Converting video for use on a Zune
My favorite tool for most
video work is TMPGEnc Xpress. It’s got several important virtues:
- It’s real, professional quality software. Basically never crashes. This is unusual among video products.
- It includes nearly every codec I know of, both
for import and export.
- It’s clear, simple dialogs make a lot of vastly
complex things simple
The latest version is 4.0.
The basics
You boot it and it comes up with
this simple, Wizard-based UI. It works
in three basic stages: Source, then Format, then Encode. It’s got simple options, but we won’t be
messing with those.
First, a divx
file. Note from the screenshot above
that tmpgenc is an official divx
partner, so they ship with the latest and greatest divx
codec. Yay, no
installing additional codecs! Hit “start a new project”
and begin.
Pretty
simple? Just drag and drop clips onto the clip
area. When you do, it pops up a nice
confirmation that lets you optionally customize the encode
(shown below). This dialog gives you the
basics – where the source comes from, what framerate
and other parameters the file has. For
what it's worth, tmpgenc has already added a lot of
value here; they sniffed the file, looked at the properties, and will now
automatically set lots of arcane parameters for you. (It’s worth noting that if you want, tmpgenc can do a lot of editing and filtering for you with
the friendliest UI I’ve seen. See the
appendix below for those optional steps.)
You can just hit “ok” and proceed.
Ok, back to the main
workflow. If I just hit “ok”, I get back
to the list of imported content. In the
picture below, I’ve also added a QuickTime video, an old AVI file, and a DVR-MS
file. They all just get added to the
Queue.
Now click output. Here’s the amazing beauty of this product –
it can import nearly anything, and output it too. Look at that list of formats!
I’ve previously set up a Zune profile (you can get a copy at http://www.zunester.com/zune.txp4e
), so I just click it and off I go.
Next, I get the final
encoding dialog. Just specify whether
you want one big file or a bunch of little ones, and where you want the file. Then I’m off happily encoding my videos for
use in the Zune.
Importing videos into Zune Client
Easy – just go into the Zune Client, go under options and hit “add folder to
library”. You can add the folder from
the last step (where the files go) to the list of monitored folders, and it’ll
automatically pick up new files as they’re transcoded.
Appendix: Custom filters and editing
The walkthrough above is
very simple – a bunch of steps in which you hit “ok” because you want the
default. But if you want to do more, tmpgenc is really powerful.
I can hit “cut-edit” and go in and start editing. Note the nice UI – just go in and start
cutting stuff out.
Likewise, cool filters –
adjust color, crop, resize, deinterlace. But again, I’d stress this is all optional.
