VOB files

i xferred a pile of video tapes to DVDs last week -- easy process if anyone has any questions -- but the format involves weird MENUS, etc. basically, each 2 hr video (say) is broken into subfiles like 1G / 1G / 1G / 300M, and then there's a pile of these NFO and BUP files serving as "control" files or something.

i dunno if there was an option to dispense with this at time of xfer, but it's too late now. additionally, i dunno if there was an option to xfer them as VIDEO FILES (mpg/avi/etc) in the first place, but again, done deal.

so....can i just pitch the junk files and keep the VOB clusters alone? more importantly, how do i splice together the various VOBs and then convert to MPG or AVI or sumpin?

i mean, locally, in my ONLINE copies. and future backups thereof.

the DVDs already burned can stay as is. just want to extract "simpler" versions.

thanks!

 

sorry if that was a bit confusing. what i meant by the "1G 1G 1G 300M" was VOB files (which i didn't reference till afterwards). and they sit inside a "VIDEO_TS" folder. i think this is the normal structure of any store bought DVD as well.

do i need some sort of DVD RIPPER to extract everything and reassemble in video file format?

ALTERNATELY, i can just extract the various VOB files by hand...if someone can then tell me how to join them and convert them to new format. but if a ripper does all this from the gitgo...well then, ok, that's the way to go i guess.

 

You quoted, "i xferred a pile of video tapes to DVDs last week". Each video tape you transferred has to be in it's own folder on the HD otherwise the VOB and other files might be overwritten by the next videotape you transferred. If you saved them into seperate folders then you should be able to use Nero or Image burn to make them into separate DVD's.

I think?

 

My pick:
http://majorgeeks.com/HandBrake_d5801.html

 

Yeah - HandBrake is good for converting DVD/VOB to other formats (I think it uses MP4 and AVI ???). Personally, I like AutoGK or avi.NET for converting DVD/VOB to DivX or XViD .AVI files. You can fit up to 6 full movies on a regular DVD, and if your home DVD player can play DivX files, you're in good shape! I have ripped most of my 300+ movie collection to XViD AVI files, and I simply stash the 'original' store-bought movie, and keep the ripped discs accessible. You can put a whole series of movies on a single disc: I have all the Star Wars movies on a single DVDR, I have the Godfather movies on a single disc, etc..... it's very handy!

 

thanks dlb and Just Playin -- i'll try those. pls note, however, i'm not trying to convert BACK to DVD; once i get them into AVI form, i'll prolly just save online. and i'm not rly trying to play them anywhere but the PC itself.

it was only 20 DVDs, so if i can get it down to a gig or two of AVI files, i'm good with that. i'm even good with the 40 or so gigs of "DVD" folders the way they are now, but all that fragmentation between the split VOB files bugs me.

btw, i think the other 2 posters misunderstood my request. i wanna go FROM dvd TO video files. but thanks for the replies anyways!

 

Uncompressed AVI takes up loads of hard drive space (about 13Gb for an hour of video). Converting to WMV might be a good choice as you don't lose much quality. Another alternative is DivX. This is as close to DVD quality I've seen. A video converted to DivX takes up roughly the same amount of space as a comparable WMV file.

AVS Video converter is good for this. The free trial version is ok, but I don't think the quality is a good as on the paid for version (worth the money as it can do almost anything).

 

I'm confused. The AVIs I have are about 65M for an hour of video. Not much more than MPG. Is there some distinction betw "uncompressed" AVI and "compressed" AVI?

And why is MPG getting so little discussion here? I've occasionally seen WMV or DivX files, but the vast majority to date have been MPG or AVI. And of the two, I've had less trouble playing MPG.

These are files DLed from the net, mind you. But I assume they themselves first started out as DVD (or psuedo-DVDs created from VHS, as in my case).

What's the deal here? Why does everyone (and most of those conversion apps) just ignore MPG?

 

The MPEG video codec is one of the oldest video codecs used. Newer codecs, like WMV, Divx and h264 which are used in AVI, MKV and MP4 video container formats, can produce the same quality video file as the MPEG file while being much smaller. You can make a DVD or even BlueRay quality AVI or MP4 file that will be much smaller than an equivalent MPEG file. This is why MPEG video has fallen by the wayside.

 

i'm still confused. if i have a 1 hr clip off the net which is 60M mpg or 65-70M AVI, how is MPG the inefficient one?

sure, these are not full-length/quality DVD transfers, but relative to EACH OTHER, mpg is still the smaller one.

and how can ANYTHING be 13G for an hour of video, when the source DVDs are abt 2 hrs long and 4.3G?! at most, i would think a totally uncompressed format would check in around 2.15G.

again, tho, my AVIs are more like 65M/hr....

 

The difference is the picture quality. The MPEG2 standards were established in 1996, when a 200 MHz CPU was top of the line and Windows 95 was still new. The newer codecs take advantage of the quantum leap in hardware and software since then. The DivX codec, for example, will be able to create a higher resolution picture than a MPEG2 for the same file size. It's progress.

I have no clue about this. I have no idea where those numbers come from.

 

isn't a standard DVD still 4.3G?

i kno there's "double" and "blu ray" and lots of other stuff around, but the simple Best Buy "DVD-R" disks i used (as well as some DVD-RWs i also tried) held exactly 4.3G. which equalled 124 mins of VHS, consistently.

 

AviNet seems to be the one that matches best, but I don't quite understand the installation. The zip file is 5 separate setup files -- am I supposed to install them all in parallel?

I tried installing JUST the AviNet one, but then it said it needed AviSynth. And when I tried with just those 2, it said it needed Xvid codec file. Etc etc.

So I went ahead and installed all 5. But they all went to seperate places, diff folder names, etc. Why isn't there just one master "setup" file?

Seems to work the way I did it, but it's just, um..."messy".

 

Anyone still reading this thread?!

Anyway, AviNet works absolutely PERFECT, but takes like 30-50 HOURS per video! Is this par for the course?!

PC is a 2.33GHz pentium w 512M RAM running XP.

I can lop 20-30% off the time if I set the PC aside and do nothing else. If I try to surf, read email, or do anything else online (or even OFFline!), however, the conversion can easily bloat up to 70-80 hrs! For ONE VIDEO!!

Ouch.



PS: I must say, I am rather IMPRESSED that it's never lost its place, crashed, or otherwise MUNGED the file under conversion, given the incredible times involved....

 

yes, i'm sure it would. but i was thinking it might spell the difference between 6 hrs to convert and 2-3 hrs, maybe. never in my wildest dreams did i suspect anything would take 30-80 hrs!!!!

i feel like such a dinosaur.