Zune Tips Weblog

As you’ve probably read from my previous postings, I use the freeware utility called DVRMSToolbox (DTb) to automatically process the video recordings from my TV Tuner card to Zune format. Although DTb has a built-in action to convert the DVR-MS recording file to WMV format, it doesn’t have any provision for cropping out the top two lines of the video source (to remove the noise). In this posting, I talk about how I resolved that issue by doing the following in DTb:

1. Cut out all commercials from the DVR-MS recording file.
2. Convert edited DVR-MS file to MPEG2 format.
3. Make an external call to Windows Media Encoder 9 to convert the MPEG2 file to WMV format and crop out the top two lines of the video source.

This has been working ok, but requires an intermediate conversion to MPEG2 format before converting to the final WMV format. Since the DVR-MS format is very close to MPEG2 format, the time for this conversion is minimal, however, I’ve noticed some pixelation in the resultant WMV file between the edited commercial breaks.

Recently, the maker of DTb added a new application called DVRMStoWMVHD which is suppose to convert a DVR-MS file to WMV format and has the ability to crop the video source. So, I decided to replace using WME9 and simplify the video processing procedure. Below is what I’m doing now:

1. Cut out all commercials from the DVR-MS recording file.
2. Convert edited DVR-MS file to WMV format (using DVRMStoWMVHD) with cropping parameters

Note, that DVRMStoWMVHD takes as input the same zune_profile.prx profile file that I use with WME9, so the final WMV file is essentially the same as what I was getting using my original method, but I’m able to simplify the process. Whether DVRMStoWMVHD is faster than WME9 or gives better results, I don’t know. So far, it seems to work ok and the WMV file that it generates looks good.

In case you’re curious, the parameters that I’m using in step 2 are the following:

dvrmstowmvhd -i “test.dvr-ms” -o “out.wmv” -p “C:\Dave’s Files\VideoTools\zune_profile.prx” -ch 2 -ct 2

I highly recommend you check out DVRMSToolbox if you have a TV Tuner card and want automate the conversion process of recordings to Zune format.

ZuneBoards.com recently released ZuneTV, which is a web site for downloading video files. It operates much like YouTube.com, except it allows you to also download videos in Zune compatible format. So far as I can tell, the video downloads are free (you need to have a ZuneBoards account to download files).

The nicest thing about this site, is that you won’t need to use external programs (such as Orbit Downloader) to download the files and convert them. The limiting factor for me, is that the video content seems lacking (having similar user-generated videos as YouTube.com). I’d rather download TV episodes, documentaries, etc. than Charlie the Horse in Candyland.

So for now, I’m still sticking with hulu.com and veoh.com for TV Show downloads. And, I’ve got my TV Tuner card with Vista Media Center recording and converting scheduled TV shows for my Zune!

When converting video files to MP4 or WMV format for the Zune, it’s often helpful to know certain facts about your source video. Information such as frames per second (fps), video codec, audio bit rate, screen resolution, etc. are important for setting the parameters in your video conversion software. For example, if you convert a video file using a setting of 29 fps but the video source is at 24 fps, your audio may slowly become out-of-sync with your video. So, it’s important to identify information such as frame rate when doing video conversions.

Normally, I recommend the freeware program called GSpot which can open most video files and display relevant information about them. However, GSpot is a bit overkill for some, as it displays lots and lots of information (maybe too much at times). To simplify matters, I decided to brush up on my Visual Basic programming and create a basic application called zVideo which displays pertinent video/audio information for a source video file.

You can download my application from this link. My simple application basically runs the program called FFMPEG and parses through the output from that program to get the relevant video/audio information. It then displays this information in a dialog box window. You can also activate an option for it to display the optimum screen resolution dimensions that you can use for your video conversions (if the video source resolution is larger than 320 by 240).

To use this application, download the zVideo.zip file and unzip the contents in a folder on your Windows system. Then, double-click on the zVideo.exe application icon. Note, that you need to have the file called FFMPEG.exe located in the same folder as the zVideo.exe file. Sorry that I don’t have a slick installer application to load this software.

Now, this program doesn’t do any actual conversion. It only shows the attributes of a selected video file.

Have fun with my simple application, and let me know if you find any bugs or have any issues.

If you’re a user of DVRMSToolbox for automated video conversions of DVR-MS video recordings, you’ll be interested in knowing that there is a new version (1.2.1.2 Public Release) available. I absolutely love this program, as it has worked flawlessly for me converting my recorded TV shows (from a TV Tuner Card with Vista Media Center) to WMV format and auto syncing with my Zune. I just upgraded to the latest version, and everything seems to be working fine.

My biggest problem, is recording too many shows using this method and filling up my 80 GB Zune! I’ve got so much stuff to watch, I’ll never run out when on a long plane flight or on a business trip.

In a previous posting I explained how you can use the utility program called Orbit Downloader to download FLV files from web sites onto your PC. For good TV video content I mention two web sites (veoh.com and hulu.com), however, you can use this technique on most web sites that play FLV files. For example, nbc.com and cbs.com have FLV videos which you can “sniff” out using the Orbit Downloader and download to your PC. I tested this by downloading a few episodes such as Numb3rs, Big Bang Theory, Bionic Woman, and an old Twilight Zone show. In fact, CBS has all the old Star Trek original series episodes available for viewing (or downloading) if you’re into some retro-SciFi.

Note, that some web site (like www.abc.com and www.fox.com) use a different method for streaming video (not FLV) and thus this technique didn’t seem to work. But, there’s plenty of web sites that play FLV files just waiting for Orbit Downloader to save to your PC’s hard drive.

And after you save the FLV file, you’ll need to go through the process of convert it to WMV format for your Zune (again, see my previous posting for details).

With the ability to define the Season number, Episode number, and aired date for each TV Show video that I have on my Zune (using the new version 2.5 Zune Software), I noticed through experimentation that I can control the Episode sort order by adjusting the aired date. For example, I did a quick Google search for the episode number and aired date for the Time Tunnel videos I have synced to my Zune. I then edited each of those videos (buy right clicking them and selecting “Edit” in the Zune Software) to adjust their season and episode number and aired date.

Now when I resync my videos I see the episodes sorted correctly, with the episode number to the left of the episode title as shown below:

Pretty slick! Now, it’s much easier to add a new TV episode that fits between the episodes already synced to my Zune. I did run into one snag, where the Zune device shows duplicate episode titles. I corrected that problem by selecting all the episodes for a show in the Zune Software, right clicking and selecting “Do not sync”. That removed the video files from my Zune, and then I reversed the process by selecting “Sync to Zune” which resynced them.

So, it appears that the aired date is the crucial meta data tag for episode ordering. Unfortunately, I don’t think applications like dSHARPIE can edit that particular tag, or the season/episode tag.

I noticed this morning that Microsoft released updates for the Zune. Below is what I saw in the business section of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Both the Desktop Zune Software and Zune device have updates (version 2.5) available for download. To start the update process, run your existing version of the Zune Software on your Desktop PC and click the “Check for Updates…” button as shown in the image below: Read the rest of this entry »

I came across this report on the www.engadget.com site that shows the new Zune Software v2.5 with it’s improvements. Apparently, Microsoft will be releasing this update very soon. If you check out Engadget’s site, you’ll see that there is a “Videos” page on the Zune Marketplace allowing for the download of Videos (TV Shows only). Very similar to what Apple is offering on their iTunes site.

So, for about $2.00 US you should be able to download TV Show episodes on your Zune. Of course, you can do this for free NOW if you have a TV Tuner card and the DVRMSToolbox utility!

I just posted a new page titled “Veoh.com & Hulu.com Video Downloading” that details how to download videos from sites like www.veoh.com and hulu.com and convert them for playback on your Zune. The trick, is finding the playing video file’s http address and downloading that file onto your Desktop PC. The page I wrote up discusses using a program called Orbit Downloader to “sniff” out the desired video file and download it.

The downloaded file is in FLV file format, which you’ll need to convert to WMV format for your Zune. I’ve outlined the steps required to do this using an example.

What I really like about the veoh.com and hulu.com sites, are the available video content for viewing and/or downloading. They have a lot of older TV Show episodes available (my favorite is The Time Tunnel), but also newer TV Shows and Movies. Here’s a short list of what I found on these sites:

Movies:

October Sky
Quest For Fire
Meet Joe Black
The Usual Suspects
Muholland Drive
Daylight
Sideways Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for not posting much over the last several days. There doesn’t seem to be much happening in the Zune area lately. I did however, come across a few web sites that offer full TV show episodes for viewing on their site. www.veoh.com and www.hulu.com seem to offer episodes of old TV shows as well as repeat episodes of current shows which you can watch from your web browser. For example, I came across an episode of New Amsterdam which I had missed one evening, so I could watch it in it’s entirety from hulu.com. Most of these videos are FLV files being played in the web browser, so I’m trying to find a way to download them for converting for my Zune. There are a lot of utilities that can do this, (like “Download Helper” for FireFox), but I can’t seem to find one that will successfully download a FLV file from either veoh.com or hulu.com. If you know of a solution for this, please let me know!