Transferring AVI videos to the Sansa Fuze

I have a large collection of AVI movies converted, using  FairUse Wizard 2 (there is a free “light” version), from my personal DVDs and they are mostly widescreen. I passed a few of them through the Sansa Media Converter and viewed them on the Sansa Fuze; they come through as widescreen, but on such a small screen they are not really viewable. My next step was to figure out how to reprocess them to fill the Sansa Fuze screen, which meant converting them using a pan-and-scan 4:3 ratio. So I went looking for an appropriate video converter; after testing quite a few, I decided that XMedia Recode was the best and easiest to use (and its free). Here is the process and settings that I’m using to convert my AVI movies for use on the Sansa Fuze (Note: Based on what I’ve seen so far, I don’t recommend even trying to convert and play any movies with fast movement, the video gets very jergy).

  1. Start up XMedia Recode
  2. With Movie highlighted, drag-and-drop a movie into the File window
  3. Select the Format tab, within the Ouput Format screen, select Profile: SanDisk/SanDisk Sansa Fuze (avi); the Video Codec settings should be  MPEG4 and Audio Track 1 and 2 MP3
  4. Select an Output of Save to folder and Browse… to the Destination folder where you want to store the converted movie
  5. Click on the movie listed in the File window and select the Video tab
  6. Verify that the settings are: FourCC: XVID ; Framerate: 20 ; Rate control mode: Average bitrate ; Bitrate: 6 00 ; Number of B-Frames: 0 ; Threads: 0 (Auto.); GOP length: 15 ; Color mode: YUV 4:2:0 Planer ; no other selections.  Note: Don’t need a bitrate above 600. SanDisk Sansa Fuze video specifications: Container: Fully interleaved AVI; Codec: MPEG-4 Simple Profile level 1 or 2; Bit rate: up to 512 Kbps; Resolution: QCIF+ (224x176); FPS: up to 20 fps.
  7. Click on the Filters/Preview tab
  8. Select Resolution and set: Video Size: 224x176 ; Scaling mode: Lanczos ; Aspect ratio: 4:3 ; Zoom: Pan Scan
  9. Optional settings. From the Resolution pull-down menu, select Denoise and click on Enable Denoise ; then select Deblocking and click on Enable Deblocking
  10. At the top of the window, click on Add Job and then on Encode
  11. After about 30 to 40 minutes you should get the converted movie in your Destination folder. I’d recommend you verify that the movie plays well, especially audio synchronization near the end of the movie
  12. Connect your Sansa Fuze to your computer and then start up Sansa Media Converter
    Note
    : You can download the Sansa Media Converter via Sansa Updater (after installing Sansa Updater and connecting your Sansa Fuze it will be listed in the Downloads window)   
  13. Click on Add Media and select a movie converted by XMedia Recode
  14. Select the Sanza Fuze icon or the microSD icon
  15. Click on Convert to start the conversion and transfer to your Sansa Fuze
  16. After about 10 to 15 minutes you should get the converted movie on your Sansa Fuze
    Note
    : The movie will be between 10% to 70% bigger than the Xmedia Recode version
  17. Disconnect the Sansa Fuze from your computer and play the movie

Update : A simpler approach is to download and install FuzeVidz. To resize and convert a movie for your Sansa Fuze, drag-and-drop your movie onto the required FuzeVid CMD file (I use CONVERT_PanScan.cmd ); after conversion, just drag-and-drop directly onto your Sansa Fuze; for more details_,_ see http://forums.sandisk.com/sansa/board/message?board.id=sansafuse&thread.id=39242)

Message Edited by writedoc on 03-08-2010 03:16 PM

Please tell me where Fuzevidz  can be downloaded?

@nibrac wrote:

Please tell me where Fuzevidz  can be downloaded?

Fuzevidz was a video conversion program written by someone who used to be a member here. Unfortunately he got his panties in a bunch and left, wiping out all his posts and links to his creation.

Video4fuze is a similar product and works quite well I’m told.

Question, I have used Sansa Media Converter and Video4fuze to put movies on my Sandisk Sansa Fuze Player but I have 1 problem that I can’t get past. It will only download or upload (not sure which wording is right) the first 45 minutes. So this is what happens, I do all the work and wait and wait and wait for the conversion and it says “all done” shows the movie (example Toy Story 3 is an Hour and a half long movie) But when I get on my video file and play the movie only the first 45 minutes is there and it is that way with ALL the movies I have downloaded, WHY?? Why oh why?? I need to get these movies on here before Christmas so when my son opens it he will be ready to go and not have to wait a month or so for mom to upload movies and such. Any help would be greatly appreciated REALLY APPRECIATED!! Thanks!

I don’t know if it’s relevant, but Disney movies have some really nasty copy protection. You may be running into something particular to Disney movies. Have you tried anything non-Disney?

You can also contact the maker of video4fuze through his page.

Goof thinking, BR. That could very well be it.

I have tried non disney as well and it just does 45 minutes too. So here is what I got so far, 1 movie (non Disney) FULLY loaded 1hr 45min and works don’t know how I did it but I converted that lil piece of **** about 12 times and it finally worked, I have 1 Disney at 45 minutes good picture , voices lined up looks good sounds good great quality but cut off, then I have one more move that is good video quality but further into the movie there is a lag with the voices and then it too is cut off short and stops 45 minutes into it. Anyone else know why this is or how to fix it? And I need English terms here as I am NOT a computer geek but will do my best to understand! :slight_smile: Thanks

The one that’s out of sync is probably Sansa Media Converter, which has problems with long movies. Try running that one through Video4Fuze.

What is the filesize of the movies that stop at 45 mins? Could you be running into some kind of limitation there?  I"m just guessing, but Windows itself is not happy with files larger than 2GB.

Also, guessing again, but…are you converting from a DVD? Because if you look at the files on the actual DVD, you will see more than one big VOB file that your (computer media) player runs gapless, but they are actually separate files.  Is it possible you are only converting part 1 of the movie?

So the movie I believe is about 90 minutes long (avg. standard movie) and I have downloaded the movie from a website in a IPOD version so it is a avi. mp4 (hope I said that right) and I have tried all the movies using video4fuze. Is there something I’m missing or should I give up on certain movies and move on and try a different one?