[kevo777]

Originally Posted by Damion Chaplin

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.

[kevo777]

Originally Posted by Damion Chaplin

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]

Originally Posted by backstept

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
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

[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