Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with vob

Video Converters

Mave_80 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 00:37:02 -0800

Video Conversion to store DVDs on computer (PC) and play them on xbox 360, iphone etc - what's the best program to do so? From what I've read online, it seems that DVD Shrink is a good program to rip DVDs to a hard drive in combination with AnyDVD. This enables the storage of VOB files which can act as a basis for converting files to iphone, Xbox 360 etc. I then have the following questions.

1. DVD Shrink recommends keeping file sizes under 1GB - therefore it will create multiple VOB files. Thus what is the best program to join VOB files together? Alternatively is it better to create multiple WMV files and then join them together? If so, what is the best program for this?
2. According to this article, WMV files seem to be best for xbox 360 since this will enable files to be both streamed and played from an external hard-drive (see FAQ #10) What is the best program to achieve this? Programs I've seen so far include (mostly from this article). Bonus points if they join files as mentioned in Qu 1.

a) Handbrake
b) Format Factory
c) Super
d) Mediacoder
e) Videora

Any help gratefully appreciated!

Convert VOB w/ subtitles

pravit — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 22:46:59 -0800

How can I convert VOB files to AVI or some other format, but with embedded subtitles? I have VOB files which have a selectable subtitle track when you play them in VLC. I want to convert them to AVI or some other format, but with the subtitles embedded. Is there any simple way to do this? Please keep in mind I know next to nothing about video editing/compressing etc. Thanks!

Import VOB into iMovie

jjsonp — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:44:59 -0800

Wife's new Macbook: import VOB into iMovie? My wife has a burned DVD of an hour-long talk she gave...it contains one big VOB file, a couple of smaller VOBs, and some other files.

She wants to import the VOB into iMovie and selectively cut out about 5 minutes worth of video and paste the pieces together.

In googling it doesn't seem quite as straightforward as we we'd hoped, so if anyone can point toward a clear description of how to achieve this (or explain it) I'd certainly appreciate it.

Neither of us has any experience with Macs, but we had the impression that this would be much simpler to achieve than it is on Windows (she was using Movie Maker and rather than pay $550 for Sony Vegas and try to run it on her old Dell she thought buying a new Macbook would be more fun).

convert vobs to avis with hardsubs?

kindachris — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:12:04 -0800

How do I add subtitles (hardsubs) to an xvid avi when converting from VOBs under FreeBSD? I have a handfull of VOBs that have embeded subtitle streams, and I want to convert to AVI with hardsubs.

Currently using ffmpeg to do the conversions, but I can't seem to find the options to make it hardsub. There has to be a way, right? I'm willing to compile/install whatever I need to.

For some reason, the only [somewhat] useful results I can turn up on Google want me to use Windows, which I'd rather not.

And just for the record: No, I'm not doing anything illegal. I have the license to do what I want with the DVDs ... I just don't want to pay the production company to do it for me.

270 .Vobs a Week, Help Convert!

bleucube — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:12:25 -0800

Need help on a huge .Vob conversion to the best bandwidth saving format project. I've stumbled in an on going project that I need to take charge otherwise my life will become hell.

Background:
Every week we will have 270 1 hour videos on DVD. The project trial will last 16-18 weeks but may become mandatory after that. The cameras in use record straight to DVD and are approximately 1.4 gigs. The person in charge proposes a horrible two-stage conversion process. 1) A shareware program to convert VOB to WMV which brings it down to "150 megs". 2) Windows Movie Maker to bring it down to "80 megs". This process takes 1.5 hours for each video. The person than will upload the video to a private youtube. The video will be embedded using Microsoft share point services. Bandwidth is very tight.

Questions:
1. What's the best video format that’s watchable but requires the less amount of bandwidth?

2. Any cameras that record straight to FLV with running time of 2+ hours, or to the answer #1?

3. Embedding vs. streaming. Is it true that embedding only saves on bandwidth if the viewer doesn't watch the whole thing or fast forwards to certain points in the video?

Instead of the propose method I thought of the following alternatives:
1. Send all videos on DVD to a third party company that will process VOB files and convert them to lowest bandwidth usage format (flv?). They will host the files for us (eliminating the need for extra in house bandwidth). This saves staff time and would probably pay for itself over time. Do you know of a company that does this local to the US?

2. Create a server that performs batching processing of VOB files to FLV. The server will watch an incoming folder, any time a VOB files is present it will convert it to FLV and upload it via FTP to a third party host. Do you know of an application that does this? Winff is great for individual use, but I don't think it has the features I would need.

3. Hire students and interns to do all the converting.

4. Other suggestions?

Replace a DVD's VOB file using a Mac

remi — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 03:20:21 -0800

I need to replace the unskippable intro (before the menu) of a DVD with something else. How do you successfully modify a DVD's content? I have a DVD made for a presentation of a school. When we presented the DVD, it worked just fine. Now, a few people from the school would like to get a copy of the DVD. This is fine, but we didn't include a legal warning anywhere in the disc, and one is needed (at least, extremely recommended) before we can hand out copies.

The DVD was done with iDVD '06 on my Mac mini. However, the project file was stored on an external hard drive. That hard drive failed and I lost everything on it. In this case, I can't just modify the source file and create another DVD, which would be a lot simpler.

The content starts with the unskippable intro, then the menu. The menu has three items: first, the movie itself; second, scene selection; third, special features, which gives you two short movies. The file listing in VIDEO_TS is the following:
VIDEO_TS.BUP
VIDEO_TS.IFO
VIDEO_TS.VOB
VTS_01_0.BUP
VTS_01_0.IFO
VTS_01_1.VOB
VTS_02_0.BUP
VTS_02_0.IFO
VTS_02_1.VOB
VTS_03_0.BUP
VTS_03_0.IFO
VTS_03_1.VOB
VTS_04_0.BUP
VTS_04_0.IFO
VTS_04_1.VOB

I used VLC to see the content of the VOB files, and it seems the unskippable intro I want to modify is VTS_04_1.VOB.

I now have iDVD '08. I tried to make a DVD, with a similar layout, to make sure its DVD image output would have the same file listing. The file listing is similar, but now I have a VTS_xx_0.VOB file for every corresponding VTS_xx_1.VOB file. The intro I want is in VTS_04_1.VOB of that disc image.

I tried copying the new VTS_04_1.VOB onto the old one, and burn the DVD. From what I can see, my Mac's DVD Player application will read it just fine, including the new intro. But when I insert it in a normal DVD player, I get the "Unknown Disc" message.

Searching around on the Web for this topic is quite difficult, since the search results I get is always about how to convert VOB's to VCD, crack the CSS, etc. That's not what I'm looking for.

Has anyone ever done this before? Please let me know. Thanks in advance!

VOB to MOV... How?

Elle Vator — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 13:38:29 -0800

I need to convert a short VOB file into a reletively high quality, uncompressed MOV file... it's for my reel and I am having a heck of a time finding a way to convert it while keeping the sound and image quality reletively intact. I have managed to create an AVI and a MPG/MPEG... but they don't want to be good little children and convert to MOV's through the freeware I have. Help!

Getting the full VOB off DVD

jgballard — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 14:54:03 -0800

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...

DVD Ripping and burning: I'm ready to rip my hair out!

barnone — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:01:15 -0800

Burning DVDs: I want to get clips from (commercial and locked) DVDs and into a new DVD for class, with a menu system. I've seen this explanation, but I have a Mac (OS X, I could be convinced to upgrade to 10.4 if necessary). What's the easiest and/or best way to do this? I have a PowerBook G4, external FireWire hard-drive, a stack of DVDs and I've tried a whole bunch of different programs, found here. I want the easiest solution available. If it's free or cheapish (under $100), that's even better. I'd rather not rip the entire DVD to my hard-drive every time I do this - each week of class could include up to 8 clips from different films. The menu page doesn't have to look fancy - it just has to be able to separate each clip (like a chapter).

PLEASE treat me like a total moron here: even though I'm pretty well versed in some computer stuff, this is totally foreign to me right now and I have no idea what VOB, AVI, MPEG2 or any of the other derivations should be doing for me. Will Cinematize do this? MacTheRipper, then something else? iDVD? What is each step? Many thanks in advance: I've already spent hours and hours with someone else trying to figure this out, and I'm at my wit's end.

Converting video formats to DVD

shannymara — Mon, 03 Oct 2005 13:28:26 -0800

On a Windows machine, what's the best way to convert Flash, Quicktime, and MPEG clips into native DVD (.vob) format for viewing in regular DVD players? I mainly want to avoid (1) $$$, i.e. Premiere, and (2) trojanware.

Web video resizing/compressing/formatting?

jmevius — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 11:36:23 -0800

So, I've bitten off more than I can chew. I've been handed a 60mb VOB file of a television commercial that I want to post to the website of said company. I was thinking the way to go was four versions, large and small sizes, for mpeg and quicktime. Is that a good target? Or is there a better format alternative that I should use?

I'm looking for a freeware/shareware program that will allow me to resize and compress the video and export it to the appropriate formats. Any ideas? Bonus points given if I can use them while being a video idiot.

I can only pass along minimal expenses to the company, so a no/low cost solution is probably the only option. For what it is worth, I see this as a one-time thing, not something I will be doing regularly.