This is completely legal only if you own the content. 

You will need Gordian knot rip pack from Source Forge.  Get it here at Source Forge

You will also need DVD decrypter: http://www.mrbass.org/dvdrip/

You will need the Microsoft codec pack from here at microsoft.com

 

This guide consists of three parts:

1. Ripping the DVD

2. Converting the DVD

3. Converting the DVD into perfect format for the Zune

 

1.  First start Gordian knot and choose DVD decrypter.  This will take the DVD and rip it to your hard drive.

2.  Choose the destination the files should be ripped to and click the icon of the DVD to the hard drive.

The .VOB files that are created is the DVD along with all the submenus and special features.  After the ripping is done close out of DVD Decrypter.

3. Start Gordian Knot and this time choose DVD2AVI. 

 

4.  Choose file> open> and navigate to where you ripped the DVD.  The largest .VOB file is that actual movie.  Open it.  The other files are menus and other things included on the DVD.   This is a tricky part.   If there are several VOB files the same size open them in the order they are numbered.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(There is a small chance that your movie was 'shot on film' and was 24 frames per second instead of 30 frames per second. If so, select Video->Field operation ->Force Film. This will take the movie back to its original state of 24fps.)

5. Select Audio> Output Method> Decode to WAV

 

 6. Then file> save AVI

 

7. For compression choose the last Microsoft MPEG-4.  It is the newest version.  Press OK.

8.  Then click compression and put the smoothness down to 60 and the data rate down to 1000.  This is still pretty high but we are going to downsize more later.  Start the encoding.

Note:  You can dramatically improve encoding time by increasing the process priority.  Do Option> Process Priority> High

9.  The last program we are going to use you already have.  Its Windows Movie Maker.  You should have two files from the conversion.  The .AVI movie file and the .WAV sound file.  Start Windows Movie Maker.  If for some reason you can't find it in your start menu it is in C:\Program Files\Movie Maker\moviemk.exe.  You should have it.  It has been included every version of windows since Windows Millennium Edition.

Drag and drop the audio and video files into windows movie maker and arrange them on the timeline.  You may need to press "show timeline."  DO NOT use import into collections. 

10. Select File> Save Movie File.  Choose my computer.  Press next. 

11. On the next window press "See more choices."   Select the "other settings" button.  Select "Video for broadband 512 Kbps".  You might think that we would use "Video for Pocket PC".  It has a much lower resolution and framerate then Video for broadband. 

On the other hand, "Video for broadband 512 Kbps" is the exact resolution of the Zune (320 x 240) and has a very good framerate.  Also, it will be WMV, one of the very few codecs the Zune can use.  After we are done converting this DVD over 4000 MB will be shrunk down to less then 400 MB.

12. Press next.  It will start encoding the video.  When it is done sync the video to your Zune and you are done! 

Note: you can delete all the files leading up to the last one.  Do not delete the .WMV file.  When you connect your Zune it does a sync, not a transfer.  So if you delete something off your computer, the next time you do a sync it will delete it from the Zune.

 

The Finished Product