(no subject)

[kingandy]

I currently have Lost Season 4 sitting on my hard disk waiting to be watched (I know, I'm behind the times). These twelve episodes take up slightly more than 11GB of space. Recent adventures have demonstrated that there is no real valid reason for this - batelf got most of Heroes S3 on about half of an 8GB ram stick.

Apparently I downloaded them in some strange moon-format - VOB, which is readable directly by my DVD-playing software, leading me to believe they are a file format designed to be burned straight to Video-DVD or something. This seems like a pointless stage to me, and I would rather simply convert them to a more compact format which - importantly - my XBox will be able to read directly from my hard disk.

I tried hunting for software on t'internets but wouldn't you just know it, VOB-MPEG conversion seems to be one of those areas that is saturated with people trying to take your money and/or offer you porn, so I am naturally wary of anything proffered in this manner.

Can anyone suggest a good, free, legal, open-source application for this sort of thing?

Comments

[wibblefish.livejournal.com]

most of the dvd ripping software should do it. search lifehacker.com or such for suggestions.

[kermix.livejournal.com]

Oh! VOBs are indeed part of a DVD's balanced diet.

This other guy is correct. Anything that rips a DVD should be able to open a VOB.

My first choice would have been VirtualDub-MPEG, which will probably still work for an "easy" conversion (despite it saying it is obsolete).

[mj-uk.livejournal.com]

Couldnt you burn them to dvd and watch on a dvd player (ie your xbox) if you have a dvd writer?

Im not 100% but im pretty sure VOB files are just a format for creating dvd's, sort of like ISO files.

[kingandy]

I could, but as i say, it's an unnecessary step and would waste a DVD.

I currently have my XBox connected to my PC via electric string, and it's able to see and play everything Windows Media Player makes available to it. Unfortunately even though WMP happily sees and plays VOB files, it doesn't make them available over the network.

[mj-uk.livejournal.com]

yeah i found media center is a bit finiky with what it plays on the xbox, but it usually is able to at least see files it cant play. Stupid question i know but your xbox is updated yeah?

[kingandy]

Yeah it did a bunch of updating stuff the first time I connected it to the interanets.

It does display a bunch of files that it can't play, but not the VOB files apparently.

[mj-uk.livejournal.com]

crazy, must be a security or licenscing thing. "You will not watch ripped dvd's on our completely legal system!"

but not apparantly every other format pirates use XD

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

Yeah VOBs are just containers for MPEG-2 + whatever sound goes with it. Anything that rips a DVD should be able to rip directly from VOBs.

MEncoder is da bomb when it comes to encoding. There are even windows front ends for it.

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html

[kingandy]

Hmm, I poked around the MEncoder site and most of the (unofficial) Windows packages seem to come with front ends already attached.

I am going to try SimpleDivX since that (MPEG->AVI) appears to be basically what I want to do here.

[wibblefish.livejournal.com]

do you have a usb drive? 360 may play them off that if not over the network

[kingandy]

It is certainly worth a try. My 8GB drive is currently almost full of Heroes (and the X360 is indeed playing off it), but I could probably try it out with one or two episodes.

I suspect the box will only play VOB off a DVD, reasoning that there's no legitimate reason for storing your videos on any other medium in this format.

[kermix.livejournal.com]

Oh, crunch. I forgot Handbrake. It's a pretty self-contained box of awesome. If you haven't already gotten what you need, consider this the thing I'm endorsing.

[kingandy]

That program is indeed awesome. Not only does it not force you to learn about monitor resolutions, but it actually comes with an XBox 360 preset.

I've only managed to drop the filesize by about 10% (and I am still considering burning the files to DVD directly) but at least I'll be able to watch it on the XBox in the meantime.

Quick question ... do you know anything about compiling multiple VIDEO_TS folders into a single DVD?

[kermix.livejournal.com]

I didn't, until just now!

I guess you can only have one VIDEO_TS folder on one DVD. But...

DVDShrink, which I normally use just for copying a DVD, also has some re-authoring options for creating a new DVD compilation using the titles and chapters of other VIDEO_TS folders (on your hard drive or on other available DVDs). I don't know how one would set up menus or anything though, but I'm sure other tools exist for that.