Zune Thoughts: Convert Your Videos for the Zune with Windows Media Encoder

The Zune is a fantastic device for watching your videos on. With its 30-gig hard drive and its vibrant 3” LCD, watching videos on the Zune is a dream. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t make it real obvious how to convert the videos you already have to watch on your Zune. If you’re like me, you’ve already ripped many of your DVDs to DivX files. These files are perfect for watching on the Zune, but the Zune software doesn’t include a converter. I’m guessing they’re expecting you to use Windows Movie Maker, but the lack of controls in WMM makes converting just about anything a nightmare. Don’t get me wrong: I’ve used Windows Movie Maker numerous times with positive results, but for converting full-length movies it’s not the best tool.



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, ‘dusty’, 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’s WME engine. My advice is this: Don’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’m not even sure what it is those other programs are charging for.

Ready to start converting your videos for the Zune? Read on…