Converting VOB to WMV - No Sound!

[Alex Adhami]

i'm trying to convert vob files taken from dvds to wmv and quicktime, but when i use sorenson squeeze 4 to encode the vob file to wmv and qt, the resulting wmv and qt files don't have any sound.

i did some research and apparently this is something common that people run into. can someone tell me what i'm doing wrong?

thanks a lot!

[Alex Adhami]

anyone have a solution for this? thanks

[Jonathan Jones]

There are a number of reasons for why this is not working. There are a few ways in which audio content is set up into a VOB system, and some extraction or conversion techniques will typically produce the results you are seeing.

Can you offer a few more details?:

Does your VOB file still reside on the source DVD, or is it on your hard drive?

If it is on your hard drive, can you access the content in a playback app and successfully hear the audio? Does the content play back properly in the Sorenson preview pane?

Is the content you are trying to access possibly encrypted in some manner?

What app or apps are you using or method you are utilizing to extract the content from the DVD or are you going straight from the DVD via Sorenson Squeeze?

-Jon

[Battle Vaughan]

The mpeg audio/video stream is demuxed into separate audio and video files when the .vob is made. Mpegstreamclip, which is freeware at(www.squared5.com) is good at re-muxing such files and converting them to avi or dv or mov or whatever. If the audio still does not play, it is usually that your system does not have the specific audio codec used, and you can convert the audio stream in mpegstreamclip independently if needed. HTH /Battle Vaughan

[Alex Adhami]

the vob file i'm using is a sample file i found on the net, so it is already on my hard drive. it has sound and when i play the preview clip in SS you can hear the sound, but after it's encoded to WMV or QT, the sound is gone.

i just downloaded the trial version of dvd to mpeg, convert dvd to mpeg, dvd to mpeg converter - YASA DVD to MPEG Converter and it seems to be working, but wondering why i can't just use SS since i already have a paid working copy.

could it be that i need to download some extra codecs??

thanks!

[Peter Manojlovic]

Since the .VOB file carries an .AC3 stream, i would suspect that WMEncoder, or Quicktime can't decompress them for output..Just a guess..

I would personally see the many freeware apps out there, that somehow decompress both audio and/or video to re edit in my favourite app....

Good luck!!!

[Jonathan Jones]

Originally Posted by Alex Adhami

wondering why i can't just use SS since i already have a paid working copy.

could it be that i need to download some extra codecs??

This is not an intended function of Sorenson Squeeze. A VOB file is not exactly a presentation-ready format, but rather a complex system of content allocation designed to be decoded in a specific manner. As Battle noted, the audio and video contents are separately allocated (the reasons for which are beyond the purposes of this post) and are intended to be decoded either by a standard DVD playback device, or by software that emulates that functionality - namely by rejoining the video and audio content for playback, extraction and transcoding.

Typically, SS won't even be able to properly preview the contents of the VOB file, but there are a few formulations in which this is possible - and you are probably experiencing this. (there are a few variations in how a VOB file allocates the streams) But still, this is not to suggest that SS can then properly transcode or compress the content. Folks are often misled by this and end up with video that has no audio, or vice versa.

There are number of freeware, shareware, and boxed apps that are intended solely for the purpose of extracting and transcoding VOB content streams. The trial versions of the software you have downloaded should give you options of various formats to transcode to, or provide you a workable option to create a source QT or AVI to drop into SS for your additional compression or transcoding needs.

-Jon

[Kenneth Fisher]

Use VirtualDubMod to change the VOB to uncompressed AVI, or a lossless codec of your choice, such as HuffYUV or Lazarith, both free.

The resulting AVI should have video and audio. Then encode that clip to WMV. I've done this a million times and it should work perfectly. If you still don't have audio then something is probably wrong with the source VOB file.

Ken

[Alex Adhami]

thanks guys! kenneth, is VirtualDubMod a program? or a codec that i install and use with sorenson?

[Kenneth Fisher]

Originally Posted by Alex Adhami

thanks guys! kenneth, is VirtualDubMod a program? or a codec that i install and use with sorenson?

VirtualDubMod is a variation on the program VirtualDub. It takes video and renders it as a different format, pretty much any codec on your computer. It cannot open or save to WMV or Quicktime because they are proprietary.

1) Google and download VirtualdubMod
2) Unzip and run VirtualdubMod (No need to install it runs standalone.)
3) Drop your VOB file on the VirtualdubMod interface.
4) Save Your File to AVI.
5) Bring the AVI file into Sorenson.

It works pretty much like Sorenson: Take a video file in one format and transcode/save it out to a different format. In this case VirtualdubMod is a bridge to get the video into a format you can use in Sorenson. I can't really explain the whole interface but it is pretty straightforward. You will probably have to play with it a little before you figure it out.

P.S. You need to use a PC computer.

[Alex Adhami]

thanks for the detailed explanation, kenneth!

Originally Posted by Kenneth Fisher

VirtualDubMod is a variation on the program VirtualDub. It takes video and renders it as a different format, pretty much any codec on your computer. It cannot open or save to WMV or Quicktime because they are proprietary.

1) Google and download VirtualdubMod
2) Unzip and run VirtualdubMod (No need to install it runs standalone.)
3) Drop your VOB file on the VirtualdubMod interface.
4) Save Your File to AVI.
5) Bring the AVI file into Sorenson.

It works pretty much like Sorenson: Take a video file in one format and transcode/save it out to a different format. In this case VirtualdubMod is a bridge to get the video into a format you can use in Sorenson. I can't really explain the whole interface but it is pretty straightforward. You will probably have to play with it a little before you figure it out.

P.S. You need to use a PC computer.