Zune Video Format

The Zune MP3 player is Microsoft's answer to the iPod, which added another player to the ever competitive field of flash media players.  The Zune allows you to take music, movies and pictures with you wherever you go, all in an object that can fit into your pocket.  Since all the new fancy techno do-dads allow you to play video, you have to know which kind of video formats your player supports.  The Zune video formats Will allow you to take movies and other videos along with your music.

The Zune player supports several video formats without the need for registry edits.  The Zune video formats are

• .WMV- this is the native format
• .MP4- both MPEG4 and H.264
• .M4V- both MPEG4 and H.264
• .MOV- both MPEG4 and H.264

The Zune software can play most .mov files, but the Zune software you have installed on your computer cannot be set to be the default player for this type of video format.  The Quicktime Player will always have that distinction.  Other types of video formats can be added to your Zune software and player, but they will need to be converted in order to match one of the formats listed above. 

All videos you add to your Zune should be 320x240.  If the video files you load up aren't that size, they will automatically be converted to that size by the software, which is a handy little feature to have built in.  This will help to save space on your player, since a video that is 320x240 is much smaller in size than one that is 640x480.  With more space, you can add more content.

Converting Zune Video Formats

Most of the time, when you buy a movie it will automatically come with a digital copy you can load directly into your Zune player software, already in the Zune video format.  One of the big issues, especially for people like me, is the huge back catalogue of DVDs that were bought well before the more frequent use of digital media.  Right now, I have over 250 DVDs that I can't move over to my Zune, or can I?

The easy answer is yes.  There are various methods you can use to put your movies on to your Zune player, even in the proper Zune video format.  A special note, you should only do this with movies you have purchased legally.  If you haven't bought the movie, then it is some kind of copyright infringement and you run the risk of legal issues just so you could watch Ghostbusters on a 320x240 screen.  Not really worth it.

Okay, back to the fun stuff.  There are several free programs online that allow you to rip your DVDs to a video file on your computer.  Several of these programs will run the DVD through and create a file already in one of the accepted Zune video formats.  Then it's just a simple load into the Zune software and a sync with your Zune player.  It really is just that easy.