VOBs Question

[smut]

I'm a total newbie so please forgive the dumb question!!
If when you rip a dvd, you end up with vob files, why do you then use an encoder to change these to mpeg2, if when you burn them, the authoring prog converts them back to vobs. I know that you can use some progs(Nero etc) & just use the vobs, but most guides seem to use TMPGEnc or similar.
I actually would like to rip them then do a little cropping in VirtualDub, then end up with vobs again because if I save as anything else, like mpegs, then have to join the files & they end up over the 4Gb limit in Win98.

Thanx for any info
Smut

[Tommyknocker]

The only reason we would want to convert vobs is to make them either VCDs, SVCDs, or MPEGs. What we usually do is once the DVD files are ripped, we may shrink them or split them to fit on one or two DVD±R(W)s respectively. Hope this helps!

[FOO]

The general idea is that if you want to modify the video in
almost any way, it needs to be done in an uncompressed format.
That of course requires that it be re-encoded when you are
done modifying it.

[smut]

Thanx Guys I get the idea, but 1 more question!
I want to rip the vobs, then modify them(crop), then output them in someway that when burnt to a DVDr they play as a continous movie without going over the 4Gb file limit in win98.
I've tried all sorts of ways, but they end up playing as separate files or I go over the size limit, am I missing something or doing it wrong??

Thanx again for any info
Smut

[Tommyknocker]

Have you tried converting the vobs to AVIs, then joining them with a codec like DivX?

[FOO]

There is a program called DVD2AVI which will read
your Set of VOBs and produce a small index file which
can be read by Avisynth and processed there or be sent to
Vdub for processing. (cropping )

The processed output from that stage can be sent to TMPGenc
or CCE for encoding without any intermediate files

If that output is too big it can be done in 2 parts

You then feed that (those) to an Authoring program.

I'm sure there are guides somewhere for all that