I created a video. Now how do I get it to my portable device?

[johnje]

I have successfully recorded a tv show. Now I want to get it to my Creative Zen video player. The player says that it can view WMV9, MPEG 1/2/4-SP, Motion-JPEG, DivX 4 and 5, and Xvid

For those of you with experience, first, what is the best and easiest format to use to view tv on a portable player? Does it require that I use any software to convert the original file that Sage makes?

Any help with this would be appreciated. Thanks.

[johnje]

anyone?

[GKusnick]

Have you tried using Windows Media Player to copy the file to your device?

If you need to convert it to a lower resolution or bit rate, SageTV V6 has built-in format conversions. Or you could select a lower recording quality in the first place for programs that you intend to view on your portable device.

[sleonard]

I have a Zen W. I use a custom Sage transcode setting to transcode it to MPEG4 and then just use Windows Explorer to copy it to the TV folder on the Zen. You can find my custom setting in this thread.

Scott

Edit: My son installed the Creative SW that came with the device. Big mistake. With it installed he could not open the device in Windows Explorer and the Creative SW cannot traverse the network to sync Sage files. I had to uninstall ALL of the Creative SW plus go to Device Manager and remove the Zen from there. Once I did that he could once again open it in Explorer and copy the Sage transcoded show directly onto the Zen. To sync music files use WMP11. Works better than the Creative SW and will sync at a better quality bitrate. My original music files are in WMA lossless, WMP syncs 320kb files by default but you can set up to do lower bitrate if you want, Creative SW syncs 128kb files.)

[johnje]

Sage offers the following recording options:

Great Format: DVD @2.0 GB/hr

MPEG2 Max Quality Format MPEG-2 PS@5.9 GB/hr

DVD Standard Play Format: DVD@3.2 GB/hr

Best Fomat: DVD@3.0 GB/hr

DVD Long Play Fomat: DVD@2.4 GB/hr

Great Fomat: DVD@2.0 GB/hr

DVD Extra Long Play Fomat: DVD@1.6 GB/hr

Good Fomat DVD@1.4 GB/hr

CVD Fomat: MPEG-2 PS@1.3 GB/hr

SVCD Standard Play Fomat MPEG-2@1.1 GB/hr

Fair Fomat: DVD@0.9 GB/hr

SVCD Long Play Fomat MPEG-2@0.7 GB/hr

VCD Fomat VCD@0.6 GB/hr

That is a lot of fomats. I tried using the "SVCD Standard Play" setting. When I tried to move it to my Zen, it said it would have to be converted. Can't remember the exact reason why. Something like the quality was too good or something like that. So which of the recording settings can I use from above that won't require conversion? Anyone know?

[sleonard]

I can't find anywhere that Creative lists the qualities of mpeg2 that it will play on my Zen Vision W. I just copied my files over using Windows Explorer in XP and then tried to play them. What model Zen do you have?

How are you trying to transfer the files? On my son's computer the Creative Crapware forced me to transcode even if the Zen could play the files natively. I uninstalled the Creative Crapware since it is not needed and without it I can access the Vision using Windows Explorer as if it were just a USB hard drive. This is how I transfer Sage videos to it after I use Sage to transcode them. I use Windows Media Player to transfer music.

Scott

[johnje]

Originally Posted by sleonard

I can't find anywhere that Creative lists the qualities of mpeg2 that it will play on my Zen Vision W. I just copied my files over using Windows Explorer in XP and then tried to play them. What model Zen do you have?

How are you trying to transfer the files? On my son's computer the Creative Crapware forced me to transcode even if the Zen could play the files natively. I uninstalled the Creative Crapware since it is not needed and without it I can access the Vision using Windows Explorer as if it were just a USB hard drive. This is how I transfer Sage videos to it after I use Sage to transcode them. I use Windows Media Player to transfer music.

Scott

Interesting. I have the Creative Zen M. Picked it up at Walmart for $200. I thought that was pretty good considering Best Buy has it for $250. Anyways, yes, I did use Zen Series Media Explorer and it forced me to convert it. Is this the software you are referring to as crap? Actually by the time I installed everything, I have several programs now on my computer that I don't know if I need. Here is a list:

Creative Removable Disk Manager
Zen M Series Media Exlorer
Zencast Organizer
Yahoo Music Jukebox

Seems like with everything I have been reading in the forums, most are just using WMP. Is this the consensus?

[sleonard]

Yes, that's the SW I was talking about. Maybe it's different for the Zen M but I doubt it. I don't know about a consensus that's JMHO. Try connecting it to a PC that doesn't have the Creative SW on it and open it thru My Computer. If you can see the files and folders and copy/paste/delete files and if WMP can sync to it then you don't need the Creative stuff. WMP allows you to control the quality that music files are transcoded to during sync.

I convert the DVD Standard Format files @3.2 GB/hr recorded by my Sage system using my custom transcode format. It reduces them to 480x360 @ about 480 MB per hour.

Here is one modified for the M's 320 x 240 screen. You can also play with the bitrate by changing the br\=750000 section. Just copy and paste into appropriate part of your Sage.properties file (on the server, not a client) while Sage is shut down.

transcoder/formats/MPEG4-Zen\ Quality\ AVI=f\=avi;MCompressionDetails\=-vtag xvid -deinterlace;[bf\=vid;f\=mpeg4;br\=750000;w\=320;h\=240;fps\=29.97;][bf\=aud;]

Scott