VOB (VIDEO_TS) to mp4?

[hackwojr]

I did a search and saw questions but no answers, so sorry if this has a clear answer somewhere on the forum - i just didn't see it.

I have been using ffmpegx to convert my VOB files to XvID, then XviD to Mp4, which works fine, but it is a 3 step process (Mactheripper to VOD to xvid to Mp4).

For some reason, ffmpex can't handle going from the VIDEO_TS folder to mp4 directly. So, have tried to to use mactheripper to make a single VOB file, so that ffmpegx can convert this directly to mp4. However, I can't get the sound to encode when doing this. I have tried several different audio streams. I have tried encoding mp4 (ipod preset) with AC3, AAC, mp3, but none of then work.

Handbrake takes a VIDEO_TS folder with all the VOB files and converts it to mp4 just fine. I like ffmpegx better, but this is forcing my hand to use handbrake.

Any suggestions how to get this to work? Also, any reason that the folks at ffmpegx can't figure out how to get the program to go from several VOB files to mp4? I mean....it works to go to divx, why can't it work to go to mp4. In addittion, if the boys at handbrake can figure it out, can't the guys at ffmpegx do it? There program is much better in many ways i think.

Thanks!

[Case]

When you encode from a VIDEO_TS folder, you need to use a mencoder preset.
When you encode from a single VOB file, you can use any preset. It seems you have found out how to rip a DVD title to a single VOB file.

The iPod presets need AAC audio. I don't think AC3 or MP3 audio in MP4 files are iPod compatible.

Possibly your audio encoding fails because the ffmpeg engine uses stream mapping, which defaults to audio at stream #0.1 (track "0"). If your ripped VOB has more than two streams, including subtitle streams, then that may confuse the encoder, not knowing which stream is the audio stream that it needs to convert.
The Process Information log should be able to confirm this:

Encoding started on Wed Jun  4 19:08:37 CEST 2008
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
  libavutil version: 49.0.0
  libavcodec version: 51.9.0
  libavformat version: 50.4.0
Input #0, mpeg, from 'VTS_07_1.VOB':
  Duration: 00:02:15.0, start: 0.287267, bitrate: 11623 kb/s
  Stream #0.0[0x1e0], 25.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576, 9800 kb/s
  Stream #0.1[0x20]: Subtitle: dvdsub
  Stream #0.2[0x21]: Subtitle: dvdsub
  Stream #0.3[0x80]: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
  Stream #0.4[0x81]: Audio: ac3
Codec type mismatch for mapping #0.1 -> #0.1

In this example, there are five streams. The audio I want (#0.3) is two streams further than minimal (#0.1), so I could convert with the audio that I want, when I set the Audio track number in ffmpegX from "0" to "2":

Stream mapping:
  Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
  Stream #0.3 -> #0.1

(Alternatively, you could try ripping with such settings that the VOB file does not contain any additional streams.)