How to make one single AVI from multiple VOB files ?

[guista]

Hi everybody,

I extracted my DVD content so I now have the VIDEO_TS directory with the VOB and IFO files inside.
The movie is composed of 4 VOB files.
Now, I would like to encode the 4 VOB in a unique AVI/XVid file.

The Nicky Guide (available here: http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/synth-vdub.htm) explains how to write the Avisynth command file.
If you search for "Opening Multiple Files" section, it will tell you to add the following line to the file:

DirectShowSource("C:\vobfiles\VTS_01_01.Vob+DirectShowSource("VTS_01_02.Vob")+DirectShowSource("VTS_01_03.Vob")+DirectShowSource("VTS_01_04.Vob")

... which will probably merges all the VOB files in one.


* Is there a way to specify multiple VOB files as the MeGUI input for one single AVI output ?

Otherwise I will edit the Avisynth file but I prefer only working with the GUI.
As far as I am concerned, I did not find any way to do it.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Hagbard23]

Use DGIndex... you can refer to neuron2.net for more information and usage help - the guide is very understandable...

[Inspector.Gadget]

1) You probably don't want to use just VOB files, but should work from the relevant title (e.g., starting from DVD Decrypter in IFO mode or using PGCDemux to make a new set of VOBs for the title). This will eliminate the unintended inclusion of trailers or similar included in the same VOB set.
2) Once you have a set of VOB files that comprise only the main movies, index them in DGIndex (drag the whole set into the DGIndex window and make sure they're in the appropriate order). Make sure "Demux all tracks" is selected for audio for ease of use, and make sure "Honor Pulldown flags" is set under Video -> Field Operation to get the movie indexed as it is on the DVD. Now, open the resulting D2V in notepad and scroll to the last line. Generally, if the project says greater than about 95% film, you should re-run DGIndex with Field Operation set to "Force Film" to avoid having to IVTC the movie. If this produces unacceptable combing on credits or some scenes, stick with the "Honor Pulldown flags" method and process as appropriate with an IVTC filter or deinterlacer in Avisynth. (If you're in PAL land and don't have blended garbage, you'll only need either a deinterlacer, AssumeFPS() and audio slowdown for movies shot on 23.976fps film, or no operation).
3) Load the D2V into the AVS Script creator. Deinterlace or IVTC if necessary, crop and resize if necessary in Avisynth. MeGUI's source analyzer, autocrop, and resize calculator can assist with this.
4) Now you have a workable AVS script, like the one you wanted to use originally except now you're not risking dropping frames, you can deal with fields with greater flexibility, and you have the audio ready to go.

[yetanotherid]

You could always open the DVD you've extracted to your hard drive with DVD Shrink. Use it's re-author function to re-author the DVD so it consists of nothing but the movie if necessary (it takes about 3 seconds once you've opened the files) then re-save it to another location on your hard drive. DVD Shrink has an option which tells it to split the vob files it saves into 1GB chunks. If you deselect that option, it'll re-save the movie as one large vob file.

I can't say I've tried it using MeGUI but generally sequentially numbered vob files are treated as one continuous file anyway. For example vts_01_01.vob, vts_01_02.vob, vts_01_03.vob etc would all be treated as one large vob file.
AutoGK also uses DGIndex and in order to encode sequential vob files as a single file all you need to do is pick the first one. MeGUI doesn't work the same way?

For clarity regarding what's "sequential".....

vts_01_01.vob, vts_01_02.vob, vts_01_03.vob would be treated as one continuous vob file. As would:
vts_02_01.vob, vts_02_02.vob, vts_02_03.vob

vts_01_01.vob, vts_02_01.vob, vts_03_01.vob would not.

[Inspector.Gadget]

MeGUI doesn't work the same way?

It does (and in fact each program is just wrapping the same functionality in DGIndex) but some DVDs are authored with trailers and similar in the VTS_01_N set.

[guista]

OK, thanks to Inspector.Gadget and yetanotherid for their detailed and pertinent replies.

If I understood well, I just have have to select the first VOB file from the set (it must have the same prefix than the 3 following files) with MeGUI then MeGUI will pass it to DGIndex which will iteratively open the files in the name order and finally produce one single index for the 4 files.

[yetanotherid]

Yes. :)

[Sharktooth]

1st step: use the indexer and check the demux audio tracks.
2nd step: create an avs file (avisynth script creator->load the d2v file... crop, resize, whatever...)
3rd step: load the avs in video input and select a preset.
4th step: load the demuxed audio (probably ac3) in audio input and select a preset.
5th step: click auto-encode, set a bitrate or filesize or whatever and container. enqueue the job(s).
6th step: run the jobs.

another way is to use OneClick encoder. it is intuitive and will index automatically your vobs.