Converting YouTube Videos to Zune Videos
Well, I got a White Zune (accidentally, in a raffle :-)). I was quite impressed with this gadget (I am a “Believe_me_I_never_used_iPod” type guy..) in my first looks. The interface was very cool with nice zoom out/in effects of background wallpaper.
I quicky synced it with my local music store from my laptop. The experience of music and quality was awesome. But…I was shocked to see not all of my videos can be played directly by this player. Even the WMV yes, wmv files too. I thought, I can simply download all On-Demand technical webcasts to my zune and enjoy. But none of them are compatible with my shiny zune. 
Then I looked at YouTube for videos. YouTube delivers videos as flash content. But I figured out a way to enjoy these YouTube videos on my Zune (100% free of cost solution). Here is the way I followed…
01. Rip the video from YouTube
YouTube uses flash media to display videos. This is called FLV content. To download the video as FLV content, I used YouTube Video Downloader. Once you install, start this application. It will start in your system tray. Right click on the icon and click on “New Download…”
Copy the YouTube Video page URL as shown below…
Use the default folder and name your video in “Rename” box, if you want to give it a different name. Otherwise the tool will pick the name from Video title itself.
Copy the FLV file in to a folder, where you can play with tools.
Note : A product tutorial is available with the developer of this tool here…
02. Convert FLV files to MPEG-4 Video (MP4)
To convert FLV files to MP4, I used a tool called “Super”. This is a true Super tool which can convert so many formarts of video to any type of video.
Once you install SUPER, start it. You will see interface as follows…
Configure this tool as follows (One time job)
Select the Output Container : mp4 (MPEG-4)
Select the Output Video Codec : MPEG-4
Select the Output Audio Codec : AAC
Video Scale Size : Leave this as NoChange (Maintains aspect ratio)
Leave everything else as defaults.
Now drag and drop the FLV files in to the space shown in the above picture by Arrow mark.
Once you drop the files, the button “Encode (Active Job-List Files) will be activated. Click on it. Leave the tool until its job is done.
Once the tool is done with job, You can find all the MP4 files copied to destination folder you mentioned in SUPER tool. (Right click in the file list and select “Specify Destination Folder” where you can select a destination folder).
03. Sync the MP4 files to Zune
Copy all these MP4 files to your My Documents/My Videos directory (where Zune checks for videos).
Connect your Zune and start the Zune software. You can see the converted videos in the Zune software. Simple drag them in to Sync list of Zune Player and Click on “Start Sync”
Thats it ! You are done.Now you can enjoy the YouTube videos on your Zune..:-)
Technorati tags: zune, microsoft, youtube, super, youtubedownloader
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Comments
CHEERS! this helped a lot man, thanks! just one question, How can I make the quality better when it arrives on the zune software? cheers
Another problem, when I press the file to sync it with my zune it says error and dosen’t worrk? any ideas?
Zune software throws error if it cannot find a compatible WMV or MP4 file. Try to re-encode it with Super and sync it. If it still fails, you will probably have to try XiliSoft’s Zune Video Convertor (not a free one) 
convert youtube video onto zune, because the format of youtube video is flv, you can use a flv to video converter, get a flv to video converter at http://www.flash-video-mx.com/flv_to_video_web/
When I try to donload youtube video downloader it keeps saying my bandwith has been exceeded. Any suggestions?
I did everything till I got to finishing the SUPER. I loaded everything but I can’t find my video ANYWHERE?
I’m having the same issue with trying to view MSDN webcasts on my Zune. I was wondering if you figured out how to view MSDN webcasts on a Zune? Thanks
Just to let you know… the ripping software is not necissary. http://www.techcrunch.com/get-youtube-movie lets you rip the video to your computer without software. (gotta save all the HDD space you can ;-P ) But thanks for the infos. Works very well. I am forever greatful.
this really helped me out, but when i start to sync the video onto my zune, it has to convert the fiel again, which takes like another 10min-2hrs. (depending on the size of the movie) is there a reason for this and can i do anything to make it stop?
Thank you kind sir for your tutorial. After some fiddling around I got this to work. I used a different video saving program and had to fuck around with the super program to be able to find my converted files but alas I have successfully uploaded a youtube video to my zune.
The best part about this, is that the video I uploaded was a tutorial for how to dual boot linux ubuntu and windows. I’m going to try to not use windows anymore if I don’t have to. I’d get rid of windows outright if I didn’t play video games on my computer, which linux doesn’t support.
Thx man this step by step helped alot
if it wasnt for u i would still be on google search for this stuff
wtf? the youtube video downloader site says, “The bandwidth or page view limit for this site has been exceeded and the page cannot be viewed at this time. Once the site is below the limit, it will once again begin serving as normal.” and it does not want to change. anyone els have same problem? what els could i do?
hey dude, ty for the info, but i need to know where the file is, i downloaded all the stuff onto super, but i dont know how to copy them onto my documents/myvideos, can anyonw help me?
When I click new download it says you must sign into youtube 1st. I do then it just keeps saying it??
wait when i try to download SUPER it says there was a problem creating the folder to save it in?? any suggestions??
when i try to download it…it says u must log into youtube first. i did but it just keeps sayn it and wont let me download the video
okay, i’ve done everything and then when i get to the synching part it synchs just like its supposed to and shows that it added the video to my zune but then when i disconnect the zune from my computer the video is gone….sooo whats going wrong pleeeeze help me im so stinkin frustrated!!!!!!
JUST REMEMBER TO DO THIS AS ADMIN ON UR PC OR SUPER WILL NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY, U CAN DO THIS BY RIGHT CLICKING ON THE SUPER .EXE ICON AND THEN CLICKING OPEN AS ADMIN. GL
dude, you just helped me so much. ive been looking for this for hours. thank you.