VOB conversion advice

**Joint Chiefs of Staff** · 08-18-06, 01:26 AM

Each DVD I rip to my HD is 4.10GB. What is the absolutely best format to convert to? MPEG, AVI, VCD, SVCD?

I don't want to lose quality but would like to reclaim space over a 4.10GB movie. I don't plan to burn the ripped DVD's but only to playback via WinDVD on my lappy.

**Jim** · 08-18-06, 01:30 AM

You'll probably want to convert them to a MPEG-4 codec like DivX or XviD. Something like AutoGK should be able to do what you're looking to fairly simply.

Question though: Is EVERY disc of yours being ripped showing up as 4.1 gigs? Is your ripper compressing them on the fly as well, or are these all....uh...Dubai versions of actual DVDs?

**Joint Chiefs of Staff** · 08-18-06, 01:40 AM

Originally Posted by Jim

You'll probably want to convert them to a MPEG-4 codec like DivX or XviD. Something like AutoGK should be able to do what you're looking to fairly simply.

Question though: Is EVERY disc of yours being ripped showing up as 4.1 gigs? Is your ripper compressing them on the fly as well, or are these all....uh...Dubai versions of actual DVDs?

I'm using FairUse to rip the complete disc first...all content and menus, no compression. I have 800GB to store on but have way to many movies and box sets to rip.

**Jim** · 08-18-06, 01:47 AM

Well, I meant that as in, is each disc coming out more or less the same size? Disc types should vary quite a bit, and can easily range from 3 to 8 gigs, depending on a variety of factors. It's fairly unusual to have a large number of them be around the same total size unless they've already been compressed to such a size.

A quick search of the FairUse site (I'm not familiar with the program) seems to indicate that it can convert directly to DivX/XviD, so you may not need another program to accomplish this.

**Joint Chiefs of Staff** · 08-18-06, 01:52 AM

Originally Posted by Jim

Well, I meant that as in, is each disc coming out more or less the same size? Disc types should vary quite a bit, and can easily range from 3 to 8 gigs, depending on a variety of factors. It's fairly unusual to have a large number of them be around the same total size unless they've already been compressed to such a size.

A quick search of the FairUse site (I'm not familiar with the program) seems to indicate that it can convert directly to DivX/XviD, so you may not need another program to accomplish this.

Each disc ripped using FairUse whether it is a movie or box set disc is saving at 4.1GB making a 6 disc box set series a total of around 24.6GB a series.

So DivX is the way to go rather than using WinDVD to play the vob file? What size would I be looking at to save as without quality loss?

**YARDofSTUF** · 08-18-06, 01:53 AM

If they're all 4.10 it sounds like its shrinking them to fit on a single 4.5GB DVD

**Joint Chiefs of Staff** · 08-18-06, 01:57 AM

Originally Posted by YARDofSTUF

If they're all 4.10 it sounds like its shrinking them to fit on a single 4.5GB DVD

Crap, sorry I'm using DVDFab to rip and that is correct YOS, Fab can burn the ripped disc to a single DVD. Basically, it's a mirror image of the ripped disc.

**Jim** · 08-18-06, 02:04 AM

Well, based on what you're telling me about the file sizes, it sounds like FairUse is already compressing the discs...slightly, to a size that would make it easy to burn to DVD-R.

The problem is, if you then decide to compress to another format, you're basically compressing a compressed file that came from a source that was already compressed. In other words, you'd be making a 3rd generation copy, which may not come out quite as sharp as you'd like it to be.

Your own tastes will have to determine how you balance the file sizes vs. quality. While something like XviD will take a movie or show and compress it fairly nicely with minimal (noticeable) quality loss, if you'd prefer to keep the menu structure (and extras, et al.) intact, you'll want to keep it in its original MPEG-2 format, and use your regular DVD player software to view the "disc."

Basically, if you want each ~2 hour film to look pretty good at around a gig a pop, XviD is the way to go. If you want to keep them at 3~4 gig files with the entire disc intact, you'll need to stay with MPEG-2.

**YARDofSTUF** · 08-18-06, 02:08 AM

If you can play VOB files just rip with dvd shrink and compress them that way to like 80%

You can rip just the movie with DVD shrink too.

**Jim** · 08-18-06, 02:10 AM

Originally Posted by YARDofSTUF

If you can play VOB files just rip with dvd shrink and compress them that way to like 80%

You can rip just the movie with DVD shrink too.

Shrink can also let you allocate the space as you see fit. You can severely compress extras or trailers that you don't want to dedicate more of that space for the feature film.

**Mark** · 08-18-06, 04:52 AM

if the dvd is ripped with autogk with the xvid codec, it looks pretty darn good if yuo set it to like 2 CD size IMO.
saves tons of drive space for ya.

**Mark** · 08-18-06, 04:54 AM

Originally Posted by Jim

Shrink can also let you allocate the space as you see fit. You can severely compress extras or trailers that you don't want to dedicate more of that space for the feature film.

plus you can eliminate them altogether if ya want. along with extras languages, subtitles.

**Joint Chiefs of Staff** · 08-18-06, 08:35 AM

Okay what if I have the vob files already extracted to my hard drives. What's a good conversion program I can utilize to convert to a good quality output file?

And thanks for the help gentlement.

**Joint Chiefs of Staff** · 08-18-06, 09:42 AM

I just purchased ImTOO DVD Ripper on-line after trying the trial version out with FANTASTIC output results. I can now create any output video format from the VOB files already ripped from the DVD's.

//reclaiming huge amounts of space//