Converting old dvd projects

[Buzzword]

Well, it's been years since I've been on VideoHelp given that I stopped dvd authoring with the Adobe Premiere Suite about a decade ago due to the slow demise of cd/dvd players. Not only that, it became apparent that disks are not a storage medium that is considered as permanent as it was in the beginning.

To preserve my dvd projects, I'm now just starting to convert all my dvd's VOB files to MP4 files. I now use Adobe Premier Elements and my first attempt went fine. I figure I'll copy the mp4's to a hard or thumb drive or the cloud.

My main reason for writing is to get a reading if what I'm doing is pretty much what many of you are now doing with your dvd projects.

In any case, back in the day I gained a lot of knowledge from VideoHelp and it's nice to see this site still going strong.

[Swedaniel]

Well, it's been years since I've been on VideoHelp given that I stopped dvd authoring with the Adobe Premiere Suite about a decade ago due to the slow demise of cd/dvd players. Not only that, it became apparent that disks are not a storage medium that is considered as permanent as it was in the beginning.

To preserve my dvd projects, I'm now just starting to convert all my dvd's VOB files to MP4 files. I now use Adobe Premier Elements and my first attempt went fine. I figure I'll copy the mp4's to a hard or thumb drive or the cloud.

My main reason for writing is to get a reading if what I'm doing is pretty much what many of you are now doing with your dvd projects.

In any case, back in the day I gained a lot of knowledge from VideoHelp and it's nice to see this site still going strong.

Welcome back! Dont forget that any video feel really good in an avi format! atleast if you plan to delete the VOB files!

[Alwyn]

Unless hard drive space is an issue, I simply rewrap the DVD VOBs into MPEG 2 so there is no quality degradation. I use AVIDemux or DVDVOB2MPG. They join up the VOBs and change the file extension to MPG.

If you have space issues, then yes, MP4 is the way to go. I've found that an MP4 of half the size of a DVD will have similar quality. Achieve that by changing the bitrate or Quality Factor (CRF). Lots of variables in that though and only your eyes will tell you.

Dont forget that any video feel really good in an avi format!

I don't think that is a very good idea at all. The files will be bigger and much less compatible with players.

[Swedaniel]

Unless hard drive space is an issue, I simply rewrap the DVD VOBs into MPEG 2 so there is no quality degradation. I use AVIDemux or DVDVOB2MPG. They join up the VOBs and change the file extension to MPG.

If you have space issues, then yes, MP4 is the way to go. I've found that an MP4 of half the size of a DVD will have similar quality. Achieve that by changing the bitrate or Quality Factor (CRF). Lots of variables in that though and only your eyes will tell you.

Dont forget that any video feel really good in an avi format!

I don't think that is a very good idea at all. The files will be bigger and much less compatible with players.

Ooh ok! Well the Windows Education from the School system said so atleast, was best to use avi for compability! Mpg and Wmv was nice allso! MP4 sort of connection point format, not as joyfull to convert and the free tools avalible to use is not as many free and not as good as the avi ones! i think compability for playing and converting an avi is much better then mp4! avi seem more like an accessible video interface format then an multiplexed connection format 4 the web! :P

Edit: Alot of free reliable tools avalible for avi allso since it is more of an "standard" format for the operating system whilst mp4s are more the standard format for web browsers! DivX have an great free converter for example to convert avi videos to other formats, sadly to preserve the maximum frame rate it can only use .avi as source, this seem to be an thing coming back in many tools that things start go bad for the video stats/quality when using other formats then the main operating system formats such as avi!

So imo if one would want an good source format to use the video for the future allso, avi is the way to go! I could atleast myself never concider using any other format then avi with an "as compitable as possible codec" and as good stats as possible (ie frame rates, image quality etc), that can be used for as many scenarios as possible in the future with as many output formats as possible, as many options as possible for frame rate, quality and other things! It is pretty easy to get an hold of an free tool for avi to get them done and ready with real good source statistics for use in the future for basicly any scenario put together with an positive outcome! If then i would need to increase the compability further with an really old/low performance computer or any scenario where i would need an mpg i would rather convert the avi into an mpg to use for this specific scenario and use the avi as source video in an more enhanced enviroment built on an plethora of free tools!

[Alwyn]

@Swedaniel, you're 10 years behind the times.

[usually_quiet]

@Swedaniel, you're 10 years behind the times.

I agree. AVI (usually DivX or Xvid) is no longer popular. MPG, MP4, and even MKV are more common today.

[Bwaak]

I rip DVDs that I care about and play the folder as a DVD-video disc. I don't bother remuxing or re-encoding, disk space is cheap. I used to make ISOs because a single file seemed neater, but then the media player I used to play those ISOs died. My other standalone media player can play exploded file structure but not ISO, so I am keeping everything exploded from now on. No difference on a computer. In fact, I may stop using standalone boxes, because a computer can play anything. My friends who watch downloads and rips all use either small PC boxes or laptops.

[Swedaniel]

@Swedaniel, you're 10 years behind the times.

I agree. AVI (usually DivX or Xvid) is no longer popular. MPG, MP4, and even MKV are more common today.

Im sure most videos avalible origin from an avi source before beeing converted into mkv, mpg or mp4! Same thing for the DivX and XviD videos would have suffered the same faith of beeing converted from an source AVI of high quality and best properties to then be encoded/converted into an avi format with divx/xvid codec! People might not want to share their source/original video so they convert/encode this into an high quality format such as mkv with less ways to be successfully encoded/converted/changed/modified and then re-sold (ie. stolen/piracy). I guess same thing goes for DivX or XviD, is to produce high quality videos to be shared out to anyone and still keep the source intact, the shared video is slightly better protected and some diminishing returns for the piracy situations and the normal usage situations for the videos encoded with theese formats and codecs make things really easy! To make life even more easy an nice codec with high quality in avi format will likely make things even more easy to produce high quality mkvs, mp4s or even create an mpg for some low performance hardware! An easily accessed, handled an managed audio+ video format with an plethora of free tools, codecs and possibilities is the way to go and avi is the best format for this!

And during the school years the mpg format is one of the main ones for the kids to learn of and to use to then move on to the avi video format and learn some of the mp4 format to be used by browser and mkv as high definition commonly used with some video/biographic effects/resolutions! Still an avi video can be used as source to create this really cool mkv videos, sometimes with this slight orange glow or goldish one to enhance the beggining of the video! all such tools that are avalible for free for use with avi videos with the click of an button to create an biographic golden/orange mkv video making things look like an professional video with dolby digital golden things on it!

Seem like an pretty worth format to use as main source at any time if one would want to produce some other stuff from those video files at an other time! If one would then urgently need an mpg video to use with one of those 10 dollar portable players with memory card slot and battery, there is probably thousands of free avi to mpg converters to get the task done in just a few minutes! Atleast over here they toss those 10 dollar players all of the place during car travels to skii resorts and what not, funnily they tend to mainly support the mpg format! Two weeks later they get an new tv and want to check the movie with biographic effects and high resolution!

Basicly by purchasing 10 SD Memory cards and put mpg movies on them and one can pretend to be an professional in the movie rental buisness during the travels for an cost of a few dollars in sd memory cards! Still one day or the other an pretending customer come with an more advanced portable player, which many use DivX for this, still today! Im sure any professional in the movie rental buisness wouldnt drop an unsupported mkv video to them for this scenario!

I guess any internet pirate that was not allowed to come for the travel would say otherwise .

If you're not an internet pirate today, it is easy to become one in the flinch of an second! To then have an video format with as much free tools avalible as possible to advance and become the top professional pretending movie rental pirate that excist and that does not let its co-traveling pretending customers down, then i suggest avi atleast!

[usually_quiet]

@Swedaniel, you're 10 years behind the times.

I agree. AVI (usually DivX or Xvid) is no longer popular. MPG, MP4, and even MKV are more common today.

Im sure most videos avalible origin from an avi source before beeing converted into mkv, mpg or mp4! Same thing for the DivX and XviD videos would have suffered the same faith of beeing converted from an source AVI of high quality and best properties to then be encoded/converted into an avi format with divx/xvid codec! People might not want to share their source/original video so they convert/encode this into an high quality format such as mkv with less ways to be successfully encoded/converted/changed/modified and then re-sold (ie. stolen/piracy). I guess same thing goes for DivX or XviD, is to produce high quality videos to be shared out to anyone and still keep the source intact, the shared video is slightly better protected and some diminishing returns for the piracy situations and the normal usage situations for the videos encoded with theese formats and codecs make things really easy! To make life even more easy an nice codec with high quality in avi format will likely make things even more easy to produce high quality mkvs, mp4s or even create an mpg for some low performance hardware! An easily accessed, handled an managed audio+ video format with an plethora of tools free tools, codecs and possibilities is the way to go and avi is the best format for this!

And during the school years the mpg format is one of the main ones for the kids to learn of and to use to then move on to the avi video format and learn some of the mp4 format to be used by browser and mkv as high definition commonly used with some video/biographic effects/resolutions! Still an avi video can be used as source to create this really cool mkv videos, sometimes with this slight orange glow or goldish one to enhance the beggining of the video! all such tools that are avalible for free for use with avi videos with the click of an button to create an biographic golden/orange mkv video making things look like an professional video with dolby digital golden things on it!

Seem like an pretty worth format to use as main source at any time if one would want to produce some other stuff from those video files at an other time! If one would then urgently need an mpg video to use with one of those 10 dollar portable players with memory card slot and battery, there is probably thousands of free avi to mpg converters to get the task done in just a few minutes!!

DivX and XviD are obsolete (except perhaps at your home) and re-encoding the video and audio to one of the high-quality lossless formats supported by AVI makes also no sense. Compared to the original DVD video and audio, lossless files are huge and nothing other than a PC will play them.

MP4, MKV, and MPG support the most common types of video and audio found on DVDs, so they don't need to be reencoded to other formats. In addition to DVD spec video and audio, MP4 and MKV also support AVC video and AAC audio if it is desirable to re-encode the DVD video and audio to save space. DVD subtitles, if they are present, will probably need to be converted from DVD subpicture format to something else for playability. However, saving the DVDs in their original file and folder format is also a fine idea.