Joining two VOB files

[lloyd]

I've just purchased the extended versions of the first two Lord Of The Rings films, and backed them up to my computer. (G4 running Panther 10.3.2). The problem is that the films come on two seperate DVDs (two per film, that is), and I therefore have 2 VOB files per film. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how I can join these two VOB files together on my Mac without converting to another format, without purchasing any software (though I'm willing to download freeware or working shareware), and without using Virtual PC (as I don't have it).

I'm very sorry if this has been posted before, but I searched the forum and couldn't find it.

Thanks in advance!

[willrob]

I don't think it's possible. You could do it with DVD2OneX, but is not free. But even using its Join mode, I think the two films would not fit together seemlessly, since the first disk ends with a segment of black screen, and disc two may start with a title screen (can't remember for sure). So there would at minimum be a chuck of black where the two parts are joined. To remove that you would have to edit the vob files, which defeats one of your other requirements.


william

[lloyd]

Okay, is there some way to do it by converting to another format then converting back to VOB? I only want to do this if there is no loss of quality, though. I have QuickTime Pro if that helps.

[willrob]

Looking back at your original post, I notice you don't say you want to write the combined film back to a single DVD. If that is the ultimate end, then you will need something like DVD2OneX to recompress the two halves into 4.3 G. If you only want to view it on your computere as one continuous movie, you coujld demux the vobs, and using DIVA and Quicktime pro fusse them together. There may be some other freeware utility that can fuse them more easily. But to go back to a DVD (remuxing, etc) will mean recompressing.

William

[willrob]

Somethinhg else just occured to me: How did you end up with only two VOB files, one for each half of the movie. I have these DVDs but haven't looks at their file structure, but I'm almost certain that there must be more than one Vob file per disk. Typiucally the movie portion of a disk is broken up into multiple vobs.

What did you use to copy/decript the discs? DVDBackup?

Of did you mean to say you have two VIDEO_TS folders?


william

[lloyd]

I used OSEx and chose "Program Stream" to extract the whole title to one VOB file. That's how I usually rip movies, and is how I ended up with two: one per disk. (Four if you count both films).

I don't need to write back to DVD in the end, just join them for watching on my computer.

[ctf]

blwyddyn newydd da i chi!
(happy new year in welsh)

Are you watching your VOB files using VLC or Mplayer os x?
if so they both have "playlist" functions so you can just drag your files into the playlist window in order and the software will play them one after the other.
If you really want to join them then try Rosetta (search on version tracker) its shareware but it does work (i've just joined 2 vobs and played the resultant file in VLC) However it gives no clue as to whether anything is going on or not so you have to be patient.
If you are very clever you could investigate the unix commands ("cat" is the one to use i think but others will have to tell you more...)

[MacFan]

Yes it is possible with the Free application called Extractor, with this application you can choose to make 1 VOB.
You can download this app at http://denisx.dyndns.org/extractor/downloads/

One of the best apps i have seen, i use it a lot to rip DVD's and put subtitles to it with DVDSP 2

[Vintageman]

Probably one of the best ways to get everything you want is with DVD Shrink (if you have VPC). It will let you edit the vobs ( ex: get rid of that black at the end ) compress and join those two parts into one. But the best feature is you can save as a DVD folder when you rip them with whatever program you use ( Extractor or DVd backup ) and still do all the edits and joining and still have a DVD folder with chapters intact and subs if you want.

[Vintageman]

I forgot to mention it wont take 10 hours like it would with Quicktime to get that edit. It will do it in about 4 minutes and that includes saving it. And joining them is just as fast.

[Vintageman]

Sorry just read the end of your post of not having VPC. Never mind! But if you should PURCHASE ( wink ) VPC the whole process can be done in about an hour and keep chapters, subs and whatever audio you want. I strongly recommend you PURCHASE ( wink ) VPC and download the FREE DVD Shrink.

[galactica]

Hey now!
what do you mean PURCHASE

watch it....