Ok, I used DVDFab to backup several of my DVD's. I used DVD9 so they are in the VOB file format. Can I burn the VOB files to a DVD and it play in my DVD player? Does Fab do that? I still have to buy a DVD burner. I was considering get a 20X USB version because I do everything from my laptop. I don't mind reading to learn this stuff, there is just so much and i don't know exactly where to start. If vob the native DVD file format? I will probably be using the stuff I have backed up now and play them on my TV straight from my laptop. Is the VOB format a good one to use for that? Those files sure are big. Thanks so much.
Ok, I just found this which answers a couple of my questions. http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/burn_dvd_folder_dvd_decrypter.cfm I am hoping that I have the other files that it talks about to burn the files back to DVD. "you need to have all the other standard DVD files as well, including IFO and BUP files." Will a USB burner be ok to use with a laptop?
DVD Decrypter hasn't been updated in year's, use ImgBurn (same developer I'm pretty sure) free, easy to use and does DL as far as I know. Here's a guide for you to look over, old but the only change has been an update to DVDFabHDDecrypter: http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/334154 Don't know about a laptop but I would imagine so. Your best burn's are around 4x or 1/2 the rated speed of the media so burning speed is irrelevant to me.
ok, I will check that out. Thanks. It may be a few weeks until I actually get to burning back to DVD. I have several DVD's in VOB format on my laptop. Is it possible to change the format of these files that takes up less space? I can keep the VOB files on a seperate drive to write to DVD later. I assume that the VOB file format is the best quality for burning back to DVD? I will just be playing these files from my laptop to my HDTV. If I compress the files to a diff file type, will I loose much quality? I am using GOM player to play the VOB files. Is that a pretty good player? I am on Vista. I saw PowerDVD which looked good but I didnt want to spend money on it. Thanks so much.
Yes,if you plan to put the movies back to DVD, keep them as VOB. If you want to reduce the size, convert them to an AVI for example(Divx/H.264)
Thanks a bunch. What program will convert the VOB to AVI format? I am wondering if the DVDFab will work. It's only a trial that I am using. Is there freeware that is as easy? The DVDFab is single click stuff. I had no idea what I was doing and it worked like a champ.
Never converted vob to avi but just google it or wait for a reply, I'm sure you'll have one soon. As far as I know the trial of DVDFab revert's to the free version after 30 day's and is all you need.
This way sound's good but thought VirtualDub would save as avi, never heard of this version: http://tuto-tutorial-guia-guide.blogspot.com/2007/07/convert-dvd-vob-to-avi.html When I tried Vista, I seem to remember having trouble trying to install AC3-ACM, if you do, the AC3 Filter worked fine for me.
I would like to be able to save the movie to a regular CD but I don't know what format to convert the VOB files to. I have heard AVI. What about Mpeg4? I would like to have the best quality that I can but keep the file size down. One of the movies I have is 6.0GB. It's about 2.5 hours. Dark Knight.
avi is the container for the video and mpeg 4, XVID/DIVX (90-95% of avi on the web seem's to be XVID) will be fine but I don't see getting an entire DVD to a CD, maybe as data and to 2 CD's and you would probably need to split the avi for 2 CD's, maybe those program's do. Generally, an avi look's great on a computer and should on a TV too depending on the quality but you would probably need to rip the DVD again to back it up. Reencoding the avi doesn't make much sense and I imagine you would need to. Your best bet, I would think, would be back them up now and have done with it. Edit: data is fine to view on your computer with the right codec, VLC has them within its program as long as it's used to view.
This is all pretty confusing. I was reading about the .avi format. I don't quite understand. I guess it's like a zip file or something, when you call it a container. I guess I just want to know the best format to convert the VOB files to. Looks like I should convert to xvid. I guess I will just have to experiment and figue it out. Seems like most of the stuff that I find is from like 2004-6. I am sure things have changed since then. Thanks for the help. I will let you know what I figure out. CB.
avi is just the packaging containing the video, once you extract the video, it can be in many format's, XVID/DIVX, etc. It's nothing more than the box you open to get at the content's much like a zip. Some reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Video_Interleave