How Do I Reconfigure .VOB files?

[lightscameraaction]

I have several DVD rips on my hard disk, using the VIDEO_TS, .IFO, .VOB format. I would like to play them on my D-Link DSM-520 Media Center, which can play individual .VOB files. The problem is that, since an individual .VOB file doesn't necessarily contain just one complete show, I wind up seeing only a portion of one or more shows.

I'm looking for a commercial software program that can re-configure or trim the .VOB files so that one file equals one show, and can do so without the slow process of converting the video. In other words, I don't want to end up with, say, .AVI files, but with .VOB files of the proper length.

Any ideas?

[Baldrick]

You could use vobmerge to get one vob from the main movie. Or use vob2mpg and get a mpg(no video conversion) for each video title.

[lightscameraaction]

Thanks. I'm reluctant to install the Net Framework, though. Are there any other programs, perhaps commercial ones, that could do the job without requiring such an installation?

BTW, Blackadder says hello!

[jagabo]

In the future, rip with DVD Decrypter in IFO mode with no file splitting. You'll get one big VOB per movie.

[guns1inger]

I'm reluctant to install the Net Framework, though

Why ? Would you install the visual basic runtimes to run something written in VB ?

[lightscameraaction]

I'll tell you why I'm reluctant to install these programs. I installed the VOB2MPGv2_3 on a laptop using Net Framework. Although I specifically asked for a program that could split source .VOB files into individual shows as indicated on that main menu of the DVD, this program did NOT do that, but tried to create one big .MPG file from all the shows.

When I tried to abort the VOB2MPG conversion process, my laptop crashed. now I'm trying frantically to restore it to normal operation.

Great!

[mats.hogberg]

vob2mpg isn't clairvoyant. If you want separate mpgs for individual shows, you have to rip individual shows, not the whole DVD in one go.

/Mats

[nic2k4]

Easy, use DVDShrink in re-author mode, use the set start/end point button to select only what you want.

[lightscameraaction]

I'm not asking for clairvoyant. I'm simply asking for a program that can read the directory of a DVD previously ripped by someone else. I think that file is VTS_01_0.IFO. Then, that program needs to create a separate .VOB or even .MPG file from EACH show (or program, or episode, if you like) in that directory. So, if there are six episodes of a show in the .VOB files from the ripped DVD, there will be 6 output files from that DVD, one for each episode. And this would be done, regardless of how the episodes are organized in the source .VOB files.

I don't know how to make this any clearer. Does anyone know of software that will do this?

[mats.hogberg]

Re-rip it the way you'd like it split up.

/Mats

[manono]

Does anyone know of software that will do this?

PGCDemux. Demux the episodes one at a time, each to its own folder. You can demux them all, or create a Vob for each by checking the "Create a PGC VOB" box.

I'm not asking for clairvoyant.

It looks to me like you were. How is Vob2MPEG to know where one show ends and the next begins?

[Faustus]

If you are going to be streaming it why not use something like AutoGK to put it into another format and save some space? You could chop it up as needed.

[lightscameraaction]

It looks to me like you were. How is Vob2MPEG to know where one show ends and the next begins?

Well, how does a DVD player know where each show is? When I choose an episode from a DVD player, it doesn't ask me to set the in and out points. Surely it isn't too much to ask a software program to do the same?

Or isn't that information stored anywhere? I assumed it would be in the .ifo file. I've seen different rips with one .VOB per episode, and other rips where the .VOB's are, say 1G in size, and don't correspond at all to the start and end of the shows they contain.

So what's happening here, does the ripping process somehow destroy the in and out points of a given show? Are you telling me there's no way to know where those points are, outside of searching for them manually?

[manono]

Or isn't that information stored anywhere? I assumed it would be in the .ifo file.

That's right, it's in the IFOs. There is VOB and Cell ID information contained within the VOBs, but the function of Vob2MPEG is to convert VOBs to MPEGs, and not discriminate among PGCs. Maybe it could be further developed to do what you want. But PGCDemux can do it already. Use the right tool for the job.

If you want VOBs of the individual episodes, easiest and best would be to get them when decrypting, by using DVD Decrypter set for IFO Mode and no splitting. jagabo mentioned this already.

[lightscameraaction]

Ok. Thank you all for your advice on this.