Seamlessly Convert DVD (VOB) Files Back to a MPEG2 File

[JBredensteiner]

Good afternoon,
I read through the "How to convert DVDs back to MPG files for reauthor or reedit" topic a couple of times, and I have tried every software listed on the topic page; however, the last time someone posted to that forum was back in 2004, so I was wondering if there was a better way to convert DVDs back to MPEG2 files. I am running Windows Vista, and I use my XBOX 360 as a Media Center Extender, and I also have 2TB of storage. My DVD collecting is now in the 300's, so I would like to convert all of them into MPEG2 files, so I can stream them from my PC to my XBOX 360, and since the XBOX 360 only plays a limited number of file types I thought I would just stick with MPEG2.

The best program I have used so far is "TMPGEnc MPEG Editor", but I have experienced some problems with it, and it doesn't seem like the program was meant to convert DVD as much as it was built to edit video files.

My question is what is the best program to convert DVD (VOB) files back to MPEG2 files? My requirements are that I do not lose any quality, as I will be streaming the DVDs to a 1080i plasma TV, so the quality must stay as it currently is. My other requirements are that I must be able to retain the 5.1 Dolby Digital AC3 Surround Sound, I do not want to have to pick the bit rate or the resolution or anything like that, and the conversion must be as easy and fast as possible; money is no object at this point. I LOVE "DVD Shrink” and I would really be happy with an application that works the same way; meaning that it shows me which title is the main movie, and lets me select the audio I want to keep. I do not want to shrink the files, as that would take a long time; I just want to convert them back to the MPEG2 format. I will quickly recap below.

Thank you in advance for your help and support, Jon

Recap of requirements:

1. Maintain same quality
2. Seamless conversion from VOB to MPEG2 files
a. No selection of resolution or bit rate, the program must keep the original video settings
3. Fast and easy just like DVD Shrink
a. I don’t want to go to have to college to understand the program
4. I only want to keep the main title and the 5.1 audio
a. No close captions or extras
5. The end result must be a single MPEG2 file containing the audio and video
a. I don’t care how big the resulting MPEG2 files are; 4 to 7GB files are expectable

[guns1inger]

VOB2MPG

[festmaster]

VOB2MPG is very fast and free. Since you are familiar with DVDShrink, rip the movie only to your hard drive. Start VOB2MPG and load the first file from the folder where the movie resides, tell the program where to save the MPEG2 file and click start. It will take all of the files in the VOB title set and make one large MPEG file.

[JBredensteiner]

Will it allow me to do it straight from the DVD? I would rather just do it in one step instead of copying the DVD to my hard drive with DVD shrink, and then recopy it with VOB2MPG. Thank you for the fast reply

[festmaster]

For most tools other than the rippers themselves, you need to put the movie on your hard drive to overcome the DRM protections.

[JBredensteiner]

I have AnyDVD though, and it removes the DRM.

[festmaster]

If your hard drive space is that tight, give it a try but don't be surprised if VOB2MPG crashes.

[JBredensteiner]

Ok, I took your advice and just used DVD Shrink first, and it worked. So I guess I will just do it that way, but it would be nice if I didn't have to use two applications to get the job done. Thanks for your help, Jon

[gabe42pc]

I have a similar problem and have been trying to use the same solution but with some difficulty. I have home movies on DVD that I want to change to MPEG2 for editing. I used DVD decrypter to transfer VOB to HD and then VOB2MPG. It works great to change to MPEG2, everything is fine. But when I try and edit (cut) the MPEG2 file with TMPGEnc, no sound comes through. I found it does this on DVD's that I made with my VCR/DVD recorder combo but not with VCR to DVD recorder via RCA cables. I want to use the VCR/DVD combo since it is much easier,faster,cleaner. Any ideas on what the problem is? I found the the mpeg2 file has the audio file listed as a private stream when I go to demux the file in TMPGEnc. where as the other files list as audio stream. What does this mean?

[guns1inger]

At a guess your problem lies with tmpgenc and AC3. I use Womble Mpeg Wizard and have problems cutting demuxed files.

[Soopafresh]

Seems to be a bug somewhere along the line. Dunno which program is misbehaving to cause this condition.

I'm going to recommend the ol' trusty Mpg2Cut2 for conversion from VOBs to MPG. It also seems to be smart enough to recognize and fix errors with the audio being on odd subchannels. (No dissing to you, Chrissyboy. I'm a big fan of your apps and expertise.)

Mpg2cut2 is reminiscent of VirtualDub in many ways. If you've done direct stream copy cutting with VirtualDub, Mpg2cut2 will be very familiar.

http://download.videohelp.com/download/mpg2cut2_6917_libmmd_mpalib.zip

[jester1x]

TMPGEnc DVD Author can convert vob files to one mpeg2 file. Yes, it's not free, but it does the job well. I use the resulting mpeg2 file (movie only) in ConvertXtoDVD (PAL to NTSC conversions). Results come out looking really good since the source was DVD quality to begin with... Yeah, there are other methods, but my "experimental" method works quick and the results are very nice. I use DVDShrink to strip out unnecessary audio tracks and subtitles before converting the vob files into an mpeg2 file. Excuse me for getting a little off track, but hope this helps you out.