VOB conversion help

[MarkL1986]

Hello,

I've been reading some guides and downloading some of the tools to try create backups of my dvds but i'm just so confused about how to approach the converting process.

What I want is to be able to backup tv series dvds and some films, i have figured out how to create vob files of my tv episodes using dvd decrypter in ifo mode which creates 2 vob files per episode, i joined them with vobmerge and now i have a 1.7gb .vob file for each 40 minute episode, which i assume is identical quality to the content on the original dvd. (please correct me if any quality is lost from ripping and joining the vob files).

So from here I now want to get these huge 1.7gb episode files into a smaller size for storage/use with a media player. So what I want to know.. is there a way to reduce these file sizes and still retain most of the quality from the original vob files? the less quality lost the better, i will be watching them on a 32" 1080p tv if this helps..

one last thing, i'd like to be able to have the foreign audio subtitles included in the final file. (by this i mean english audio with the subtitles only appearing for foreign parts)

Hope I have given enough info and explained clearly so you guys can help me

[MilesAhead]

It's my understanding that you can use x264 to create .mkv in 480P with a low bit rate but very high quality. For the subtitles I would look into extracting the subtitles with VsRip. Then use BDSup2Sub to export only the forced subs as idx/sub. Many software players will display external idx/sub files with the same base name as the video file.

[PuzZLeR]

To compress them, you will lose quality to any other lossy format such as using DivX, Xvid or x264. Having said that, you can compromise for a smaller size if you use constant quality encoding.

For DivX, I use Q=4, for good quality and a small file size. Q=3 for a slightly bigger file, but more quality from the original.

x264 is even more efficient. I would use these episodes in HandBrake and set to CRF=18, which is comparable to the original and good small file size.

DivX, Xvid and x264 should play on most media boxes today.

Can't help you with subtitles since I don't work with them, but you can always mux, or remux, audio streams in and out of an MP4 or MKV container as you need them, without loss.

[guns1inger]

Rip the disc as you have done. Open the disc in XmediaRecode. Select the title you want to encode, configure the settings (I suggest H264 Quantizer encoding), select the subtitles, and add it to the job list. Repeat for each episode.

Note : subtitles for English non-English speaking parts only must be part of the original disc. If you just have English subs all the way through, that is all you can have int he output.

[MarkL1986]

Thanks guys! I decided to give HandBrake a try and all looks well and with manageable file sizes too.

Thanks again guys!