Do I want/need to transfer from DVD files to MP4

[Noanie]

Hello and thank you in advance for any help you can provide to me. I'm sure that there are many older techies out there but, closer to 70 than any other decade, I am not one of them.

I have several DVDs which contain family videos that have been converted to DVD from a variety of older formats. Quality on any of them is less than stellar. All I am trying to do is to save the files on my cloud storage ( so I can't possibly lose them through damage to physical storage devices ). I want to store them in a way that if my current physical DVDs were damaged, I could easily recreate them if needed.

When I look at the file structure on one of the DVDs, it contains two folders:
- Audio_TS which is empty
- Video_TS which contains the following 5 files:
Video_TS.bup ( BUP File 12kb)
Video_TS (IFO File 12kb)
VTS_01_0.BUP (BUP File 26kb)
VTS_01_0 (IFO File 26 kb)
VTX_01_1 (VOB File 981,674 KB)

I called a local privately held video conversion service to ask them if I should convert to a more current format (MP4?) ? And, if so, would quality would deteriorate? They did not seem very clear about their ability to help me.

If all I need to do is copy the files to the cloud and their current format is still easily supported, I can handle that myself. But, if it makes sense to transition to a more current format, I'd need a recommendation about the best file format to which to convert. And, any thoughts that you would have on how to find a knowledgeable service or individual to help me would be appreciated as well.

As you can tell ... I'm largely clueless about this. Your help is greatly appreciated. Please keep answers simple. Thank you ...

[manono]

Yes, converting to MP4 or another format involving reencoding will degrade the quality. The best quality is what you have now. I'd make an ISO to get a single file and upload that. To make an ISO put the DVD in your computer's DVD drive. Open ImgBurn, click on 'Create image file From disc', make sure it 'sees' your DVD (scroll to the VIDEO_TS folder if not), give it a destination and have it make the ISO.

[JVRaines]

To expand on manono's excellent advice, once you have created an ISO you will have a single computer file that represents everything on the disc. In the future, you can take that ISO file and re-create the disc from it. Or you can even watch the video directly from the ISO file with appropriate software.

[roma_turok]

Better extract Mpeg2(mpg) files with VOB2MPG or DVDVob2Mpg
more easy to play from ISO

[netmask56]

I'm closer to 80 and what I did with my important archival family and history stuff was as suggested make an ISO file that can easily be use to burn a new stock standard DVD playable on a conventional standalone DVD player. I also converted these DVD's to MKV (which is a container) using MakeMKV, a free program but it is worth buying not to have the hassle of renewing the monthly or so registration number. This puts the contents of the main video into a MKV container easily played by most computer media players like VLC etc or stored on the Cloud as well.

[lingyi]

+1 on the suggestions to create an .iso with Imgburn (i.e. an exact copy of the file structure and contents of the disc without the physical media) for storage. Use the 1-2-3 backup strategy (two copies on different media (optical disc or hard drive, and one copy online). Check out my post on this current thread here: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/379531-Best-Archival-Blu-Ray-DVD-or-USB-Revisited

Once you've created your .iso, burn at least one copy for viewing and store the original disc (ideally in a different location). You can also create an .mkv as suggested from your .iso for playback on non-PC devices.

If by chance you run in problems copying the original disc (some non-commercial DVDs may use non-spec methods for copy protection), someone here will very likely be able to help.

[Noanie]

Thank you everybody ... it was a success. I've saved all my DVDs files as ISOs on the cloud. Everything nice and secure. I could not have done it without you.