Digital Streets

While involving a few steps, it is very simple to put YouTube videos on your Zune. First, you will need a couple of utilities to accomplish this. You will need one utility to download the video off of YouTube (the FLV file) and another to convert the file to a Zune compatible video.

I used TubeSucker to download the YouTube video and SUPER to convert the file (both are freeware applications). After installing the two applications, go to YouTube and find the YouTube video(s) you want on your Zune. Copy the url for the video, it should look like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8KfdYgE1Uc. After copying the URL, open up TubeSucker and go to the Batch Download Multiple URLs tab. Past the URL and click the Download URLs button. You can add multiple URLs or just one. These will download to the My Videos directory under My Documents. You can also search YouTube for videos using the TubeSucker Search feature.

After you have grabbed the FLV files for your video(s), open SUPER and select the Output Container to be mp4 (MPEG-4). Keep the default settings, however make sure that Use Direct Show is unchecked. Now drag and drop your new FLV file into the lower portion of the application. Check the corresponding checkbox next to the file and click the Encode button. The files will be encoded to Output directory in SUPER’s installation directory (C:\Program Files\eRightSoft\SUPER\OutPut).

Open the Zune software and add the SUPER Output directory to the list of folders to be monitored by the library. Connect your Zune, select the video(s) to be put on your Zune and sync as usual. Presto, YouTube video on your Zune.