Joining VOB files taken from a DVD

[concord72]

From my cousins wedding DVD, I was able to extra the 4 VOB files, they were named VTS_01_1 and so forth. How can I join all 4 files into 1 video file? I need something simple, I can't do the ffmpeg method because I am not comfortable with shell/CLI. Someone mentioned using Handbrake, which I have, but I could not figure out how to set that up, all it would let me do is converter the files individually, no option to join them into 1.

 

[basroil]

1) You should only do that if your cousins own the rights (sometimes videographers will put a no-copyright transfer and no-copy clause)
2) If you are authorized to do it, or it is for personal use and the DVD does not use copy protections, you can always use makeMKV to extract the DVD as a single mkv file and then transcode that if you want to.
2a) if you properly extracted ALL the files, not just the vob but all of them, handbrake should be able to transcode it given that it doesn't have protections. There are instructions on the handbrake website

 

[Solandri]

videohelp.com has lots of links to tutorials. Here's the section on DVD to various computer video files:

http://www.videohelp.com/guides/category/how-to-backup-dvd-to-avi-mkv-mp4-divx-xvid-h264-wmv-vc1-6;33#6;33

Here's the Handbrake tutorial in particular.

http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides/dvdrip/235-convert-dvd-to-h264-mkv-mp4-using-handbrake

I used Handbrake a lot before switching to ffmpeg. I should point out that the main reason I switched is that Handbrake is not very good for DVD conversions. Its decomb/detelecine algorithm is not very good. This is crucial for U.S. DVD conversions because they're encoded as 480 lines interlaced. The decomb or detelecine process is what converts those interlaced lines into full-res progressive. Handbrake's algorithm results in diagonal lines having noticeable aliasing (jaggies). The only settings I could find which got rid of the jaggies resulted in a markedly blurrier picture.

Edit: Handbrake also has serious problems with mixed framerate DVDs. Probably not relevant in your case since it's probably all videos. But converting DVDs with mixed film (23.976 fps) and video (shorts and bonus features shot at 30 or 60 fps) results in huge cumulative audio sync errors, as Handbrake seems to sync the audio using the average framerate of the entire DVD you're encoding.

I don't wind up having to do many DVD conversions, and when I do it's usually with ffmpeg. So I can't really recommend an easy one to you that has a decent deinterlace filter. Try going through the videohelp site for suggestions. It does allow users to rate the software. Pay attention to number of votes and the release date of the latest version, not just the average rating.

http://www.videohelp.com/software/sections/dvd-to-avi-divx-xvid?orderby=Rating