Converting DVDs to Windows Media format.

[tvalentin]

There are a lot of guides for converting your DVDs to DIVX but I can't find any that show steps to convert to windows media format.
I have the windows media encoder installed but don't know how to get the vob files into the program.

Any help would be really appreciated.

Tom

[iand]

I *think* the vob files are just mpeg2 compressed video files... at least, if I change the .vob extension to .mp2, they open and play just fine for me in Windows Media Player. So.... change the extension, open it up in a video editing program like Videowave or Pinnacle Studio 8, and then write it out as a windows media file. However.... when I just tried it, the video was fine, but the audio didn't come through, so you may need to first run the mp2 file through tmpgenc or virtualdub or something to convert the audio from AC3 to linear pcm (I didn't try that part... might take some playing with)

[Jason Dunn]

I haven't done this myself in a long time, but as iand said, you'll need to convert the VOB files into a format prepped correctly for the Windows Media Encoder. Use Virtualdub (www.virtualdub.org) and you should be able to convert the files to MPEG or AVI. This would make a good tutorial of course... ;-)

[tvalentin]

Thanks for the tips. I spent about 6 hours trying many different things but couldn't quite get it to work.
I did find this guide
http://www.microsoftusernetwork.com/mcored/index.htm
and this
http://www.microsoftusernetwork.com/zarax/dvd/dvd00.htm
(the rest of the site looks quite interesting too)

However it is still not working properly. The encoder runs through the 1st pass (without sound) and the ndoes a few seconds of the 2nd pass, and then stops. Outputting a 0 second file. I'm sure it is just me on the wrong side of the learning curve.

Again any help would be appreciated, a guide would be really useful.

[Jason Dunn]

However it is still not working properly. The encoder runs through the 1st pass (without sound) and the ndoes a few seconds of the 2nd pass, and then stops. Outputting a 0 second file. I'm sure it is just me on the wrong side of the learning curve.

No, I think that might mean you have a corrupted rip - if the encoder is hanging on processing the file, it might mean there's a problem with that file. Can you try just a single-pass encoding?

[ShinKen]

You might try using something like DVD2AVI and then frameserve the video over to windows media encoder.

[tvalentin]

Thanks for the further tips.

I'm beginning to wonder if there is a problem with my windows install and that maybe the codecs have become corrupted. As windowsmedia encoder will not convert an mpeg file. I may try a reinstall over the weekend and see if a clean slate makes any difference.

Has anyone else tried this with any success?

Thanks again,

Tom