[info] An easy way to merge DVD (VOB) files into one without losses or conversion

rado84

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Yesterday I finally found Satyricon's live concert in the Norwegian Opera on a DVD and today I decided to make the DVD into one more... easily operable file, mostly bc when clicking somewhere on the timeline, mpv thinks a lot before switching to the moment where I clicked (that happens even when the files were copied from the DVD disc to the local storage drive). So I spent a little longer than 3 hrs in attempts to merge them into one single file but none of the methods worked - the result was either without any sound at all or if it had sound, it was slower than the picture.

Eventually, it occurred to me that VOB is just another kind of video container much like Matroska video, so out of desperation I accidentally found what I needed in the first place - an easy way to merge all VOB files into one without losses or conversion.
It's a good idea before that to install the package libdvdcss bc it seems several programs are using it, when it's available in the system.

Since usually the VOB files are more than one and each one is 1 GB in size (I'm guessing this is the maximum size for this format), you will have several. In my case they were 6. So you just right click the first big VOB file and select "Open With... MKVToolnix-GUI". Don't change anything in the muxed sources. Simply set a new output file name, for instance "VTS_TEST.mkv" and click "begin muxing". Depending on your hardware, the process should take 5 minutes or less. Then you'll have one large MKV file comprised of all the VOB files.

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I never knew mkvtoolnix had a gui, I have only used the cli version in the past but that's more than enough for me. I did learn something new, thanks for sharing!
 
I never knew mkvtoolnix had a gui, I have only used the cli version in the past but that's more than enough for me. I did learn something new, thanks for sharing!
I never knew it had a CLI, until I started using Linux. I knew about the program from the time I was a Windows sheep.
 
"5 minutes or less" - wow, I can't believe this. I was always doing that all night long... due to the same thing as you described. The merging takes sooo long if the videos are vob files :( So thank you so so much for sharing this experience here. I always use a software to merge vob files, it's easy to use but I wanted to try something new, something that will make the proccess go faster.
 
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