Vobs and FFMPEG

[Jimpants]

I have been using FFMPEG recently, and I am very satisfied with the performance. There is one thing I can't figure out and need some help with. I can't figure out how to combine the VOBS to make one video file. I have the majority of the code worked out, but this one things is killing me. Does anyone have any way of combining the VOB files in some way to produce a single output for an MP4 output?

[video_magic]

This is a solution for you, it will produce the single-file input for the video, from the set of VOBs, which is what you seem to want:

http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOB2MPG

This is not re-encoding and will not reduce the quality of your video before you feed it into ffmpeg.

[t3g]

I've been using DGIndex (http://neuron2.net/dgmpgdec/dgmpgdec.html) for a long while through Wine, while it might not be the best tool anymore I never encountered any problems with it on the few hundred DVDs I've encoded. It demuxes video and audio, which is what I was looking for since I prefer to encode my audio separately with Nero AAC (often with 2 audio flux + subtitles). From the link posted by video_magic, it looks like only the paid version of VOB2MPG demuxes audio, but I could be mistaken, and it depends how you plan to encode the audio anyway.

If there's better/native Linux solutions, I'm all for learning about them though.

[nm]

If there's better/native Linux solutions, I'm all for learning about them though.

I'd simply rip the wanted title with MPlayer:
mplayer -dvd-device image.iso dvdnav://N -nocache -dumpstream -dumpfile out.mpg

Here "N" is the title number and "image.iso" can also be a VIDEO_TS directory or the DVD device itself. If you have an MPlayer build without dvdnav support, use "dvd://N" as the source. That won't work with ARccOS/RipGuard/...-protected discs though.


After ripping the title, out.mpg can be demuxed or encoded with pretty much any tool. Both MPlayer and ffmpeg can demux video and audio tracks out of MPEG-PS files.

Then there's also HandBrakeCLI for easy command-line H.264 encoding straight from DVD images and directory trees. It outputs MP4 or MKV files with original or re-encoded audio and subtitles.

[txporter]

I use VideoRedo for what you are asking for. It is payware, but the quickstream fix utility that comes with it has been invaluable on a number of occasions when my MPEG2 files had timestamp issues. It basically does what VOB2MPG does plus fixes the timestamps.

[Selur]

for dvds I normally use:
a. mencoder
b. mencoder piping to ffmpeg/x264/...

Cu Selur

[t3g]

I'd simply rip the wanted title with MPlayer:
mplayer -dvd-device image.iso dvdnav://N -nocache -dumpstream -dumpfile out.mpg
I tried that for a while, but a lot of recent (at the time I tried) DVD couldn't be copied like that, even libdvdcss didn't manage them, so I ended up using DVDFab.

Then there's also HandBrakeCLI for easy command-line H.264 encoding straight from DVD images and directory trees. It outputs MP4 or MKV files with original or re-encoded audio and subtitles.
Thanks, I didn't know they had a CLI. Any advantages over straight x264 or mencoder+libx264? Does it allow using NeroAAC encoder?

[nm]

I tried that for a while, but a lot of recent (at the time I tried) DVD couldn't be copied like that, even libdvdcss didn't manage them, so I ended up using DVDFab.

Did you use dvdnav? Additional protection mechanisms prevent direct copying with libdvdread but libdvdnav should work since it follows the same instructions as DVD players do.

Thanks, I didn't know they had a CLI. Any advantages over straight x264 or mencoder+libx264?

Variable framerate detelecine. And the program is very easy to use.

Downside is that you may need a custom build and custom parameters to use latest libx264 properly.

Does it allow using NeroAAC encoder?

Nope. You could pass the audio through and re-encode it afterwards.

[t3g]

Did you use dvdnav? Additional protection mechanisms prevent direct copying with libdvdread but libdvdnav should work since it follows the same instructions as DVD players do.
Thanks, I'll have a look someday. Although I've had DVDs even paid for for-Windows DVD players refused to play (even some standalone DVD players didn't) but DVDFab got a fix a few days/weeks after release. Nothing is worse than buying a DVD as a gift on a certain occasion for your wife and not being even able to play it. :mad:

Variable framerate detelecine. And the program is very easy to use.
I'm not touching telecined content with a pole. KILL IT JIM, KILL WITH FIRE!
Edit: if I was living in a NTSC country, I'd have to obviously, but here in Europe the only remains of telecined content we see are on FUBAR conversions to PAL that are impossible to fix, or on NTSC imports (Indian movies and the like) where the trames have been mixed up so much they're beyond hope. That and some Failanime releases.