I’m looking for recommendations on converting (unprotected) VOB files from a DVD to regular Mpegs so I can edit them.
I’m recording old family videos from VHS to DVD using my DVD recorder, but it will only output them to disc as finished, watchable DVDs, not the mpegs.
Any suggestions? Free is best, cheap is cool too.
What platform?
For the Mac: http://homepage.mac.com/major4/
Otherwise…checkout here for a list of tools
For a quick and dirty method, you can actually just rename them, changing the extension from .VOB to .MPG, because the underlying file properties and formats are very similar (.VOB files are essentially .MPG files with some extra stuff multiplexed in).
To do it properly, there are a number of freeware and commercial apps; here is a preliminary list, although you may find that some of the other excellent tools listed at Videohelp.com will also do it.
Sorry, my bad… Windows.
I tried the renaming trick, but Premier does NOT play well when I do that. I’ll look at the utils linked now.
Anybody have anything in particular they actually use and can recommed?
If you’re looking to edit them, then you could try VirtualDubMod - it will probably want to output the video in an AVI container (although whether you wish this to be MPEG encoded inside the AVI, or something else, is still up to you) - I would imagine your editing software will accept a file encoded that way.
Personally, I tend to convert them to AVI full frames(uncompressed) or compress them with the HuffYUV codec (free, but needs installing separately - available here: http://neuron2.net/www.math.berkeley.edu/benrg/huffyuv.html )
I’ve done it in the past using VirtualDubMod. I’d be hardpressed to give proper instructions for it here (it’s prety simple), but if you need 'em I can look into it later.
Don’t forget to set your compression settings as well as making it a .mepg, and since you’re trying to import to Premiere, I’ll just warn you that I’ve heard the DivX/XviD codecs won’t work.
On preview, I see I’ve been beat to it.