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One of Microsoft’s biggest mistakes with the Zune was they did not include functionality to sync tv shows recorded on media center to the zune. After a few searches on the internet, I have found a way to sync the files to a zune from within the zune software. There are quite a few other ways to get the dvr-ms files onto a zune, however most of them require an additional piece of software to transcode the file to Windows Media Video (WMV). I have tried a few of them, with limited success. DVR-MS toolbox seems to have the most promise, however it’s main drawback is that at sync time, you can only sync files which have already been processed by DVR-MS Toolbox. This solution allows me to pick any file off my media center pc to sync.

The solution is a registry hack (aren’t they usually) which adds the dvr-ms file format to the “supported” file formats. The DVR-MS file will not play back in the zune software, but it will show up and allow you to sync the file. More details can be found here. The second requirement is that you have a decent MPEG-2 decoder installed on your machine. I have tried using the one which ships with Nero 7, however the Zune software doesn’t seem to like it. I tried WinDVD 8, and it works well. I was able to successfully sync a daily show this morning in about 15 mins. The nice thing about this method as well is that it displays the show title on the zune, and the file shows up under TV shows in the video section. It’s not quite a slick as a native Microsoft solution could be, but it is pretty simple and works well thus far.