Need a program to convert vobs into avi, mpeg etc

Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
edited April 2009 in Science & Tech
I am currently trying to put my DVD collection onto my media centre PC. The program I am using to rip them onto my PC produces a VIDEO_TS folder with multiple vob, ifo and bup files. I want to somehow convert these multiple vobs into one playable file (avi, mpeg, divx etc) but I cannot find any software that will do this (except for ridiculously overpriced stuff on the net).
I can play the vob files with Nero media player and even alter the extensions to mpg to play with Windows Media Player but they don't play in one continuous stream.
Does anyone know of a program I could use to achieve what I am after or even an app that rips from DVD straight into a single file format. I am sure there is probably an easy solution to this but I can't seem to work it out.

Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    AutoGK.
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    If space is not a problem I would leave them in DVD format. About 250 movies to a terabyte. ( TB drives are getting pretty cheap )
    I have been using XBMC as my Media center app. ( Freeware ) It is pretty nice. It will play any file avi, Vob , mpeg and H264. If each movie is in its own folder You can tell it to treat it as 1 file. If all are properley named , from library mode it can download all the info from IMDB , including trailers if you want. It is nice to see the proper cover art and have the cast list and a plot summary. They have a very good support forum. http://xbmc.org/forum/index.php
    The nice thing about leaving them as DVD format is that you can "re-burn" them very easiley if you need to. Plus you don't have to convert anything.

    Just another way to do it. If you have the space.


    Scott
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    Thanks to you all for the info.
    The main thing is for ease of use - so I will definitely give XBMC a go.
    Will give AutoGK and "any video converter" a go too.
    Cheers.
  • MadballMadball Fort Benton, MT
    edited April 2009
    I like handbrake myself. Easy to use.
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    WOW - XBMC is fantastic - I can't believe it is freeware!!
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    Hey Madball - thanks for Handbrake recommendation that looks like just what I'm after....cheers.
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Byron172 wrote:
    WOW - XBMC is fantastic - I can't believe it is freeware!!

    I am pretty impressed with it too. I have not been using it all that long and keep finding other stuff it will do. I really like it. There are all sorts of plugins for it too. Weather, internet TV-Radio and a bunch more. It was originally devloped for the X-Box (XBMC= X-Box Media Center ) but has now been ported to several platforms including Windows. It has huge community support.

    And thanks to Madball too ! Handbrake looks pretty good. I think I may be doing some H264 conversions.


    Scott
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited April 2009
    It's basically been said already. But XBMC + handbrake for the win.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited April 2009
    WInAVIConverter
  • edited April 2009
    So none of my suggestions were useful!?


    I'm sad now!
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    Still can't work out how to convert from the multiple vob files (that my DVD ripper creates) into a single clickable file. If anyone has any tips for doing this (with handbrake or otherwise) that'd be great. However now that I have been converted to XBMC I don't need to so it's no biggie.
    As far as "apps that have changed my life" (that might be goin' a bit far).....XBMC is now top of the list, especially now that I have managed to sync up my old MCE remote to it. Again - big thanks to Scott the lunatic.........cheers.
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    PS - Patrick, your suggestions were appreciated. In fact the 3rd one down would have almost definitely done what I was attempting but they wanted $60 bucks or something ridiculARSE for that so I never ended up going any further with it......cheers anyway though.

    :thumbsup:
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    With AutoGK, you should be able to just point it to the video_ts folder (or possibly the .ifo within) and it'll consolidate all of them into an AVI... unless, of course, these are something like TV series DVD rips, in which case you usually have to do each ep separately if that's how they came off the DVD.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited April 2009
    Same with handbrake. You point handbrake to the folder and it'll turn it into an AVI for you.
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Byron172 wrote:
    As far as "apps that have changed my life" (that might be goin' a bit far).....XBMC is now top of the list, especially now that I have managed to sync up my old MCE remote to it. Again - big thanks to Scott the lunatic.........cheers.

    No problem ! I am rather smitten with it as well.



    Byron172 wrote:
    Still can't work out how to convert from the multiple vob files (that my DVD ripper creates) into a single clickable file. If anyone has any tips for doing this (with handbrake or otherwise) that'd be great. However now that I have been converted to XBMC I don't need to so it's no biggie.

    I just used Handbrake for the first time last night and had no problem. I tried both from a file on my hard drive and from a disc in the drive. Just pick the folder containing the files ( Video_TS) and it should display the length and number of chapters. Works like a charm ! For reference the "Film" preset turns 2hrs. of video into a 1.5 GB file. ( appox ) Thats well over 600 movies per TB

    Scott
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    Well I don't know what I was doing wrong the other day but I just went and retried Handbrake and it worked without any problems. Only difference was the actual VIDEO_TS folder I was trying to convert, so maybe that was the problem. All good now. Thanks to all.

    Hey Scott - I know that this is offtopic but I want to install an application launcher in XBMC so that I can open Firefox from within it. I have found one called "Launcher" and have followed the instructions for installing it but nothing happens, if I was to post some further details would you be happy to give me some tips on how to install plugins etc? I've tried installing the Youtube script and a couple others too and can't work out how to launch them so it's something I am doing wrong.
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Glad to here you got Handbrake sorted out.

    Byron172 wrote:

    Hey Scott - would you be happy to give me some tips on how to install plugins etc?

    I wish I could...But I have not installed any yet myself. :O I will have to differ to someone else. Or the XBMC forum. I had some initial troubles and all my questions were in the FAQ's. It would be a good place to start if you have not already done that.
    Here is the Plug-in page

    Let me know how you make out....I may be asking you for help !

    Scott
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    whoops

    I just noticed you said scripts..not plug-ins.

    Have you tried plug-ins ?

    Here are some Video plug-ins YouTube at bottom of page.

    Not sure about the application launcher

    Scott
  • Byron172Byron172 Adelaide, South Australia Member
    edited April 2009
    Cheers - yeah I joined the XBMC forum cos my problem is now quite specific. I got the app "launcher" installed now just needs some tweaking and hopefully I'll get a response from there soon. I'll check out those plugins now, thanks again for putting me onto this!!!
  • scottscott Medina, Ohio Icrontian
    edited April 2009
    Byron172 wrote:
    Cheers - yeah I joined the XBMC forum cos my problem is now quite specific. I got the app "launcher" installed now just needs some tweaking and hopefully I'll get a response from there soon. I'll check out those plugins now, thanks again for putting me onto this!!!

    Cool

    I installed some plug-ins last night using the built in SV Repo installer. It is in the favorites menu. Run it , update it , have it look for plug-ins, install what ever you want...really easy.

    Bye the way the Apple Trailer plugin is pretty nice.


    Scott
Sign In or Register to comment.