DVD (VOB) -> MP3 (selected part only, stress-free)

[Henrik2000]

Hi, have searched (here and elsewhere) and tried extensively, still didn't find the solution:

I have many musical movie DVDs and want to extraxt some song parts as MP3s (on Win XP SP2, and all DVDs are on an external hard disk). I need a stress-free interface that takes out only a selected part of a VOB file and i'd love to define my MP3 settings (like, VBR from 160 - 320).

I wouldn't like to extract the whole VOB file and i wouldn't like to extract to any other format like WAV. After having the MP3, it is ok if i have to remove (for fine-tuning) just a few seconds using MP3DirectCut (lossless).

Basically, in theory, "Free DVD MP3 Ripper" does the job (defining start and end point is tricky though). It only crashes half of the times or more often, so i'd like something more solid. I tried Super and xDVD, but both didn't work for my requirements, as various others. Now i am tired of reading-downloading-installing-trying-disappointment-uninstalling javascript:emoticon('').

Any suggestion for a non-geek? It's just VOB -> MP3.

If necessary, i will extract a part of a VOB to WAV and then fine-cut and convert to MP3. Please then recommend a solid software for cutting WAVs and convert to MP3.

Thanks all!

[jagabo]

Audacity:

1) File -> Import (select VOB file)
2) Mark the section you want.
3) Edit -> Trim
4) File -> Export, as MP3.

[Henrik2000]

Jagabo, thanks for very clear instruction, though they don't work here with me .

First i had Audacity 1.2. I could drag a VOB file into the software window. I started to import and then Audacity stopped doing anything around 25% on the status bar.

Then i installed Audacity 1.3.8 Beta. Not possible to drag a VOB file into the open window. The recommended sub-menu "File -> Import" doesn't give me a VOB option there, right? The only option to get VOB opened is using the "RAW" sub-menu. But this doesn't lead to something usable. How would Audacity accept VOBs then?

Any ideas ?

I also just now tried "YASA AVI WMV ASF MOV VOB to MP3 Converter". It does the job without getting stuck, but is rather primitive (apart from costing 30 USD or so):
- start and end cannot be defined by sliders; basically for one song in middle of VOB you have to type in start position and duration (too much hassle)
- MP3 settings not sophisticated, obviously no VBR

I would pay 30 USD for such a software if it is stable and convenient (and i can try it first).

Thanks for all suggestions!

[jagabo]

I'm using Audacity 1.3.7 beta. File -> Import -> Audio works for me:



I don't remember if I had to install any special VOB file reader or AC3 decoder for Audacity.

[JimmyS]

It probably needs the FFmpeg import/export library. Available here:

http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=FAQ:Installation_and_Plug-Ins#installffmpeg

[jagabo]

Ah, yes. That sounds familiar.

[Henrik2000]

Jagabo and Jimmy, thanks again! Yes, that was it - i needed the FFMPEG. Another thing that had confused me at first was using the command "Import - Audio" to import a VOB. Anyway, now it works! Thanks!

But: I'd prefer a way to grab an MP3 where i can see video together with the sound. It is much easier to find the bits in the VOBs I only wanted to get.

I am after the songs out of Bollywood musical DVDs. There you have like 15 or 30 or 60 minutes of talk in Hindi (which i don't understand), then comes the song i only want. Sometimes it's only a bit of a song. If i don't have the film image it is very difficult to spot the right place to start grabbing the song that must be somewhere. Well, of course i can open the VOB again in a video player like VLC and check for the position where to start sound-grabbing. But that adds some confusion, so a solid sound grabber with video display would still be helpful.

Anyway - thanks again!

[JimmyS]

If you don't mind giving MPEG Video Wizard - DVD a try (30 day free trial), here is a way you can more easily extract the desired music segments from your DVD.

Import the VOBs into MVW, then drop them into the time line.
Scrub through the video to find the beginning of a segment you want to keep.
Click on the Split Clip tool at the right of the timeline.
Scrub to the end of the segment and Split again.
Place the mouse pointer in the section you just defined. Right-click and select Add to Clips. Your segment will be added to the Clip tab in the Project window. Repeat for each desired segment.
When you have all of the segments you need, go to the Clip tab, right-click on a clip, select Trim Clip. This will allow you to save it as a seperate small VOB file. It is direct stream copied, so, no re-encoding is done. Repeat for each clip.

These VOB segmernts can then be turned into MP3s with Audacity.

[Henrik2000]

Thanks Jimmy for that suggestion and detailed instruction! I might give it a try at least for 30 days 50 USD seem a tad steep if you only need a convenient way to extract song sequences out of lengthy movies.
Anyway, i guess i will try in the next days and report back here. Meanwhile i already enjoy the first MP3s grabbed directly with VOB import into Audacity.
Thanks again -

[jagabo]

VirtualDub + LAME ACM:

1) File -> Open Video File (VOB)
2) Audio -> Full Processing
3) Audio -> Conversion (if necessary, 44.1 KHz, 16 bit, stereo)
4) Audio -> Compression (LAME, config)
5) Find video segment, mark-in, mark-out
6) File Export -> Raw audio (name.mp3)

Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each segment.

[JimmyS]

VirtualDub + LAME ACM:

1) File -> Open Video File (VOB)
2) Audio -> Full Processing
3) Audio -> Conversion (if necessary, 44.1 KHz, 16 bit, stereo)
4) Audio -> Compression (LAME, config)
5) Find video segment, mark-in, mark-out
6) File Export -> Raw audio (name.mp3)

Repeat steps 5 and 6 for each segment.

I must have been picking up your brain waves through the site jagabo, as I had just finished playing with that same sequence, and was getting ready to post a reply (I must be psycho or somthin' ).
Henrik was hoping to visually scan through the video to help identify the start and end points of the audio. My addition would be to use VOB2MPG to copy the VOBs into an MPG container. Then load the MPG into VDub. Cut the MPG to where the desired audio starts and from where the audio ends to the end of the file, then follow your sequence from #2. Incase the desired audio spanned two VOBs, he would be covered. The drawback though, is that the large MPG would have to be reloaded for each audio cut.

[jagabo]

VirtualDub with the current MPEG source plugin reads VOB files. It will even load multiple VOB files from a set automatically if you want. You can scrub in VirtualDub to find songs. Then use mark-in and mark-out to mark the start and end. The Export will only export what's between the mark-in and mark-out points. No need to reload the VOB file(s).

[JimmyS]

Thanks for straightening that out. I had been neglecting both of those features. That certainly does make it a much more viable solution.

[olyteddy]

AVI DeMux can be used as well. (Audio -> Save) after you set audio to MP3.

[Henrik2000]

Hi Jimmy, Jagabo and Olyteddy, thanks for interesting solutions and even refining them! I will try one of the suggestions here soon, probably VirtualDub, and report back.

Anyway, yes, sometimes songs are spread over two VOBs, so it's nice to have software that loads the whole DVD (that's more convenient anyway, if loading doesn't take too long).

Thanks again all!

[Henrik2000]

Hi, thanks for the suggestions again! I happened to try AVI de Mux first and it does the job ok! It also loads the whole movie, consisting of about 4 VOBs, which is very nice. The interface is a tad coarse (might change soon) and for fine tuning/fade-in-fade-out i still have to use a bit of MP3 cutting. But basically, AVI de Mux works ok for now: Visually setting start and end point and saving to MP3.
I might try VirtualDub on another night anyway.