VOB conversion

i have a bunch of VOB files, which tend to run about 2G for every hour of video (about 33M/minute). i'd like to convert these to a smaller/more normal format, e.g. AVI or MPG. what is the best/easiest way?

i tried a few apps i googled up (AutoGK, Super, TMPGEnc?), but they left me hopelessly confused. WAY too many options in terms of resolution, bitrate, size, etc. even "output type" has like 30 filetypes to choose from!

since it takes between 12 and 48 hours to do ONE conversion, I rly cannot learn this by trial-and-error. does someone here have enuf experience with this stuff who can decisively say "use THIS app, use THIS filetype, use THESE settings..."?

oh, and what can i expect for "shrinkage" ratio? 2:1? 3:1? 10:1?

i realize it's dependent on those "resolution" settings, but give me a ballpark. i plan to pitch the VOBs/DVDs once the conversion is done.

 

The simplest way is to use a converter. You can try the one I used before. The VOB to AVI Converter. This is very easy to use. You just select the file you want to convert and then convert the file and wait for the output. You can download and follow the steps here:

http://www.techyv.com/questions/convert-vob-file-avi-format

 

that certainly SOUNDS good, but...what is the actual NAME of the program?

a no-name app not mirrored on MG, CNET, Tucows, etc. which autoinstalls itself?! forgive me if skeptical.

can you point me at a "setup" file at least? "click on this .EXE here" not exactly reassuring.

can others here vouch for techyv being a legit site? if not this program specifically.

 

Yes, techyv is one of my trusted support site whenever I have a problems which relates to computers. And majorgeeks as well. Just keep on clicking on them as everyday there are Experts that answers the questions to help users like us. I visited the link and they have new answers already.

 

LOL - ur the same guy PITCHING it!

i'm trying to give u the benefit of the doubt, but that's kinda like getting a "second opinion" from the same doctor who gave u the FIRST one.... rolleyes

 

I've been using Format Factory for awhile now, and find it very good.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/format_factory.html

Pay attention to the limitations at the bottom of the page so that you don' put on 3rd party software.

Also good is Any Video Converter,

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/any_video_converter.html

Good luck in your project.

 

Your conversion time may vary depending on your CPU speed, amount of RAM you have, OS, free HD space, background programs or services running and other factors.

I'm running a dual-core Intel Pentium 775 with 4GB of RAM, 1TB HD with 887GB free space and using Windows7 Pro 64-bit.

 

i think Any was one of the ones i originally tried. IIRC, there were way too many bitrate and filesize settings. i'm all for having these, but i wish these apps would at least START OUT set to some obvious default.

i played with "higher rez" "lower rez" etc trying to find the MINIMUM which would not visibly degrade anything, but as i said, they were like 12-48 hours PER FILE to convert, so after 3-4 "experiments" burned up an entire week, i got fed up.

the one colinpaul is pitching sounds IDEAL, actually, but it's such a shady looking website (no app "name" to speak of, no version number, vague FAQs) and he's never posted ANYTHING here until now...this just doesn't add up.

another one i stumbled upon is MOVAVI. that too looks noob-friendly (all nice and defaulted straight out of the box), but i'm having a problem loading VOB files. if tech supt can work that out, i might go with that.

in the meantime i'm DLing videoconverter and a fresh copy of any. tx for the tips!

-----
1.6GHz dual core E-350, win7 home 64, 3G RAM, 280G HDD w about 180G free.

the conversions are about twice fast than they were on my previous laptop with 1.2GHz, 512k RAM, and 79.6G of my 80G HDD full. i was expecting maybe 20x as fast once i upgraded!

at the very LEAST i figured 6x RAM would mean 6x SPEED, but no such luck....

 

Hi! I'm here. Well, mine is only suggestions. As far as I know, I was having a tech problem before on my PC and found that site and majorgeeks.. I followed every solution I found and voila. Everything went well.

 

I forgot that I had this program on my computer until I had to use it.

Fast and simple.

http://www.convertdvdtoavi.com/

The only thing is that the files you're working on have to be on a DVD.

 

well, they WERE on a DVD, but now they're in a folder. can the program really tell? I mean, if I just point it at some folder and say it's a "virtual disk" or something, won't the VOBs there look the same as any VOB on a real disk?

in any case, adding it to my DL list. i need a good long stretch sometime to test-drive these all. (one of the downsides of having a 2 day convert time....)

 

I didn't try a virtual disk. But you could always copy the files to a rewritable DVD and go from there. I was doing a 1023 Mb (.99Gb) file in less than 20 minutes with my older AMD 2200, XP Pro, 2Gb RAM machine converting it to AVI (DivX) file.

 

99G in 20 mins?!

geesh, i dunno if i could hit 20 mins if i were converting a 99M file...

my largest is 2G and i think the record for that was 14 hrs.

 

Read my reply again. I wrote .99Gb, not 99Gb in about 20 minutes.

 

LOL. OK, that's more like it. but it would still take me several hours to do .99G using whatever i started out with (AutoGK wuzzit? i forget).

what rly confused me on those early programs is that filesize was not a product of bitrate and resolution, rather the reverse -- early stage it asks u to "pick an output size". what a concept!

"1/4 CD, 1/2 CD, CD, 1/4 DVD, 1/2 DVD, DVD" stuff like that.

so once u do that, and then set either bitrate or resolution, it sets the other to some screwy value to make the output "fit".

call me a luddite, but I want both the bitrate and the resolution set to nice, predictable values and let the OUTPUT (filesize) be what it may. who here wants every last video to be 340M (say), with video quality all over the map?

even if i were burning them to CD/DVD (which i'm not), is there any reason a file which "could fit" needs to be STRETCHED to be the full size of the disk? i know an ISO file is by definition disksize, but what's the point of an AVI file which might otherwise be 500M getting shoehorned into a "1/2 CD, CD" choice?

 

If you use the program I mentioned earlier,

http://www.convertdvdtoavi.com/

There is no setting or any complicated fooling around.

Just try it!!!!!

As I stated, it can do a .99Gb file in less than 20 minutes.

1Gb = 1024 Mb

 

With the program I've pointed out to you and using the "DivX" button, a 1Gb VOB file converts down to a 286Mb AVI file with excellent quality. There's no muss and no fuss.

 

sorry i've been tied up on other stuff all week. i'm finally getting around to having another look at this.

yes, that last app certainly DOES look user-friendly!

http://www.convertdvdtoavi.com/screenshot.html

but i'm confused. are DivX, MPEG4, WMV etc all TYPES of AVI? i thought AVI was a completely unrelated format of its own. that screenshot (and very NAME of the app, for that matter) implies that AVI is a catchall to which all the rest belong. that's news to me.

btw, up top where it says "preview DVD clip", is that actually "load VOB file"? if so, why can't i just set the FIRST one to my HDD rather than my media drive? looks like it's just setting up the path for the SECOND setting.

 

JUST TRY WORKING WITH THE PROGRAM, then you'll provide all your own answers. I don't have all the answers because I work within the limits of the program.

 

yes, it's very nice. and fast. and i like how i can load all 50 files at once, get it started, then wander off for hours.

alas, but that's still not going to answer my question - are MPEG, WMV etc "subsets" of AVI? the app seems to think so. it even labels output files filename.mpeg4.avi, for example.

as for the "preview" etc., the format is NOTHING like that screenshot, so they must have noticed. still very intuitive, but they should get their FAQs etc to match version updates.

unfortunately, the one thing which ISN'T working (so far) is FILE MERGE. it converts all the pieces in a straightforward manner, but then just HANGS without resolution. for example, 5 linked VOB files 2.1G total - took about 18 mins to convert all 5, but then just SITS there (reading "98%") as it tries to assemble them. i let it run overnight; as of 14+ hrs now, it's still at 98%.

have u experienced this?

this is fatal. if i can't get it to merge the output file properly, i'm gonna have to move on to a diff app.

 

Thank you for explaining to ReBar what I was unfamiliar with.

Would you be able to help with merging the files for this person. See the previous post #20.

 

but files found around the interwebz have names like "vidclip.avi" "vidclip.mpg" and "vidclip.wmv". if the latter 2 are subsets of avi, what then, pray tell, is the FIRST?!

b/c of names like this I always assumed avi, mpg, and wmv were sort of on a par with each other.

aniwe...any trends as to which format is better? with all the mp4 m2ts ogv webm etc variants, there's also like 50 choices in THIS app. so far i'm running tests with lorez/midrez/hirez crossed with mpeg4, wmv, "sandisk avi", and "customized avi". which is 12 diff conversions for every test clip.

even tho the app is fast, i rly cannot wade thru EVERY possible filetype/combo by hand. that's what - 150 combos per test clip?! someone have some gut sense of this, like "stick to mp4", "mkv is the future", "mov is so yesterday", etc?

i am on a PC so formats which are STRICTLY for apple or phones are perhaps better avoided. altho i can't rule out i'll be on either in the future. and i've never really had trouble in windoze with mov or mp4 files, say, both off which the app tells me are apple-specific (if anything, VLC occasionally chokes on an MPG or WMV file!)

likewise, i have lots of mp4 files which play just great but the app says those are "phone" files.

this is for long-term storage of wedding/birth/home movie type stuff, btw, so i gotta get this right....

 

Too many questions for me. Yer on yer own now. I quit.

 

LOL. i lose our wedding video, my wife's gonna hunt u down!

 

I really wasn't too worried that I would be hunted down like a scurvy, mangy, flea-bitten mongrel dog :-D .

 

pretty much applies to how i ended up IN the wedding video to begin with!

 

A few questions come to mind.

Were you the groom? :confused, or the photographer? :-o, or some other nondescript minion? :-D in the whole thing?

My condolences.

 

groom.

or "hostage".

i am unsure of the proper english.

 

I'm trying to picture this "hostage" situation. Was this;

A. A shotgun wedding:-D

Or

B. Were you led down the aisle in a near comatose, drunken, drooling state dressed in a very dapper white tuxedo with the extra long sleeves that fasten in the back. :-o

or

C. Being carried in on a stretcher with a priest on one side and a fireman on the other side as your best man.

 

i forget. one minute i'm in a beetlejuice outfit krunking on miley cyrus, next thing i know i'm a boring old fart living in suburbia.