DVD to MPEG: tool recommendation for constant quality w/out recompression

[jgombos]

I've experimented with several Windows tools to convert a DVD to MPEG file. They have a tendancy to force a computationally intensive recompression. The processing will be done on a dual Xeon P2 (running XP Pro), so I want the conversion to be very quick, without recompressing anything. I'm setting this up for computer incompetent users, so it must enable the user to follow a simple conversion process. The target file size doesn't matter since it won't be burned.

Ultimately, the idea is that DVDs will be backed up to a server, and the client will be an STB media player (the Avel Linkplayer). Playing VOBs directly is a problem, because the STB does not know how to access a network-served DVD conventionally, and the user is left without a menu and must choose which VOB file to play (which is too cryptic for the users I'm setting this up for). The STB is also not smart enough to sequence the VOB files seemlessly. Losing the menu is no problem, but all the content for the movie must be in a single file. VOBmerge may do the trick (since the STB can play VOB files), assuming VOBmerge knows which VOBs belong to the main movie, and I don't know if that's the case.

[Baldrick]

vob2mpg

[jgombos]

vob2mpg

Thanks!