. Your step by step was easy to use and worked. I was able to convert a few digital movies from my camera to my zune. I have noticed that it is saving upside down and backwards. It really is no big deal except if there are any words, they are backwards. Did I do something wrong? Is there a way to fix this? Thank you again. I have shared your site with friends.

[Acezx]

I keep getting a bunch of errors I do it exactly how you describe it, been at it for a few hours now, the format the video is in is mpeg layer-3 whatever that is, please help.

[averagejoe]

Hello to all,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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I purchased my first Mp3 player I know sad but I never had a need for them so why waste the money. Now that I am travling more than ever I needed one so I purchased the Zune 120 GB. I had no problem converting my DVD's to play on my zune just using DVD decryptor and a free Ipod video converter I found online :D only problem I come across some times when decrypting is a I/O error on the driver where the movie is in. The move is clean no scrathes and the driver is up to date. I dont know why I am having this problem

The problem I having is the movies that I convert and load on to my Zune play in Widescreen format even if the movie is not widescreen why is this how can I make the video play in full screen :(

[averagejoe]

Hello to All,ffice:office" /><O:p></O:p>
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I just purchased my first ever Mp3 player, and obviously I went with a Zune 120 GB mainly basiclly most of my friends that own a Mp3 player its a Zune and they love it<O:p></O:p>
<O:p></O:p>
I have some problems while trying to covert the DVD to VOB file using DVD Decryptor now this doesnt happen all the only with certain DVD for example Hancock gives me an Error I/O then the names drive where the DVD is in, I checked to make sure the DVD is clean and scratch free and gave it a rest and tried Wanted and the DVD was decryptor with no problem, then tried hancock again got the error message again

Second problem iam coming across when I actually convert the dvd and i sync the converted file to my zune the movie plays in widescreen format and the movie not even widescreen and the program I use doesnt even have the option for widescreen