Video conversion to Creative Zen?

I have a Creative Zen 4GB video MP3 player. I am trying to convert video from my TiVo to be playable on the Zen. The software that comes with the Zen is nearly useless for converting video in that it is extremely limited on what video it can start with, so I am asking this forum for assistance.

My current process is as follows:

Download my TiVo program to my desktop>Run it through DirectShowDump. It appears to make the video file an .mp4 filetype. When I load this into the Creative Zen software, it fails about 95% of the time, saying something like the video file is too high a quality to be converted for the Zen.

When I rip a DVD with DVD-Fab for the Zen, it plays without any difficulty. How do I combine the capability from DVD-Fab with video from my TiVo?

Be gentle... This is my first post here.

Thanks in advance for any input.
Rick

Welcome aboard to CD Freaks

There is a DVD-Fab equivalent for converting video files, which is called "VideoFab Converter". Going by its features list, it will convert the MP4 file format, so this should work with your exported TiVo MP4 files. The drawback however, is that it's a separate purchase to DVD-Fab, so if you are interested in it, I would suggest using its trial version to make sure it works first.

Another good alternative which I use for my own video versions is AviDeMux. Despite its name, it is a pretty good video conversion tool and has built-in resizing features which will let you reduce the video size for the Zen's native resolution, which will also significantly reduce the file size. This conversion utility is freeware (website link), so if it works, you're not out of pocket on another utility.

For my Zen (the older Vision 30GB model), I mainly convert to the XviD AVI format (single pass - quantizer at 4 and #B frames at 1) with MP3 audio.

I personally convert my videos with MediaCoder. Just have to use something that the Creative ZEN can play.

I use the following parameters

Video Container: AVI
Video codec: Xvid
Video bitrate: 768kbps
Audio codec: LAME
Audio bitrate: 128kbps
Audio channel: Stereo
Picture resize: 320x240 (or 320x180 for widescreen)

By the way, there is a setup wizard for the settings, which make it a little bit more user friendly.

The interface can be overwelming at first, but after you get used to it you'll see it's a pretty powerful tool.