Lossless VOB conversion with ffmpeg

Question

Is there a way to convert a VOB to another video format using ffmpeg without sacrificing audio or video quality?

Answer 1

If you mean you want to change a container, that is a VOB to MP4 or MKV without changing hte codec (MPEG2 to H.264, let's say), then yes, it can be done losslessly as follows:

ffmpeg -i your_VOB_file.VOB -c:v copy -c:a copy output.mp4

Answer 2

MKVToolNix can easily make an MKV out of a VOB. Of course this isn't using ffmpeg (directly? - this kind of stuff is a mystery to me), but it may help you accomplish what you're trying to do.

Answer 3

In my experience, no. There will often be this or that video that gains stuttering or desynchronized audio. Therefore, I don't recommend using it. Even though ffmpeg concat "works" and even if I map only ffmpeg -fflags +genpts -i "concat:VIDEO_TS/VTS_05_1.VOB|VIDEO_TS/VTS_05_2.VOB|VIDEO_TS/VTS_05_3.VOB|VIDEO_TS/VTS_05_4.VOB" -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map -0:v:1 -map -0:a:1 -map -0:s -c copy original.mpg I still get multiple streams maybe due to issues with "copy". The best I can do from there is edit in OpenShot (3.3.0 seemed to fix video rendering from multi-stream mpg which was a black screen in 3.2.0), which is the only open source editor that can read the multiple streams (along with Haruna Media Player for playback). Instead use a dedicated MPEG demuxing tool. Preferably one that actually reads the IFO files to help it do everything correctly (such as: avoid *_0.VOB if it is the menu graphics; get the correct main title).

• dvdbackup first, to get clean usable VOBs on hard drive from any disc.
  • dvdbackup -i /dev/sr0 -o ~ -F -p (or /dev/dvd depending on your distro) will try to get the main feature. However, you can list and choose title sets manually like:
    • dvdbackup -i /dev/sr0 -I If it says "Title set containing the main feature is 5" you can do
    • dvdbackup -i /dev/sr0 -o ~/Videos/Movies -T 5 -p (capital -T for title set rather than -t for title)
• demux with PGCDemux (such as console port here: https://github.com/lebdron/pgcdemux). Or other demuxers such as:
  • DGMPGDec: claims to get frames other tools miss, and prevent audio desync.
  • ProjectX: Java-based, but has non-Java builds
  • list of (de-)multiplexers: https://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/video-de-multiplexers

After demuxing, remux to mpeg if your tool gives you separate audio and video files. Demux then remux (or using the demux and repair tool in the non-free Womble MPEG Video Wizard DVD 5.0) is the only way I get frame-accurate editing and perfect sync across all discs I tried, though even then I have to fix sync for discs recorded from a consumer DVD recorder (commonly known as VHS to DVD recorder).

Demuxing tools are often discontinued or sparsely maintained since fewer people pay attention to DVD. IMO HD is only something I miss for certain movies such as where you might care about fine details or HDR, but I rather use my money to collect many DVDs than a few HD movies.

Answer 4

After trying ffmpeg and mkvtoolnix, I think that the best tool to remux a DVD is Avidemux (https://avidemux.sourceforge.net/). You have the option to copy audio and video (no transcoding) and avoid audio/video sync issues.

Answer 5

Any time you do any form of format conversion you're likely to end up with some actual quality loss, though if done sensibly you won't be able to detect the quality loss. I do this all the time with tools like Handbrake.

To make life easier, ffmpeg comes with presets to allow you to easily set the options to minimise the detectable loss of quality. Were you to be encoding to x264 then you could use -vcodec libx264 -vpre lossless_medium for instance.

Your choices will depend on your desired destination format, and what tools you want to use.