VOB Etiquette - what is and isn't allowed?

[Javalicious]

If a DVD rip has 2 identical sized vob files can one be deleted from the video_ts folder, an iso made/burned with what remains and then played like normal in a stand alone player with all menu features in tact?

That's the gist in as short and sweet as I can explain it I'm not unfamiliar with DVD ripping, but it has been over 20 years since I've done it, I've toasted 8 discs already trying to remember how to do it properly on the same old system (w/dshrink&imgbrn) since that's all I've got that can read/write DVD.

Now I've already sorted the rip/shrink/burn routine settings back into memory and all discs are coming out fine now but holy crap is it a mind numbingly slow process using my old machine. Something that would help would be ditching one of the vob duplicates on the DVD's I'm doing, if that's possible? I'm running low on discs now and TIME - it all takes too long with my setup to experiment with (which I'm normall very keen to do lol) so I've come to humbly ask the experts! I've been at this all week and I've only 2 days left...

I know via ripping and viewing in VLC that both of those vobs are the exact same content, and they are the largest files on the DVD @ 3.4GB. So those 7+GB DVDs would be half the size if I could just delete one of those files and shrinking wouldn't be needed to fit them on a regular DVD.

But they don't show up as individual, selectable files in dshrink - they're linked somehow so it's all or nothing it seems with just dshrink. But if I can copy the huge _TS folders to a flashdrive and work on them on my faster system (which has no burner) then take a smaller iso back to the burning laptop I might make my 48hr deadline...

So I thought about deleting one of those big-assed files, but googling gave no direct answer... I also thought about taking the main file and handbraking it to half the size but could not google-up confirmation that I could simply put that back into the original _TS folder and still have a working DVD for an -old- stand alone player.

These are the important things: the DVD's need to play in several seniors senior dvd players (old equipment so won't read new file formats) they need to keep the original menu functions (I don't have time to learn how to recreate menus and implement it all) they're old music videos so the audio can't be sacraficed for sizing.

As I said I've already shrunk them successfully, the problem for me is the TIME it's taking with the equipment I have and I don't have the money or the time to shop for a new burner - what I have is an old xp laptop with a built in burner and a newer laptop without. What I need is some brilliant suggestive insight from some fresher, more experienced minds to point out a software solution that I haven't been able to find while googling on my own

Progs I have: dshrink, imgbrn, handbrake, ddcrypter, vlc, mmkvbeta, vobblanker, rip4me

The first 2 I'm familiar with and use in the most basic ways, the rest I've only just started to use with hit and miss success (for instance 1/2 size mkvs made from the same dvd vobs with hb all quit playing on the TV halfway through 1hr rips—something I will tackle after the current conundrum is solved!)

any and all creative solutions and/or suggestions will be greatly appreciated

[Subtitles]

Use rewritable discs and if the result isn't good then just reformat it and try again.

[cholla]

Post a screen shot of what DVDShrink shows when you load the DVD you are working on.
Both full disc & reauthor Compression settings.
In reauthor mode you can usually drag any .vob file over to the left.

I have not tried to keep a menu in a long time.
When I want a menu I have a software that can create a much smaller menu.
It is Titlewriter. It has a good Help but there is a learning curve.
My suggestion would be to get the trial DVDFab DVD Copy.
It should allow you to only use one of the .vobs & I believe keep the menu.
It will also decrypt if needed.

Just a question is one or the .identical .vobs 4:3 & the other 16:9 ?

[lordsmurf]

Honestly, by not ripping a disc image as ISO, you messed up.

Titlesets can be a PITA, and you have to stick to rigid rules. For example, no, you cannot randomly delete a VOB.

You need to rip with DVD Decrypter (1st choice), or another. Then load that ISO to DVD Shrink, output to ImgBurn.

It's been at least 10 years for me.

Shrink did have options to convert a title to a still image, and I had a black BMP file for this. That can save a lot of space for unwanted junk on a disc.

[Javalicious]

Use rewritable discs and if the result isn't good then just reformat it and try again.

Would do any other time, but this time there simply is no time for this! Appreciate the input for sure though

cholla thank you for asking for the screenshots because when I went to do them I actually "re-saw" (I know, not a thing lol) the right side details pane correctly again after all these years!! I thought I remembered dvdshrink always showing multiple main titles separately but due to aging, brain farts and major project anxiety I was obviously suffering from an advanced case of rifoyfb

Thank you also for the suggestions of Titlewriter and DVDFab, I'm going to add them to my newly expanding arsenal. As it happens I stayed up reading in here while slooow burning shrunk discs the hard way all night and landed in an ancient thread that made these little grey-cells recognize I would never be able to do what I was imagining in any quick and/or easy way. Just finished the last disc about 2 hours ago and am now going to make the covers and labels. This part is in my natural wheelhouse at least so barring the printer imploding I should make my deadline

If you are still curious about the identical giant vobs (I would be lol) they are not different aspect ratios, I've watched them both and they look identical to me, same angles same sequences/colours etc. Is audio embedded in vobs? I know the DVD has both Dolby 2.0 and 5.1 sound surround options so maybe there is one file for each? I would have thought that would make them different sizes though.... can't be that though

because there are 10 discs in the set, they all look and play in the same way/format - they all are about 1hr 10 minutes give or take a minute, have identical menus etc and the double audio options - BUT - 3 are 4.6GB and the other 7 are 6.9GB to 7.5GB, the normal size ones do not have the duplicate vobs (that's what made me think I could maybe just delete one of them lol, I had no understanding of ifo's etc. until I read that ancient thread). It seems weirdly incongruous.

Honestly, by not ripping a disc image as ISO, you messed up.

Yessir lordsmurf I found that out the loooong painful way lol! Funny thing is is that 20 years ago I burned my entire dvd collection on the same machine in the exact same way I was supposed to be doing this all along—by ripping shrunk iso's and burning them—my memory is no longer an ally...

Thank you all so much for taking the time, I'm really glad I decided to sign up here after reading in isolation and banging my head for the first couple of days at this. I do have more questions about something else now but I'm going to start a different thread for that when I figure out the right category to ask it in


rifoyfb=right in front of your face blindness

[cholla]

DVDShrink shows the Audio tracks.
You should be able to uncheck any you do not want.

The only DVD I have ran into with the equal same size file are those recorded on a settop DVD recorder or DVR.
I have never figured out the reason for this.
I usually just select one & the DVD copy looks & plays OK.
This is a thread I posted some Titlewriter screen shots.
They show the simple menu I usually create with it.
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/418824-How-do-I-create-a-DVD-with-multiple-audio-t...VD#post2780508

[hech54]

Cyberhome DVD recorders show double instances of the VOB files.....I remember them being labeled as SONATA or something like that.

STOP messing with VOB files. Revert them back to their original, single MPEG2 video file and be done with it.

[Javalicious]

STOP messing with VOB files. Revert them back to their original, single MPEG2 video file and be done with it.

VOB is their original format, they're from a set of old commercial DVD's - the audio & video_ts folder full of vobs, ifos, and bups is all there is on the discs which is why I used DVDshrink to make the backups.

[hech54]

VOB is their original format, they're from a set of old commercial DVD's - the audio & video_ts folder full of vobs, ifos, and bups is all there is on the discs which is why I used DVDshrink to make the backups.

VOB files are CREATED FOR DVD. The original MPEG2 video file was placed into authoring software, cut up into 1gb chunks(.vob files) along with other various files in accordance with DVD Standards, and pressed/burned to a DVD disc.
It's silly to keep them around outside of the DVD environment.

[cholla]

You have two topics that are about the same project.
I posted in this one to show the MPEG2 hech54 is posting about with .VOB files.

This is how to rip a DVD to .MKV with Clever.
Drag the VTS_01_1.VOB onto the Clever GUI.
Answer "YES" to the popup.
Select "Rip" & it will Rip to a .MKV.
This .MKV will be almost the same size as the VIDEO_TS folder of the DVD.
You can test this on the DVDs you are working with to see if they will play on your older TV.
This is part of the MediaInfo showing the .MKV is MPEG2 :
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2

[Attachment 91084 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 91085 - Click to enlarge]

[Alwyn]

VOB is their original format

Further to Heck's comments, if you open a VOB in MediaInfo, you'll see the underlying video codec is MPEG 2. The "VOBs" are only created for the assembly of the DVD disk structure. They are still MPEG 2s.

Example readout of MediaInfo on a VOB:

General
Complete name : H:\DVD Files\PIG DVD\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_2.VOB
Format : MPEG-PS
File size : 1 024 MiB
Duration : 20 min 54 s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 848 kb/s
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS

Video
ID : 224 (0xE0)
Format : MPEG Video
Format version : Version 2
Format profile : Main@Main
Format settings : CustomMatrix / BVOP
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Format settings, GOP : M=3, N=12
Duration : 20 min 54 s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 368 kb/s
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Scan order : Top Field First
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.518
Time code of first frame : 01:22:03:04
Time code source : Group of pictures header
GOP, Open/Closed : Open
Stream size : 802 MiB (78%)

Audio #1
ID : 189 (0xBD)-128 (0x80)
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Commercial name : Dolby Digital
Muxing mode : DVD-Video
Duration : 20 min 54 s
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 384 kb/s
Channel(s) : 6 channels
Channel layout : L R C LFE Ls Rs
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Delay relative to video : -632 ms
Stream size : 57.4 MiB (6%)
Service kind : Complete Main
Dialog Normalization : -27 dB
compr : 0.53 dB
dynrng : 0.27 dB
cmixlev : -3.0 dB
surmixlev : -3 dB
dialnorm_Average : -27 dB
dialnorm_Minimum : -27 dB
dialnorm_Maximum : -27 dB

[Henry_V]

If you are short on time, you are probably better off going with automated solutions like DVDFab or similar tools—they are just faster and don't require nearly as much manual tweaking. Plus, they handle the DVD structure properly, so you keep the menus and file links intact. You can also strip out any extra tracks or bonus features right away to save space without worrying about breaking the disc.

[Javalicious]

You have two topics that are about the same project.
I posted in this one to show the MPEG2 hech54 is posting about with .VOB files.

Hey cholla actually I have 2 topics about 2 different projects; this one which was about trying to shrink/fit 7+GB dvd series down to fit on a 4.7GB disc without it taking forever on my old laptop (note solved days ago when lordsmurf reminded me to rip to disc image instead of spending all the extra time ripping vob files).

I do appreciate everyone trying to help after I'd finished the project but it sounds all at a much higher level of extraction/execution than needed. I needed a smaller vob file structure onto DVDs which needed to work in some old standalone players for some seniors, while keeping their original menus intact, and without it taking several hours per show. I thought the time spent shrinking those duplicate big files was the cause and wanted to delete them but lordsmurf's reply hit the nail on the head because once I ripped the remaining DVDs straight to iso it took half as long as it had been taking and I finished late the next day (on winxp machine w/2gb ram!). Thanx again they loved them!!

While my other topic does involve a concert from those same DVDs, it's in a totally different context because I'm not trying to make another DVD there, mom wanted to watch the concert with our family at a weekend b-day party and I made the mistake of saying that I could put it on a usb stick... something I'd never done before and that turned into a new problem to solve...

I do appreciate everyone's help and input, cheers!

[cholla]

Hey Javalicious,
I've been following both topics & I just thought they were the same.
I see now you are working on two.
I've never had a problem with DVDShrink compressing to DVD5. (Unless something was wrong with the original DVD,
Then DVDShrink gave an error & would not rip the DVD as DVD or .ISO.
I almost never rip to .ISO with DVDShrink.
I also usually rip without a menu. I do not usually need a menu.