how to merge/join two vob fies

[thecrock]

I recently wanted to change the frame rate of an avi file from ntsc to pal, i used vso divx to dvd and chose the force pal output. I now have two vob files at 25fps but i want to join these two files to make one full movie for playing on a standalone . I could use nero but it won't merge the files together so i will get two movie buttons on the menu and i just want one.
Can anybody help?

[jimmalenko]

So VSO DixtoDVD created a VTS_01_1.VOB file and a VTS_01_2.VOB file ?

[thecrock]

Indeed it did.

[guns1inger]

How big are the files ? A movie can span several VOBs. Most commercial releases span 4 or more. A VOB can be no larger than 1000kb (?). If these files are inside a folder called Video_TS, and accompanied by IFO and BUP files, then what you have is called a DVD. Burn it and watch it.

[jimmalenko]

I think you'll find that if you burn the entire VIDEO_TS folder, you'll get a playable DVD as one title

What happens is that the DVD spec says the VOBs shouldn't be more than 1GB in size, so it then creates VTS_01_2.VOB when 1 GB is reached, and VTS_01_3.VOB when 2GB is reached, and so on ...

If you want to create a menu, then TMPGEnc DVD Author will do this on its ear. It surprises me that Nero won't accept an already-authored stream though

[HARRYSPADGE]

I think you will find that the previous answers are correct, but if you still wish to join/merge these VOB's for whatever reason, you can use VOBEDIT which you will find in the TOOLS section.

Or you can use a program called VOBMERGE, get it here,

http://medlem.spray.se/evilmastr/mainmenu.php?menu=6

[thecrock]

I dont know how to us vobedit, are there any good guides? Also with vobmerge are there any problems with audio sync?

Thanks for your help guys.

[jimmalenko]

I think you will find that the previous answers are correct, but if you still wish to join/merge these VOB's for whatever reason, you can use VOBEDIT which you will find in the TOOLS section.

The only problem with this is that if, as I suspect, DivxtoDVD has (correctly) created a 1GB VTS_01_1.VOB file and then a VTS_01_2.VOB file for the excess, using VOBEdit to join the VOBs is going to produce the exact same result !


FWIW, http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/test.htm steps through the procedure of joining VOB files with VOBEdit, and then creating new IFOs with IFOEdit.

[HARRYSPADGE]

Here's a guide which I believe was authored by our friend jimmalenko above,

http://members.dodo.net.au/~jimmalenko/test.htm

As regards to audiosync problems with VOBMERGE I am unsure as I haven't used it exhaustively yet.

Sorry jimmalenko you beat me to it.

[DarrellS]

Crock, I thought you were going to reply back to your original thread and let us know if everything worked out alright...

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=269874&highlight=

instead of starting a new thread. Did the VSO process you tried, fix the sync problems? If so, then like the poster earlier stated, burn the DVD or if you want to add more files to the DVD then use a program like TDA to join all the movie files, make a menu and burn the DVD.

[thecrock]

Sorry about that DARRELLS, yes vso gave me the movie at 25fps and in sync. I got back two vob files which i joined with vobmerge and then burned to dvd with a nice menu. I have just tried another movie using the same method, this time i got three vobs back, i joined them into one file and it plays back with nero showtime perfectly but unfortunately nero doesn't like it this time around and i've got an error log and a tea mat. I should have switched off burn at once, oh well nothing is easy is it? Nero is strange, when i try to burn some avi's i get the message that there is not enough space on the disc and it will compress my file to get it on at lower quality-but when i have taken the same avi, converted it to vob or mpeg2 myself i usually find the movie only takes up about 2.5 to 3 gigs.

Any thoughts on this?

[DarrellS]

vso gave me the movie at 25fps and in sync. I got back two vob files which i joined with vobmerge and then burned to dvd with a nice menu.

That's good to know that VSO worked. I was experimenting with a file for another guy and I messed up when I saved the AVI and direct stream copied the AC3 audio with Virtualdub and the AVI was all messed up but when I put the messed up file in VSO and forced it to save a PAL 25fps VOB, it played just fine.

Like the other guys mentioned, you didn't need to merge the VOBS with VOBmerge but if it will make menus then I guess it's OK, especially if it is freeware.

I have just tried another movie using the same method, this time i got three vobs back, i joined them into one file and it plays back with nero showtime perfectly but unfortunately nero doesn't like it this time around and i've got an error log and a tea mat.

I've learned to check my VOBs before I burn them to make sure everything is OK and I have never used Nero to burn a Movie DVD. I use TDA or DVDdecrypter to burn. I only use Nero to make Data DVDs and music CDs or Data CDs.

Nero is strange, when i try to burn some avi's i get the message that there is not enough space on the disc and it will compress my file to get it on at lower quality-but when i have taken the same avi, converted it to vob or mpeg2 myself i usually find the movie only takes up about 2.5 to 3 gigs.

That's weird and you're not the first person that has said that. I never have problems with Nero and Data DVDs. The first time that I heard this problem, all I could figure was the guy was trying to burn a movie CD with an AVI file instead of making a Data DVD using the AVI file.

[thecrock]

Yeah, i can't figure that last one out, why should a 700 to 800 mb file take up over 4.7 gig when converted to dvd with nero. I'm not really complaining though as i have used the option to encode to a lower quality with nero and i can never tell the difference on the finished product. My question is if the file is too large for nero to burn onto a 4.7 disc-why does the file take up as little as 3 gig when you choose this option, surely the quality would be better the more disc space nero allowed it, i mean 1.7 gig is a lot of space left over for a project that wouldn't fit on the disc in the first place. I must be missing something here.

[jimmalenko]

I think one of your problems might be that you're relying on Nero et al. to do a lot of the thinking for you.

Call me a purist, but for results within a few MBs of where they should be (or where you want them to be), I think you should consider manually calculating the bitrates you need to use with a Bitrate Calculator and then use an encoder that allows you to set a specific bitrate.

The problem with a lot of all-in-ones is that they tend to have presets, so a lot of times your movie is either 352 X 480 @ 4000kbps or 720 X 480 @ 8000kbps, and there's little to no alternatives for inbetween. That said, I'm led to believe the DivxtoDVD does attempt to vary bitrate in order to fill the disc as much as possible, and is probably one of the better options if you must use an all-in-one.

[guns1inger]

DivxtoDVD somehow actually translates the DCT data from the AVI to use when it encodes. This is why it is so fast - no need to do it's own analysis. This is also why it often correctly calculates the required bitrate based on mpeg video on DVD, but then comes in way under that bitrate for the finished movie, yet still often keeps a reasonable picture.

[DarrellS]

I had a feeling that's what the Nero users were talking about when they said they were having trouble making a DVD with their AVI files. That is definately something that I wouldn't attempt to do.

Something that I've noticed with VSO is that the file size will vary depending on what type of AVI you give it. A 2000 bitrate XviD with MP3 audio will be alot smaller when converted to DVD than a Huffyuv AVI with an uncompressed Wave file even though they are both being converted to the same 720x480 resolution, 29.970 framerate and 48KHz Stereo 192kbps AC3 audio.

As Gunslinger stated, there is no loss in video quality using VSO DivXToDVD. I had some XviD files that I was worried would not look too great when converted to DVD since the filesize was only 350 MB for 50 minute clips and the resolution was like 512x304 or something but they looked pretty darned good. Each file was a hair over 1 GB after conversion.

[thecrock]

quote:

As Gunslinger stated, there is no loss in video quality using VSO DivXToDVD.

If vso has to recode from avi back to vob there must be some loss in quality. No?
I have tried it with another divx that nero refused to burn and it worked just fine with vso, i think i will be testing it out a lot more in the future.

[DarrellS]

quote:

As Gunslinger stated, there is no loss in video quality using VSO DivXToDVD.

If vso has to recode from avi back to vob there must be some loss in quality. No?
I have tried it with another divx that nero refused to burn and it worked just fine with vso, i think i will be testing it out a lot more in the future.

I'm sure there's a slight loss but I wouldn't think the average eye could tell the difference. Some people claim that they can see a difference between a 8,000 bitrate file and an 10,000 bitrate file but I can tell you that my eye wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

The quality of the DVD that you get depends on the video file that you give it. A 720x480 lossless AVI will naturally look better when converted than a 352x240 mpeg1.