Successfully Converted a DVD for the Fuze - How-to

SanDisk MP3 players Sansa® Fuze™
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Hello,

I purchased my Sansa Fuze a couple of weeks ago for the express purpose of putting instructional chess videos on it, in order to view them on a plane flight during an upcoming trip.

Like many (as I gather from exploring this forum), I wondered just how to transfer video from a DVD to the Fuze. As I also gather from exploring the forum, it’s not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish, even if you have the right kind of software, and there seems to be a fair degree of frustration over how to do this.

After numerous tries, I finally came up with an approach that has worked twice in a row for me, so it may be reliable.  :-)  I’d like to share it with the forum folks here, in case you too are banging your head against the wall trying to transfer a DVD into your Fuze. I posted it in the Sansa Media Converter section under Accessories: http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=smc&thread.id=1991 . In case I didn’t get the link to work, the thread title is, “SUCCESS! DVD Converted for Fuze: A How-to”.

I’ve posted this reference to another section because it’s here that most Fuze users seem to congregate – the SMC section, where I put the message, doesn’t have nearly as much traffic, so relatively few are likely to see it otherwise.

I post this in the hope that it might spare you some of the headaches (and late nights) it cost me trying to figure out how to make this work, and I apologize in advance if in the process I’ve unwittingly stepped on anybody’s toes. I’m new around here, and I don’t know where the minefields are…

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You can also rip it to your pc with any software and then use video4fuze or ewelot’s pvc.sh

That’s how I do it (with dvd::rip, and then video4fuze).

I could add dvd support to video4fuze if it’s requested by a few people :wink:

Message Edited by ssorgatem on 09-15-2009 01:19 AM

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ssorgatem wrote:

I could add dvd support to video4fuze if it’s requested by a few people :wink:

 

I think directly converting from dvd or dvd-image would be nice.

struct

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ssorgatem,

>>That’s how I do it (with dvd::rip, and then video4fuze).<<

Thanks, I’m glad to learn that there are other programs out there that can do this.

I looked up DVD::Rip, but it says it’s for Linux. Will it work on my Windows Vista machine without going into contortions to get it done?

I also looked up video4fuze on the link you gave, and the description says that it requires “python, mencoder, PyQt4, PIL and on *nix wine and on windows vcredist2008.” To a non-expert like me, this list looks pretty forbidding. Can I expect to have any of these already on my brand-new Vista machine, or would I need to look around for them on the 'Net? And how many of the listed items do I need?

As an end user, and an occasional one at that, one of my main criteria when looking for what I needed in order to put DVDs on the Fuze was – simplicity. I found one program that redid the videos so that then SMC could (eventually) accept them. It would be great to have a single program that has everything the end user needs to “just do it,” without having to hire a bunch of other supporting characters.

So I guess you could consider that my wish list. :smileyvery-happy:

Thanks again for the info. It’s a long thread that you linked to, so I have some reading to do. :wink:

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@jea wrote:

ssorgatem,

 

>>That’s how I do it (with dvd::rip, and then video4fuze).<<

 

Thanks, I’m glad to learn that there are other programs out there that can do this.

 

I looked up DVD::Rip, but it says it’s for Linux. Will it work on my Windows Vista machine without going into contortions to get it done?

 

I also looked up video4fuze on the link you gave, and the description says that it requires “python, mencoder, PyQt4, PIL and on *nix wine and on windows vcredist2008.” To a non-expert like me, this list looks pretty forbidding. Can I expect to have any of these already on my brand-new Vista machine, or would I need to look around for them on the 'Net? And how many of the listed items do I need?

 

As an end user, and an occasional one at that, one of my main criteria when looking for what I needed in order to put DVDs on the Fuze was – simplicity. I found one program that redid the videos so that then SMC could (eventually) accept them. It would be great to have a single program that has everything the end user needs to “just do it,” without having to hire a bunch of other supporting characters.

 

So I guess you could consider that my wish list. :smileyvery-happy:

 

Thanks again for the info. It’s a long thread that you linked to, so I have some reading to do. :wink:

 

 

 

For windows users, you have a windows all-in-one package, download, unpack, and run. That easy. On vista you need to run it in windows XP compatibility mode, though (it’s a bug on avi-mux GUI…)

But i’m ATM packaging the next release (0.4.1), which will have a windows installer (even easier).

If you are looking for simplicity, that’s what video4fuze aims to provide :wink:

About the DVD::Rip question: It may only run on *nix systems, but I’m sure there’s a lot of free DVD-ripping software for windows out there. I’ve never ripped dvds in windows, so I can’t help you on that matter, but any should be able to ouput a file usable by video4fuze (which support a wide variaty of input formats, a lot more than SMC).

Message Edited by ssorgatem on 09-15-2009 10:15 AM

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>>For windows users, you have a windows all-in-one package, download, unpack, and run. That easy. On vista you need to run it in windows XP compatibility mode, though (it’s a bug on avi-mux GUI…)

>>But i’m ATM packaging the next release (0.4.1), which will have a windows installer (even easier).

>>If you are looking for simplicity, that’s what video4fuze aims to provide :wink: <<

That DOES sound great!

So, just to be very clear: I wouldn’t have to worry about getting those listed items python, mencoder, PyQt4, PIL, or vcredist2008 – I could simply download and install video4fuze, and start converting?

As for the ripping software, I’m using HandBrake and if that works with the fussy SMC, no doubt it will also work with video4fuze.

Thanks again.

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Yes, you will only one download in order to make video4fuze work on windows. ATM, v 0.4.1 is being uploaded, which now comes in with a installer which will take care of missing MSVC++2008.

All those things that it needs are only needed if you download the tar.bz2 archive, wich includes just avi-mux gui and video4fuze.

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>>Yes, you will only one download in order to make video4fuze work on windows. ATM, v 0.4.1 is being uploaded, which now comes in with a installer which will take care of missing MSVC++2008.<<

That sounds great! I’ll keep checking in here to see when it’s ready.

I’m especially eager to have a package that will successfully put video files on the Fuze in other than AVI format, since HandBrake’s developers have announced that their next version won’t be supporting that format, and that’s the only one I got to work on SMC.

Thanks again!

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@jea wrote:

 

That sounds great! I’ll keep checking in here to see when it’s ready.

I’m especially eager to have a package that will successfully put video files on the Fuze in other than AVI format, since HandBrake’s developers have announced that their next version won’t be supporting that format, and that’s the only one I got to work on SMC.

 

Thanks again!

 

It’s ready :slight_smile:

Check it out from the link in my signature.

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Hey, ssorgatem–put the video4Fuze link in the top line of your signature. For some reason, this forum doesn’t display the entire signature on some computers or browsers–maybe because I’m using a little netbook with the font size pumped up, but past the top 1 and 1/2 lines, the rest of the signature is hidden.

And let’s add another big thank-you from the Fuze mob for doing what SanDisk couldn’t. 

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@black_rectangle wrote:

Hey, ssorgatem–put the video4Fuze link in the top line of your signature. For some reason, this forum doesn’t display the entire signature on some computers or browsers–maybe because I’m using a little netbook with the font size pumped up, but past the top 1 and 1/2 lines, the rest of the signature is hidden.

 

And let’s add another big thank-you from the Fuze mob for doing what SanDisk couldn’t. 

Done. Thank you for warning me :smiley:

I hope it now displays at least the link…

And the link, just in case:

http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&amp;thread.id=31437

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Thanks for doing this, ssorgatem! And for moving the link up above your signature – I have a desktop PC, and I was having the same problem with the last line as Black-Rectangle.