Converting VOBs to MPG

[el.sifon]

I've been doing a lot of reading on DVD stuff because I'm fairly new with it, but I've never run into anyone who's talked about converting VOBs to MPGs. Through trial and error I discovered that if you simply rename the file type from .vob to .mpg the file will open in Windows Media and it will play (sound and all). The problem is that it comes up with an error message that it couldn't download an MPEG-2 codec. Since it plays OK the error message seems a little silly.

The problem is that I'm converting the VOBs to MPG so that I can make a clip of a scene in that particular video and when I open the renamed VOB file in MyDVD it will not allow me to skip forward in the movie. So if I want to clip of a small portion of the renamed video file I would have to export the whole file and then make the clip in MyDVD (although I haven't tried this yet to see if it would work).

I tried editing the renamed VOB file in Roxio Easy Media Creator 8.0. In that application I can forward to the clip but it's missing the sound.

So what's the easiest way to edit out a clip in a VOB? Is there a program that will let me view and edit a VOB and save the clip to an MPG, AVI of MWV file? Can anyone point me in the right direction to get an answer?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

BTW: I installed Intevideo XPack MPEG 2 thinking that would help but it had no affect either negative or positive on anything so I uninstalled it.

El Sifon

[MikeyBK]

So what's the easiest way to edit out a clip in a VOB? Is there a program that will let me view and edit a VOB and save the clip to an MPG, AVI of MWV file? Can anyone point me in the right direction to get an answer?

VideoReDo can do this, but it costs...... It does come with a free 30 day trial though.
DVDShrinks start/end option under Re-author mode can also edit out clipp/individual frames but it keeps it in VOBs/IFOs, and you lose the menus functionality.

[paglamon]

VirtualdubMPEG2 is ur solution for editing VOBs and saving as AVI.
For MPG output,as suggested by MB, VideoReDo is the best option.

[el.sifon]

Thanks MikeyBK and paglamon! I'll give both a try!

El Sifon

[D_HUSTLE]

I used WinMPG DVD Ripper. You can open VOB files and convert them directly to mpg or avi.