[Adam Krebs]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techronical.com/?p=89' target='_blank'>http://www.techronical.com/?p=89</a><br /><br /></div><p>Steven Hughes via Techronical attempts to answer a question that most Zuners encounter at one point or another; how to get high-quality videos in a compact filesize and that don't take a long time to convert. Based on a tip from <a href="http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080623/using-mediacoder-to-transcode-videos-for-zune/" target="_blank">Long Zheng</a>, Hughes recommends the free (donationware) program <a href="http://www.mediacoderhq.com/dlfull.htm" target="_blank">MediaCoder</a>, which allows users to import custom encoder presets to help smooth the process and achieve consistent results.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1218087124.usr495.jpeg" border="1" /></p><p>Though Zheng's <a href="http://www.istartedsomething.com/uploads/mediacoder-zune.xml" target="_blank">settings file</a> is MediaCoder-specific, his suggested bitrate, framerate, and resolution should be universal for your favorite encoder.</p><p>He recommends:</p><ul><li>Video:<br />Format: Windows Media<br />Codec: Windows Media Video 9<br />Mode: Bitrate-based<br />Bitrate: 768 Kbps<br />Resolution: 320&times;240<br />Frame rate: 25 fps</li><li>Audio:<br />Encoder: Windows Media Audio<br />Codec: Windows Media Audio 9.2<br />Resample: 44100 Hz<br />Mode: CBR<br />Bitrate: 192 Kbps </li></ul><p>Keep in mind that you most likely don't have to use such a high bitrate for audio (typically I use 128 Kbps). If you have a Zune80 and want to display your videos on the TV, you should set your resolution to 640x480 (Zune4, 8, and 30 just leave it as-is). As pointed out by Civisi <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f5/what-video-format-bit-rate-do-you-use-your-zune-90101.html" target="_blank">last week</a>, if you're converting videos manually, you should make sure the Zune software isn't fighting your progress by re-encoding your videos at sync time. Check the Settings page of the software under Device, Conversion Settings to best fit your needs.</p>

[Adam Krebs]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.techronical.com/?p=89' target='_blank'>http://www.techronical.com/?p=89</a><br /><br /></div><p>Steven Hughes via Techronical attempts to answer a question that most Zuners encounter at one point or another; how to get high-quality videos in a compact filesize and that don't take a long time to convert. Based on a tip from <a href="http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080623/using-mediacoder-to-transcode-videos-for-zune/" target="_blank">Long Zheng</a>, Hughes recommends the free (donationware) program <a href="http://www.mediacoderhq.com/dlfull.htm" target="_blank">MediaCoder</a>, which allows users to import custom encoder presets to help smooth the process and achieve consistent results.<img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1218087124.usr495.jpeg" border="1" /></p><p>Though Zheng's <a href="http://www.istartedsomething.com/uploads/mediacoder-zune.xml" target="_blank">settings file</a> is MediaCoder-specific, his suggested bitrate, framerate, and resolution should be universal for your favorite encoder.</p><p>He recommends:</p><ul><li>Video:<br />Format: Windows Media<br />Codec: Windows Media Video 9<br />Mode: Bitrate-based<br />Bitrate: 768 Kbps<br />Resolution: 320&times;240<br />Frame rate: 25 fps</li><li>Audio:<br />Encoder: Windows Media Audio<br />Codec: Windows Media Audio 9.2<br />Resample: 44100 Hz<br />Mode: CBR<br />Bitrate: 192 Kbps </li></ul><p>Keep in mind that you most likely don't have to use such a high bitrate for audio (typically I use 128 Kbps). If you have a Zune80 and want to display your videos on the TV, you should set your resolution to 640x480 (Zune4, 8, and 30 just leave it as-is). As pointed out by Civisi <a href="http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f5/what-video-format-bit-rate-do-you-use-your-zune-90101.html" target="_blank">last week</a>, if you're converting videos manually, you should make sure the Zune software isn't fighting your progress by re-encoding your videos at sync time. Check the Settings page of the software under Device, Conversion Settings to best fit your needs.</p>