Converting .VOB files to MPEG1 or MPEG2 ??

I am looking for a good program that will convert .VOB files to MPEG1 or MPEG2 files, so that they can be edited in DVDXMAKER (or a similar authoring tool).

Anybody got any suggestions??

THANKS!!!!

 

A vob is an mpeg-2.
You can try simply renaming it to filename.mpg
If that doesn't work, I demux in ReJig, file mode, then use muxman (or similar) to remux to mpeg-2.
The advantage of this is, ReJig will automatically join multiple .vob's into one movie.

 

A VOB is NOT the same thing as a true MPEG-2 file.

They're very similar, but a VOB has extra data and different headers.

Changing the extenstion doesn't turn it into an mpeg. If you can play a file after you've renamed it from .vob to .mpg, it's only because your player is recognizing that file as a .vob (even with the name change).

If you didn't have a software player capable of playing vob's, for example, you wouldn't be able to play your renamed "x.mpg" file...

 

You simply have to remux a VOB file and it will be a True Mpeg-2 file....

 

Hey Minion, how do you simply "remux a vob file"?

Presumably there's a programme you need called ????, and you can download it from ?????.

 

Well what I usually do to Do a Lossless conversion of a DVD to a Mpeg-2 file is I first rip the DVD as a Single Big VOB file (Set File Splitting to None in DVD Decryptor or Smartripper) and after I have the DVD ripped as a Single Big VOB file I load it into a Mpeg editor like "Mpeg2VCR" and simply Save it as a Mpeg-2 file, The Conversion from VOB to Mpeg-2 takes only a Couple of Minutes and there is absolutly no Quality Loss....

You could also use the "Merge & Cut" in tmpgenc or the Tmpgenc Mpeg editor and save the VOB as a Mpeg2 file...You could also Just Load the VOB file into Tmpgenc"s "Simple Demultiplex" which will save the VOB as a Seperate M2V Video file and an AC3 audio file then you would Load the M2V and AC3 file into the "Simple Multiplex" which would save it as a Mpeg-2 File....

So you can see there are a Few Different ways of easilly and Quickly Convert a VOB to Mpeg-2 without any quality Loass....

Cheers

 

Thanks Minion. I went looking for the MPEG2vcr and found the "Womble multimedia MPEG wizard", which appears to be a newer version of the same thing. This will allow you to import VOB files directly into an edit project. You can edit the files and then save the new version as MPEG2.

Once I have an MPEG2, I presumably need another programme to put it back onto a DVD?

 

Now that you have it saved as a Mpeg-2 file you just need to use a DVD authoring Program so you can add your menu"s and Chapters and to author it to DVD....I use "MediaChance DVDLab Pro" but it is a Little Complex at first to learn so maybe if you want something easier to use then maybe "Tmpgenc DVD author" would be good....

Cheers

 

This thread has been imensly helpfull, you have no idea. I just have one question, rather picky. But when i converted the movie to mpeg4 using psp video 9, it made the resolution not as great when made to full screen. When in the smaller window its crystal clear. What option, or field do i need to alter in order to make the resolution better in full screen?? Thanks!
-gabe

 

There is Really Nothing Much you can Do to Make it Look Better at Full Screen But you also have to realize that your Monitors Resolution is MUCH Higher that your TV sets Resolution so the Video will Look much better on your TV set than It does on your Monitor....

With your Monitor set to 1024x768 the resolution is over 300% Higher than your TV"s resolution so Basicly what the Image looks Like in a Small Window will be close to what it looks like on your TV set.....

Cheers

 

well then why is it when i play it usuing PowerDVD in the .vod mode it looks great?

 

Minion - Thank you for the excellent (and clear) tips!!
Especially the Mpeg2VCR tip (and letting us know that it doesn't take long to run).

One small thing to note (for others) though: if you do the "Merge & Cut" in TMP.GEnc "MPEG Tools" (for the task of converting VOB to MPG), you're going to end up with Video-only in the Output .mpeg file (no audio)... Which is fine if that's what you want; but otherwise, if using TMP.Genc, you'll probably want to extract the ac3 (Dolby Digital) audio too using the "Simple Demultiplex" or regular Demultiplex method.

Cheers.

 

gabehayes: You were the One who said it looked Bad at Full screen and now you are Saying it looks Great, So which one is it??

Either way it should Look Better on your TV than it does on your Monitor......

 

no, i said [bold]THEN WHY IS IT[/bold] that when i play it in [bold]VOB[/bold] format its great. as opposed to mpeg4 wich is not great. minor discrepency

 

So you are saying that when in Mpeg-4 format it looks Bad But in VOB Format it looks Good??? Well there could be Many Reasons for this , It all depends on What Settings you use to encode to Mpeg-4 and to Mpeg-2....

If you used a Low Resolution or Bitrate when encodeing to Mpeg-4 then it will not look very good, the same if you used a Low Resolution and Bitrate to encode to Mpeg-2 it wouldn"t look very Good so It all depends on how the Files were created as to what quality they will have and the More Times you convert a file the Lower the Quality will be.....

 

gabe- If your question is just "why isn't the MP4 video as good as the DVD (VOB) video?", it's a simple matter of compression. Note that the MP4 file is a much smaller size than the original (uncompressed) file. If you want to improve the picture of the MP4 video, then you will have to re-encode it at a higher bitrate (less compression; shown as Mbps in most programs, sometimes shown as a percentage, as in "Video Quality: 60%"). The smaller (more compressed) you make the video, the worse it will look when you expand it to full screen. (Thought there are advanced ways to make a file of the same compression rate look better; mostly this depends on your encoder and the codecs it uses.)

 

Hi,

New to this forum so hello all. I have followed alot of the advice on here to good progress but I have one quick question. I am hovering over downloading Womble MPEG Wizard but it does look like a full blown video editing package which i do not need.

I am trying to simply convert a VOB file a MPEG file to use in Premiere, is there a simple package that just converts the file? Or more to the point does Premiere read VOB files?

Hope someone can help.

Sketchy.

 

Premier doesn"t read VOB files because of the AC3 audio in the VOB files is not Supported in premier or even in Most editing programs....

You can use "Womble Mpeg2VCR" or "Womble Mpeg video Wizard 2005" to Convert your VOB files with AC3 audio into Mpeg-2 file with Mpeg-1 layer 2 audio that Premier will Read.....

The Thing is that with the "Womble Mpeg video wizard 2005" you can do many of the things you can Do in premier accept that in Womble there will be No Quality Loss when rendering your Project were there will be Quality loss if you use Premier to Do it also The Rendering will only take Minutes with Womble were it will take many hours to render in premier....Premier is Just not made for editing Mpeg-2 Files.....

If you need Instructions on how to use womble to Convert the audio from AC3 to Mpeg-1 Layer-2 just let me Know.....

Cheers

 

I'm now successfully using the Womble editor to add English soundtracks to foreign DVDs. I do this because I can get Widescreen Foreign DVDs of films for which I only have English Pan & Scan versions.
I'm able to cut the Foreign VOB file onto the Picture track, and mute the sound. I can then cut an English Language VOB onto one of the two available soundtracks. Sometimes the English version has scenes that the foreign version doesn't, so these can be cut into the Picture track, where I can zoom and resize them to match the letterbox height of the widescreen version. I can also colour-correct, change brightness, contrast etc, and adjust sound levels. Plus there's a whole host of other effects which I don't need. The only caveat is that if you take a 15 minute section of VOB, and cut the same section onto both picture and sound tracks, the sound track will be shorter than the picture by 9 frames. However, once you notice this, you can workround it.
Once I've made the cut, an 80 minute movie will take around 6 to 8 hours to convert to mpeg2,using highest quality settings. So it isn't as fast as you suggest.

 

It is as Fast if you do not add any effects or Filters....If you just do Simply Cutting and Arrangeing of Clips and just adding Transitions then the Rendering only takes a couple of Minutes because there is no re-encodeing going on but as soon as you add an effect or a filter the whole Clip that you added the effect or Filter to has be be re-encoded which is why it is Takeing so long when you edit......

For what you are Doing I wouldn"t use Womble For because it"s encodeing does take quite a Long time and there are editors that will do what you want to do that will encode much faster and better Like Vegas Video and Premier Pro but they will not accept VOB files with AC3 audio but you can use womble to Convert the AC3 to Mp2 without affecting the Video Quality and then be able to Import the Mpeg-2 into Vegas or Premier to edit......

Cheers