Standalone Pioneer DVD player can't play WMV files (recorded WMV streaming videos)

I record archived WMV streaming video (25-minute newscasts) from the web using Applian's WM Recorder and it works great.

I have been able to transfer and play these WMV videos onto my creative Zen portable media player -- also great.

However, now I have encountered a problem, hence my question. I bought a Pioneer DVD player that says it will play WMV. The player recognizes my files as WMV but won't play them. (Note: If I convert the files to Divx they will play just fine but conversion takes time and computer resources). Pioneer Manual says it will play WMV files that have been encoded by Microsoft Windows Media Encoder Series 9.

So my question is can I use the freeware Encoder to capture i.e., save the streaming video or is the encoder a separate process I have to do after I have recorded the stream using WM Recorder (which already takes about 20 minutes for a 25 min stream)? The reason I ask is if I have to do a second step (encode with Microsoft's freeware) (which may take alot of time too) then perhaps I might just as well convert each WMV into Divx. Any suggestions??