No video in VOB to AVI conversion

[Matt42]

I followed the guide at https://forum.videohelp.com/topic338866.html to convert a VOB file I had to AVI. I'm a little confused about it now because of what happened:

I opened the VOB file and got the D2V file and the WAV file from it using DGIndex. Then I converted the D2V file to AVI using VFAPIConvEN. I then joined the AVI and WAV files using VirtualDub. I opened the new AVI file to make sure everything worked out right, and everything looked great. I then deleted all the files that (I thought) I wouldn't need anymore: the D2V, the no-audio-AVI, the original VOB, and the WAV. Now when I open the AVI file that was made, there is no video! Only audio and a black screen in WMP. And VLC won't even play it.

So my question is: After I do all the conversions, am I supposed to leave the files that I used? I thought the video gets copied to the final AVI file along with the WAV? Does it for some reason still read the video from one of those files (maybe the no-audio-AVI that was made with VFAPIConvEN)?

I'm a little confused about what exactly happened and why. Could anyone maybe explain? Any help/info would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT:

After fooling around more with this, I figured out that the final AVI file needs the D2V file and the VOB file for the video to display in the final AVI. Does this mean that the video isn't actually stored in the AVI? I'm confused because I thought that all the data is stored in the AVI file, not in other separate files. Does this mean that there is no way for me to recover the video from the AVI since I deleted the VOB and D2V files? I'm confused and this is really frustrating me.

[guns1inger]

No, the avi files does not need the .d2v and VOB files to play. I don't know what you did, but if yuu deleted your source files before you were sure the project was done, more fool you because now you have nothing.

DGindex is a frameserver like avisynth or virtualdub. The d2v file is basically a signpost that passes uncompressed video from the original source through to your encoder. The avi, if you have done it right, will then contain a newly encoded version of the video.

Personally, I would have just used AutoGK, which is simple and reliable.

[Matt42]

The project was done. I checked the AVI to make sure everything was fine(as stated in my original post). I made sure all the video and audio was there, and that it was all lined up correctly. Everything was fine. After the VOB or D2V are deleted/moved/renamed, the video doesn't show up anymore in the AVI.

I am positive about this. I have checked it over and over by reconverting VOBs over and over. Every time it works like that. I have no idea why.

Thanks for the reply though.

[Baldrick]

VFAPIConvEN doesn't really converting anything, it just make a FAKE avi that links to the original vob files. If you want a real avi you must open the FAKE avi in an editor/converting tool and convert it to avi, like with Virtualdub and file->save as avi.

[jagabo]

Or use VirtualDubMod or VirtualDubMPEG2 to open your VOB file and save as AVI.

[Matt42]

VFAPIConvEN doesn't really converting anything, it just make a FAKE avi that links to the original vob files. If you want a real avi you must open the FAKE avi in an editor/converting tool and convert it to avi, like with Virtualdub and file->save as avi.

Thanks for the info about VFAPIConvEN. This still doesn't solve the problem though. I did open the AVI in VirtualDub and save it as AVI (that's the last step I did to get the audio in it). I did try doing what you said again to make sure though.

So does that mean that the final AVI is only linked to the VOB file also? And there's no way to get the video out of the AVI?

Or use VirtualDubMod or VirtualDubMPEG2 to open your VOB file and save as AVI.

That doesn't work with direct stream copy. It says the VOB uses a compression algorithm not compatible with AVI files. I've been using direct stream copy for the video in VirtualDub*, is that why I'm having problems? If I don't use direct stream copy for the video, a 30 second VOB turns into a 1GB+ AVI.

???

[Baldrick]

Yep, you can't use direct stream copy. Choose full compression and a video codec like divx,xvid under video>compression if you want smaller file size.

[Matt42]

Alright. Thank you for the help.

So I guess this means the video's gone forever, right?

[jagabo]

What is it you are trying to accomplish? Are you looking for a way to edit MPG files without reencoding? Are you trying to create something like a Divx AVI file? Something else?

[Matt42]

I was just trying to create a AVI file from a VOB file that I had so it wouldn't take up so much disc space.

[mats.hogberg]

Use AutoGK.

/Mats

[Matt42]

Yea, I used AutoGK for one of the files I had, but it took three and a half hours. I was looking for another way that might be shorter, and that's when I came across that guide. That only takes a total of about 20 minutes, but that's only when using direct stream copy. I guess I'll just have to deal with waiting a few hours for it.

[guns1inger]

Or get a faster computer. Dual or quad core makes a hell of a difference to encoding times if the encoder is multi-CPU aware.