Comments

1. Shawn Oster
   November 30th, 2006 | 9:14 pm

   Yes, that’s probably one of the most asked for things in the comment section of the Zune bloggers. I “get” codecs and licensing but seriously, at least dvr-ms and the Zune should play nice together!

   Of course, on the other hand someone had a good point in that I really don’t want a 1GB show on my Zune, I want it transcoded down to the correct resolution for the Zune instead to save space.

2. Chris Lanier
   November 30th, 2006 | 9:23 pm

   I’ve wondered, but gave up asking with the rest of the “no’s” that come along with the product.

   Transcoding would be the best option. It’s done through WMP if you are using a true PMC, why in the world they didn’t add it to their Zune software is crazy. :(

   So many questions with Zune is leaving it behind for those who might have purchased it (on the MCE side at least).

   -No support for WMDRM
   -No support for transcoding DVR-MS
   -No support for streaming DVR-MS from PC to Zune
   -No support for wireless sync’ing
   -No support through MCE UI
   -No, No, No, No, No keeps my money in my pocket.

   Chris

   BTW, someone should tell the marketing guys that they need to sit some young guys-and-gals down and have them explain how a product such as this should be marketed. Marketing has sold the iPod to millions, and the marketing I have seen for Zune sucks.

3. Jim
   December 1st, 2006 | 7:42 am

   To me, it’s pretty obvious why Microsoft has all these limitations on Zune. They are taking everyone’s advice and trying make it like the iPod. Closed, end-to-end service to device like the iTunes Store-to-iTunes-to-iPod structure. The sad part about it is the Zune is based on PMC, which is itself a fairly open structure, meaning that the limitations on the Zune are all artificially introduced.

   I have a Gigabeat S60 (Portable Media Center 2.0 device). I can currently sync, using Windows Media Player, any file for which I have the correct codec installed. Divx, Xvid, DVR-MS, …whatever. WMP transcodes the file into 320×240 WMV video and syncs it to the device. I do NOT have 1GB files on the Gigabeat, they are transcoded and look fine. Although the transcoding is indeed slow, I have WMP set to transcode in the background and I just leave WMP open and minimized all the time. As new shows are recorded by Windows Media Center, WMP picks them up in its library and transcodes them. Then, when I connect the Gigabeat, the WMV files sync straight over. Works like a charm.

   Hopefully, someone can get the Zune to sync with WMP since there are already signs of people getting it to show up as a drive in Windows Explorer. Then, the only problem would possibly be that the folder structure that WMP sets up on the device won’t be readable by the Zune itself.

   Although I love my current Gigabeat s60, it has almost no accessories available (No silicone case… rediculous). Meanwhile, the Zune has a bigger screen and a bunch of accessories already. My real device of choice would be a PocketPC phone with 60GB of storage and enough battery to last a few days as a phone, PDA, and media player… oh, someday.

4. Scott Kingery
   December 1st, 2006 | 2:13 pm

   There is a actually a thread about this running over on the microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter Google Group.
   http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter/browse_thread/thread/4246dbffe3e66b66

   Apparently there is a utility called Zune Video Converter.
   http://www.zunevideoconverter.com/

5. Eric Vogel
   December 7th, 2006 | 11:24 am

   Thats why I bought a Toshiba GigaBeat, still missing alot of stuff like codec’s. I do not know about cablecard but I will be putting shows onto it in the near future. Runs PMC 2.11

6. OffBeatMammal
   December 30th, 2006 | 2:37 pm

   ZuneConverter is okay, but I prefer SPB Mobile DVD (http://www.spbclub.com/product.php?product_id=19) - it’s cheaper and although not specific to Zune has more options - I use it to transcode for my PocketPC and Xbox360

7. Ry Jones
   January 17th, 2007 | 12:27 pm

   I don’t get it, I just drag and drop dvr-ms files into the Zune software. it transcodes and syncs them fine, and they play back a-ok.

8. Noles78
   January 30th, 2007 | 3:52 am

   It seems like on all of these forums there is someone saying they can just drag and drop there video files into Zune with no problems. Some are even saying they’re doing it with Windows Media Center files… How is this possible? Does anyone really know? I’d pay good money for a program to put tv shows etc from WMC… Who’s trustworthy though?

9. Hugo Leijtens
   February 11th, 2007 | 5:30 pm

   What I use is Mobile TV Center (www.makayama.com). This software converts the recorded television to zune directly. The software works like a charm, and the files are small when they are on the Zune.

10. Pmcdon
    April 9th, 2007 | 3:32 am

    Why pay money when you can do it for free.
    Druid 1.0 is specifically designed for dvr-ms to Zune transcoding.

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/o8mz4j

11. Kegley
    August 10th, 2007 | 9:57 am

    The simplest way I have found to get recorded content onto your Zune is to use Beyond TV as your PVR software. It has a feature called show-squeeze that will automatically run against selected shows after they have finished recording. I’ve discovered if I select the “Creative Zen Vision” preset for the video size I can simply drag and drop the video files without conversion.

12. Paul
    December 11th, 2007 | 8:50 am

    I hear people with Vista can sync DVR-MS videos with their Zune but not people with XP. Can anybody tell me why?

13. Jim
    December 28th, 2007 | 7:45 pm

    Paul,

    Because Microsoft included their own MPEG2 decoder in Vista which is what is used when transcoding the files to WMV for the Zune. On XP, Microsoft has no control over what MPEG2 decoder you have installed. Coincidentally, the MS decoder in Vista would crash Windows Media Player when transcoding high definition DVR-MS files with 5.1 channel audio on my Vista computer. It didn’t start working correctly until I installed the PureVideo MPEG2 decoder from Nvidia. By the way, I’m syncing my content to a Gigabeat S60 not a Zune.

14. Robin Smith
    January 21st, 2008 | 9:14 am

    I have a question, and I hope one of you can help me. My daughter just received a late Christmas present… a Zune. Well, we went to the Zune website and downloaded the software. However, our computer has Windows XP Media Center Edition software 2002 version. After 6 hours of trying to figure out why our computer wasn’t “seeing or recognizing” the Zune, and 1 phone call to the Zune support line, I’ve found out that we need to upgrade our operating system to Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition. So I’m researching if I can upgrade our computer directly from the Microsoft website, or if I need to go out and purchase the upgrade from a store. What worries me is that C-Net had an article that this upgrade is not for purchase, but only preinstalled on Media center PC’s. Is this true? If it’s not true, can someone please give me guidance on how to upgrade to the 2005 version? I’d like to get this done this week, otherwise I’ll have a very discouraged 13 year old daughter…. which isn’t always fun!!

    Thank you
    Robin Smith

15. fert
    May 21st, 2008 | 8:59 am

    Do you need any movies in a few minutes for free? May be the sites that I ve found would help you. The Biggest search engine for rapidshare is http://fileshunt.com and for mega - http://filesfinds.com That helps me much in surfing. What do you think? Do you have any experience connecting the file search engines?

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