VOB to RM: Convert Video from VOB(DVD Media File) to RM(RealMedia) with River Past Video Cleaner, VOB2RM 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 RM?

A streaming technology developed by RealNetworks for transmitting live video over the Internet. RealVideo uses a variety of data compression techniques and works with both normal IP connections as well as IP Multicast connections.

More information is available on RealNetwork web site.

To convert other video formats to RealMedia, you will need River Past RealMedia Booster Pack in addition to your video software.

Additional Requirements

To convert from VOB(DVD Media File) to RM(RealMedia) video with River Past Video Cleaner, you must have River Past RealMedia Booster Pack 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 "RM - RealMedia" as the "File Type".

Note: To convert to RealMedia, you must have River Past RealMedia Booster Pack installed.

Change Audience

The audience specifies the target audience for your video streaming. It is normally bitrate based for streaming, or quality based if you just want to store the video for local playback. For example, to enable users of 512k DSL to play the video from internet, select "512k DSL or Cable" as the audience.

Change Video Settings

Click on the toggle to the left of the "RealVideo 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.

RealVideo uses temporal compression. This means, only key frames contains complete information about the video frame. All other frames contains the difference from previous frame or frames. A "Key Frame" of 15 means there will be one key frame every 15 frames. Larger key frame setting will reduce the file size, but reduce the quality of all the none-key frames.

Change the "Mode" and "Complexity" settings according to your content so the RealVideo encoder can optimize its algorithm accordingly.

Change Audio Settings

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

Select the audio compressor for the conversion. You may also change the sample rate, channel (stereo or mono), and bits/sample. You can also leave the setting to "Automatic" so the software choose the best settings depending on the original material.

Change the "Mode" and "Complexity" settings according to your content so the RealAudio encoder can optimize its algorithm accordingly.