DVD to Zune

December 29, 2008 6:35 PM

DVD to Zune?

After seeing that I have a few movies on my iPhone one of my coworkers asked if I knew of a program that would convert DVDs to a format compatible with his Zune.
I've been using Handbrake for Mac. Does anyone know of a similar easy to use application for Windows that would work for the Zune?

posted by nickthetourist to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I had success with the SlySft AnyDVD family.
posted by acro at 6:41 PM on December 29, 2008

MeGUI with the "Zune" x264 preset and stereo AAC-LC audio muxed into an MP4 container. You can feed MeGUI VOB files ripped with everything from DVD Shrink to AnyDVD or any pre-existing video file that your system can play and do all the necessary filtering with previews. I recommend this tool left and right on AskMeFi but in all seriousness Avisynth is the single most versatile free software frameserver, x264 is the best free software H.264 encoder and probably the highest quality H.264 encoder period, and Nero Digital's AAC codec (which MeGUI will wrap for audio encoding) was the best AAC codec in recent HydrogenAudio comparisons.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:49 PM on December 29, 2008

Oh, and Zune video encoding specs for general reference.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 6:52 PM on December 29, 2008

I like Super. Its free and OSS. From the website:

Zune converter Convert any input video format to a Zune file. Convert a Zune file to any other video format.
SUPER © provides two Microsoft - Zune profiles: "Microsoft - Zune (mp4)" and "Microsoft - Zune (wmv)".
The rendered Zune (wmv) files are created using a fully compatible WMV7/8 and WMA format.
while the rendered Zune (mp4) files are created using the most advanced H.264/AVC and MPEG-4 video codecs.
To copy a DVD (that you legally purchased) into a valid Zune format, we recommend that you also use the best
available DVDDecrypter to decrypt the entire DVD and copy the VOB files to your HardDisk in order to encode
them with SUPER ©. Note that DVDDecrypter is also a Freeware.

posted by damn dirty ape at 8:36 PM on December 29, 2008

I also love the SlySoft products (I'm an AnyDVD and CloneDVD addict) and they're some of the best software I've ever bought, plus SlySoft is one of the last remaining companies that will let you download a demo of their products.

Sadly, they're moving away from their "buy-it-once-with-free-updates-for-life" model into a "pay-for-updates" model beginning Jan 1, so if you like their stuff, buy it today or tomorrow to be grandfathered in with free upgrades for life.

Super is extremely powerful, but the interface is only a tad more usable than a pile of dog barf (and the dog barf would probably win points for design).
posted by mysterious1der at 4:14 AM on December 30, 2008

DVDfab platinum. It's not free but works great.
posted by wongcorgi at 4:02 PM on December 30, 2008

I've had success with Format Factory - free, one-click conversion.
posted by combustibl at 10:12 PM on January 30