VOB to MKV: Convert Video from VOB(DVD Media File) to MKV(Matroska Video) with River Past Video Cleaner, VOB2MKV converter, conversion

What is VOB?

VOB standards for "Video Object". It is the file type to store video on a DVD disc. It is actuallly a MPEG-2 video, with special extension to support PCM, AC3, DTS audio, subpictures, and button navigation commands.

To decode DVD-VIDEO, you will need both GPL MPEG-2 Decoder, and AC-3 Decoder.

What is MKV?

Matroska aims to become THE standard of multimedia container formats. It was derived from a project called MCF, but differentiates from it significantly because it is based on EBML (Extensible Binary Meta Language), a binary derivative of XML. EBML enables the Matroska Development Team to gain significant advantages in terms of future format extensibility, without breaking file support in old parsers.

It is intended to serve as a universal format for storing common multimedia content, like movies or TV shows. Matroska is similar in conception to other containers like AVI, MP4 or ASF, but is completely open source. Matroska file types are .MKV for video (and audio) and .MKA for audio-only files.

To encode MKV video, please have CCCP installed.

Launch River Past Video Cleaner

Once River Past Video Cleaner is installed properly, launch Video Cleaner.

Install Decoders

To decode DVD, you need to have a couple of free decoders installed.

The first one is GPL MPEG Decoder.

GPL MPEG Decoder

Next, install AC-3 Decoder Filter.

AC-3 Decoder Filter

Add VOB File

Click on the "Add Files" button on the tool bar. The standard file open dialog appears. Select "VOB - DVD Media(*.vob)" in its "Files of type" combo box.

You should only use "Add Files" to select VOB files if they are generated by a DVD authoring software and each VOB file represent a single video clip. Do not use "Add Files" to add the VOB files on a DVD disc or DVD image.

A DVD contains many video clips, which are then divided into cells/chapters. All of the video clips are then streamed together in one big block. The VOB files on the disc is just a way to divide the block into 1GB files to be compatible with older operation systems like Windows 95, who has a file size limit.

Each VOB file on the DVD may contain multiple videos. Each video may span over multiple VOB files. If you use "Add Files", only the first clip in that particular VOB file will be parsed and added.

This picture below makes it easier to understand.

In this case, if you use "Add Files" to add VTS_01_1.VOB, you will only get the still menu. If you use "Add Files" to add VTS_01_2.VOB, you will get the end of chapter 3... This is how file based decoding works.

If you want to convert from a DVD disc or DVD VIDEO_TS directory image, use "Add DVD". We will parse the DVD information and find all the cell breaks. You will get to select which cell to convert, from 2 to 5. Still menus are ignored.

River Past Video Cleaner

Select output format

Use the setting panel on the bottom of the window to control the output format. Click on the toggle to the left of the "Output Format" label to expand the panel. Select "MKV - Matroska Video" as the "File Type".

Troubleshoot

If you don't see the MKV output option, you have a problem with your Matroska Pack installation.

We need Matroska Pack 1.1.2 or later to encode MKV video. Matroska 1.1.2 is included in CCCP. Please download and install CCCP.

Download CCCP

Note: To convert to MKV files, you must have Matroska Pack installed.

Change Video Settings

Click on the toggle to the left of the "Video Settings" label to expand the panel.

Select "Specify" under "Size" and/or "Frame rate" to enter the video resolution and/or frame rate.

You can change the compressor, quality, size, and frame rate of the video.

Change Audio Settings

Click on the toggle to the left of the "Audio Settings" label to expand the panel.

Select the audio compressor for the conversion. Depending on the compressor, you may also change the sample rate, channel (stereo or mono), bits/sample, and bitrate.

Do not use "MPEG Layer-3" as the audio compressor. It does not work correctly in video files and often causes the conversion to abort in the middle. If you prefer to have MP3 audio in the AVI file, download lame_enc.dll instead.