General Instructions for Zune Transcoding with HandBrake 0.9.2 or 0.9.3 (and probably later versions)
- Select source video
- Select a destination with an mp4 file extension.
- Picture Settings
- Select autocrop
- Select Loose Animorphic
- Set width at 320 for viewing on the Zune or leave blank for TV output (Note: If the source video width is greater than 720, set the encoding width to 720) - Video Settings
- use FFmpeg codec
- Use a 2-pass encoding
- Set the Avg Bitrate to 300 for device playback, 700 for TV playback - Audio & Subtitles
- Use AAC for the Audio Codec
- Set the Bitrate(kbps) to 128
Ideally, this process should yield a Zune compatible file that should not need to be re-encoded when synced to a Zune 4/8/16/80/120. When synced to a Zune 30, any file in an mp4 container will have to be transcoded, but the Zune software does a decent job of transcoding to WMV.
VIDEO SUPPORT
from the Zune Hardware Specs
4GB/8GB/16GB/80GB/120GB
Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv)
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video
H.264 video
- Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 3.0 Mbps peak video bit rate;
- 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second).
- Zune software will transcode HD WMV files at device sync
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video
- Simple Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate;
- 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second).
- Zune software will transcode HD MPEG-4 files at device sync
H.264 video
- Baseline Profile up to 2.5 Mbps peak video bit rate;
- 720 pixels x 480 pixels up to 30 frames per second (or 720 pixels x 576 pixels up to 25 frames per second).
- Zune software will transcode HD H.264 files at device sync
30GB
Windows Media Video (WMV) (.wmv)
- Main and Simple Profile, CBR or VBR, up to 800 kbps average video bit rate and 1,500 kbps peak video bit rate;
- 320 pixels x 240 pixels (4:3 QVGA) or 320 pixels x 180 pixels (16:9 QVGA) up to 30 frames per second.
- Zune software will transcode VGA HD WMV files at device sync.
MPEG-4 (MP4/M4V) (.mp4) Part 2 video
- Zune software will transcode MPEG-4 files at device sync.
H.264 video
- Zune software will transcode H.264 files at device sync.