Zune

[Ddrak]

Got a Zune 80G. Love the device (beats the hell out of an iPod to be honest) but the PC software is pretty ordinary. Anyone with an iPod or Zune have any good recommendations on software to convert video files (avi) to mp4 for playing? There's a bunch out there, but I haven't really found anything that spectacular.

Dd

[Rsak]

I have used Cucusoft's Zune Video Converter and it has been pretty reliable. I liked the Zune for the larger play screen over the Ipod so I left all the music on the Ipod and travel video on Zune.

However I haven't done any converting since the firmware update which i think expanded the file formats it can use.

[Taxious]

I was wondering about these. What would you say is specifically better than the ipod? I'm not an ipod whore by any means, but I do like mine. I'm just curious.

I still like zamzar for converting stuff.
http://www.zamzar.com/

[Desolus]

ill second what rsak said for software or xilisoft video converter which also does sound conversion for a multitude of platforms. I grabbed both from torrents. I actually want a zune myself for the occasions i want to listen to radio which ipod doesnt have as well as wifi synching.

my only other beef with ipod is the software runs crappy on a pc, managing duplicates on itunes, loosing your library when you happen to re-install itunes and connect your ipod or connecting your ipod on another computer.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

I know that DVDFab has a iPod/Zune converter... how well it works I dunno.

[Ddrak]

I was wondering about these. What would you say is specifically better than the ipod? I'm not an ipod whore by any means, but I do like mine. I'm just curious.

I still like zamzar for converting stuff.
http://www.zamzar.com/

The Zune has a much larger screen than the iPod, close to twice the size. That's pretty important if you're actually trying to watch something on it. If you go up to the iPod Touch to get a decent screen size on the iPod then you're paying much more and don't have a HDD there to give you a reasonable storage capacity.

The Zune also does WiFi syncing (though it's glacially slow) and has an FM receiver built in. It can share music between nearby Zunes if you're keen on that sort of junk, but it's really just a gimmick.

I would say iTunes is probably better than the Zune's PC software, but both suck pretty badly. I have no clue why MS didn't integrate the Zune with Media Player. The iTunes store is better than the Zune store as well, and Apple's DRM is less intrusive - not that I buy anything with DRM if I can help it anyway.

With conversions, I've *almost* got VLC converting to an MP4 that doesn't require a second conversion to put on the Zune, but it's just retarding something up that I can't quite figure out. I've learned a hell of a lot more about video file formats than I used to know though... ugh.

Tried both Cucusoft and Xilisoft but didn't like that I couldn't set the frame rates to "Auto" - some of my avi files are 24, some 25 and some 30fps and thought it made more sense just to keep the converted file the same rate as the source file. Am currently using this converter (Zune plays iPod vids just fine) and it does most of what I want. Still would prefer to get vlc working though now I found it can transcode.

Might look at DVDFab but I'm kinda getting tired of this now.

Dd

[Rsak]

Yeah screen size, wifi, and radio are the main reasons.

Ditto that they should have just used media player... or at least had the Zune software replace Media Player in Vista to provide only one program.

[Ddrak]

Update: Never mind - that program I was using looked good until I tried to play it on the Zune itself, then it didn't work at all. Think I'm just gonna give up on the automatic frame rate thingy for now.

[Ddrak]

More update: Yay - got VLC working!

My script file (makezune.cmd)

Code: Select all

@echo off
setlocal
set VLC=c:\util\vlc\vlc.exe
set OUTDIR=%USERPROFILE%\Videos\Zune

set MASK=%1
if x%1x=xx set MASK=*.avi
if not exist %OUTDIR% md %OUTDIR%


for %f in (%MASK) do (
  %VLC% %f -vvv --sout-x264-level=13 --sout-x264-bframes=0 --no-sout-x264-cabac --sout-x264-qp=0 --no-sout-x264-8x8dct --sout=#transcode{width=320,vcodec=h264,vb=1024,acodec=mp4a,ab=128,channels=2,threads=%NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS%}:standard{mux=mp4,dst="%OUTDIR%\%~nf.mp4",access=file} vlc:quit
)

endlocal

Dd

[Desolus]

i dont know what else to tell ya ddrak. basically what i do is google for software and then download it via torrents. id probably look around and see if any let you change the rate and then get it that way. if i see anything ill let you know. have you tried adobe audition yet?