Getting the full VOB off DVD

April 8, 2006 2:54 PM

I'm trying to get some video off of a burned DVD. I'm using Streamclip and Quicktime and it's working fine -- except that the clips I'm getting are only a fraction of what's actually on the DVD (maybe 5%). Does anyone know how I can 'find' the full clips and then put them into a format I can use? (.mov) There's other stuff listed (bup and iso), but as I understand it VOBs are the only things you want...
posted by jgballard to technology (4 comments total)

oh, it was timecode breaks... never mind!
posted by dearleader at 3:09 PM on April 8, 2006

I just had to do this same thing today. i'm using DVDBackup to get the .vob files off the DVD and then Streamclip to export as DV so that I can edit in AvidFree DV.

Only thing I needed to do to make things faster is buy the mpeg2 component for Quicktime from Apple ($19.99).

Alernately, you can use Toast to convert to DV but with Streamclip you can do some editing and choosing too.

Let me know if you have any questions.
posted by eatcake at 3:22 PM on April 8, 2006

VOB means Video Object. In the DVD spec they contain the muxed (combined) video and audio streams. everything is linearlly arrange (such as menus, extra, etc.)

IFO and BUP are info and backup files for the streams.

It's been awhile since I've had to do it...but MPEG Streamclip has a convert to DV...but it also has some sorta "auto detect" feature.

From the help file:
If you select (or drag) just one file and it is clear that the file is part of a longer MPEG stream, this application gives you the option to open all the files of the stream together.

Start with the first VOB and it'll pick up the rest.

Do that. Make sure you have the Quicktime MPEG2 component.

If you want to edit, as I remember, I built a custom "convert to quicktime" setting that was adjusted like this:

Quicktime, DV/DVCPro 25, (the quality slider doesn't matter), 48khz audio, 16 bit stereo.
This is the classic QT DV file type for editing in FCP or avid (with little to no other conversion necessary.)

If desired you can use this or just the straight DV stream to go into iMovie
posted by filmgeek at 6:42 AM on April 9, 2006

Select all of the VOB files from the 'Open Files' menu option, and you should see a dialog box that tells you there were breaks in the timecode. Choose Command-F (Fix Timecode Breaks) and magically the whole thing will be reconstituted for you.

(I know cos I'm doing just that right now...)
posted by littleme at 11:54 AM on April 9, 2006