One of my favorite websites is YouTube.com. If I want a short clip of anything I can usually find it there. An even better way to watch YouTube Videos is to download the YouTube videos and place them on your Microsoft Zune. One of the best products I have found is Lenogo’s YouTube and Google Video conversion software. It is also the cheapest one I have seen out there and you can download and try it for free. Lenogo also offers a Video to Zune Converter (trial here) and a DVD to Zune Converter (trial here) or a package deal with both video and DVD to Zune (trial here).
Here are the scree shots and quick tutorial on how it works.
1. After downloading the software open the Lenogo Youtube downloader.
2. Click “Add File” button and you’ll see a dialog below. If you will download movie from youtube, just select “Add Youtube Video”.
3. Browse http://www.youtube.com (or http://video.google.com) with standard IE browser. When you find desired video files, the program will show a dialog below with the URL of the movies automatically, just click “OK” button for the next step.
4. put your desired name into the “Title” edit box.
5. “Save as” is used to save the converted file to a folder in the hard disc.
6. Click “Convert” to start converting. The display on the top shows the converting progress. You may also preview the movie in the Preview Display on the right.
7. When the conversion is completed, the folder where you save the converted file automatically opens (you may also open the folder using menu “Edit -> Open Output Folder”). If you will convert another movie, select menu “Edit -> Remove All”, and then go to the step 4.
One of the best reasons to own a Microsoft Zune is to be able to watch full DVD movies on it. The 30 GB Zune can can play 100 hours of video and the new next generation 80 GB Zune will be able to play over 250 hours of video. Do the math and you can put over 50 to well over 100 movies on your Zune depending on what Zune you have.
A few weeks ago I introduced readers to the an excellent DVD to Zune converter from dvdXSoft that sells for $29 and has a free trial.
Another great Zune to DVD converter is the software Cucusoft produces. You can download a trial version of the DVD to Zune converter here.
The Cucsoft DVD to Zune converter is great because it comes with two modes; direct and batch. With the direct mode it is simply to convert a full DVD to your Zune with ease. The batch mode allows users to select DVD titles/chapters they want to rip via checkbox list.
Here are some more of the Cucusoft DVD to Zune features.
*Support for Subtitle Selection, eg. English Subtitle, French Subtitle ….
–Under “Direct Mode”, through DVD menu.
–Under “Batch Mode”, through DVD Title list.
*Support for Audio Track Selection, eg. English audio track, French audio track…..
–Under “Direct Mode”, through DVD menu.
–Under “Batch Mode”, through DVD Title list.
*Support various Zune video formats including Windows Media Video (.wmv): Main Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 1.5 Mbps peak video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio; Simple Profile, CBR, up to 736 Kbps video bitrate, 320 x 240 pixels, 30 frames per sec., with Windows Media Audio up to 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, stereo audio.
*Various kinds of video crop mode. eg. 16:9, 4:3, full screen and so on.
*Various kinds of video resize mode, eg. “Keep aspect ratio” and “stretch to fix screen”.
*Support splitting output video by DVD chapters, and titles. Fully support MTV DVDs and Episodic DVDs.
*Support customize output video file size and video quality.
*Provide flexible output profiles, user can easily customize the video properties.
*Support DVD to Windows Media Audio(.wma) conversion.
*Support DVD to MP3 audio conversion.
*Support Dolby, DTS Surround audio track.
Try out the Zune to DVD converter software and let me hear your feedback. Again, you can download a trial version of the DVD to Zune converter here.
This also works with Sony’s PSP (trial) the iPod (trial) and iPhone (trial).
I recently discovered a DVD to video program specifically built for the Microsoft Zune.
The software is responsible at $29.95 and the company offers a free trial version. The program is just 2.2 MB to download. The features include:
1. Converts your DVDs to MP4 format that is perfect for your Zune, iPod or PSP
2. Works very fast and has been tested on most DVD drives (use the trial version to see if it works for you!)
3, Enables you to different video options including MP4 video codec Xvid and H264, a rich list of different resolutions, video bitrates, video frame rates, audio bitrates, audio frequency, etc (see interface below).
Here is an image of the DVD to Zune converter interface.
One of our great Zune Info Forum moderators (Albert1690) has made the original Microsoft Zune pre-loaded content available for download here. You can get 1) All Preloaded Music, 2) All Preloaded Pictures (Zipped), 3) All Preloaded Videos (Except: “BT - 1.618″). Thanks Albert!
There is a nice program called YouTube Robot that allows users to download YouTube videos and add them to your Zune for future viewing. The YouTube Robot program allows users to search YouTube, download the video, convert the video to to the format you want and then transfer to your mobile device. Currently, YouTube Robot. You can use this for almost any portable device like the Zune, iPod, iPhone, Pocket PC and PSP. YouTube Robot support almost all audio & video format, include MP3, MP4, WMA, WMV, M4A, AVI, 3GP, 3G2, WAV, DivX, XviD and more. You can download a trial version here.
One of the cool features is you can schedule the downloading and converting tasks to be executed automatically, even when you are not around. Downloading is followed by conversion to the format of your choice and uploading videos to a mobile device. For example, you can plug in your Zune (or other player), select multiple videos, go to bed, and by the time you wake up next morning, your Zune will be ready to play new YouTube videos.
I am downloading the trial version and will be testing YouTube Robot out. I will post a review soon with screen shots and possible some video. Discuss this topic on the forum here.
In honor of this DVD release of 300, I put together a few 300 Movie Zune backgrounds. Enjoy!
