lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

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dwk
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 06, 2021 10:47 pm

lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by dwk »

Hello

I recently used a 2016 VHS/DVD player/recorder to copy video from my VHS tapes (home movies) to writable DVDs on the same machine. This resulted in VOB-type files which in turn I copied to my desktop. I think this was the best way to get the best possible quality video from my VHS tapes into a preliminary digital format. I am now agonizing over how to do my next step, which is to organize and edit all this information (based on events/dates etc) and convert it all into individual MP4 files (most popular file type). Will converting from VOB to MP4 result in quality loss(lossless)? Can someone advise me on how to accomplish this? Or basically the best way I can convert/edit VOB to MP4s without any loss of quality?

I have tried a few free programs and just don't understand what's happening. Here is my test.... I convert a particular VOB file to an MP4 file. Then I take that MP4 file and convert it again to a new MP4 using the exact same parameters. The resultant size of the new MP4 file was smaller than the previous one. Every iteration I do like this results in a smaller MP4 file.

Cheers,
Dett
Woodstock
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Re: lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by Woodstock »

Zero additional loss, use a tool that can re-mux the MPEG2 video into an MP4 file. The options vary with your operating system.

Handbrake is always going to re-encode the video. h.264 video is far more efficient than MPEG2, so the files will get smaller, unless you tell the encoder to go "lossless", which means they'll get bigger. You've already lost a lot of detail in the conversion from VHS to DVD, and the VHS didn't have that much detail to begin with.
mduell
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Re: lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by mduell »

ffmpeg/mp4box will do this; HB will not.
dwk
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu May 06, 2021 10:47 pm

Re: lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by dwk »

Thanks for the replies!
So, if I understand this correctly, Handbrake won't do a lossless conversion but utilities like FFmpeg and mp4box will. I suppose I'll try FFmpeg. My ultimate goal is to convert VOB(and some other types of video files) to MP4 losslessly and then be able to edit these resultant MP4 files losslessly. Is this possible? Is this possible with Abobe Premiere Elements?
Woodstock
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Re: lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by Woodstock »

In copy mode, ffmpeg and mp4box are simply changing the container, not the tracks themselves.

You will have to check if Premier can handle MPEG2 as an input.
rollin_eng
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Re: lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by rollin_eng »

Will premier or other editors not accept VOB files?
mduell
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Re: lossless conversion from VOB to MP4 ...

Post by mduell »

There's something to distinguish here:

Literally lossless, no changes to the video bitstream, and the same size? HB doesn't do that.

"Can't see the difference" lossless, perhaps a fraction of the size? HB does that quite well.

If you want to prep the video for editing in Premiere, try the Production presets in HB. You probably can't see the difference, they'll be about the same side, and they're editable.
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