Please Help - DVD VOB-> TINY mpeg ???

Hi all, I know about using DVDShrink or nero reloaded to reduce the overall size of DVDs, but I want to go TINY. I have a DVD cam Corder (Sony DCR-DVD92) which generates standard sized video. I want to be able to shrink , say, 60 seconds of my son running about in 720x576 (which takes up 100Mb on disk) down to something email-able at 120x96 or perhaps downloadable 240x192. Any ideas? Thanks! P

Welcome to the Forum, pilotti: I've been using Auto GK for this, but the recipients of a file encoded with AGK would need the DivX or XviD codec installed on their machines. A more mainstream solution would be Windows Media Encoder; a file encoded with WME to the .WMV format can be rendered by any machine running a Microsoft operating system. Good luck. ammck55

Agreed, .WMV or .RM will let you take video down to 320 x 240 and keep the file around 2MB/minute at a fairly good quality. I routinely e-mail funny TV clips or comercials. A resolution of 120 x 96 and it's doubtful you could make out anything but flesh-colored silhouettes. Here's a recent example of a .RM I did: (Don't worry, it's a Jack-in-the-Box holiday antenna ball commercial). Note that you can still easily read the small-print disclaimer at the end.

ok, thanks. I shall dig out my copy of AutoGK and see what I come up with. Might even post the results if I succeed! I take it windows media encoder is something you have to purchase / or comes with XP rather than win2K. Regards P

Nope, it's free, but you'll have to download a copy. ammck55

ugh. thats new, msoft is making me click on a button saying validate your windows version. goodness only knows what that does (sony DRM flame war anyone?) but looks like its downloading anyway. thanks. I'll post a complete how to for other newbies such as myself once I've done it successfully (celebrating my first 12 months on doom9 and my 3rd post. Am I a lurker or what...) P

That validation process is nothing to worry about; if you're running a legal copy of a MS OS, you've no worries. Yes, it does seem invasive, but I guess they instituted this procedure to keep bootleg copies from receiving updates and Service Packs. ammck55

I like AimOne Video Converter - it's quick and simple, and does a good job - unfortunately it's not free. They do offer a trial version, but I don't recall if it's limited in file length, expires or adds a watermark.

Ok, So here is what I have tried:- 1) windows encoder from Microsoft : seems very slow and unwieldy on setup - setting up the parameter screens takes SO long to refresh. I tried this on a 180Mb VOB. First problem is : I only want aboot 24 seconds of this, so Windows Media Encoder is no good here - its only going to do the whole thing. Then I'll have to load the wmv result into something else to cut down the full 7mins 54 to the 24 seconds I want. Having to encode the whole thing just so I can then post process is a bit of a hassle! Next problem is, windows media encoder won't accept a VOB as input. So I fire up my trusty DVD Decrypter to get the VOB split into a m2v and a .wav. [Remember, this is my own camcorder recording, so no copyright infringement here! :) - incidentially, DVD Decrypter in stream processing mode - It can only handle DVD disk as input, and not a file on your HDD?] Next problem : Agh. media encoder doesn't accept m2v video as input. Maybe I can fake it by doing the 'rename as .mpg' hack. Nope. encode complains its not found a valid video output in the source file. Back to the drawing board 2) auto gordian knot This looks pretty sweet. Much simpler interface, allows for scaling down to 320x240 on the advanced setting. unfortunately, still no length manipulation so I have to encode the whole thing. Perhaps If I hit cancel after its done the first 24 seconds I can use this output? 3) One Click DVDtoSVCD () Ok, Its not free, but it does allow you to choose the exact segment I want to take, to the nearest millisecond. Drops the 24 seconds down to about 4 Mb, which is plenty small enough to gmail onwards. But its a fairly old prog, and at 5.2fps encoding boy is it slow. However, since the output is mpeg2, I suspect I can plough this through windows media encoder to reduce the size and resolution again (my other test VOB is 4:17 in length, and oneClickDVD can only reduce this to 50Mb). So, My only remaining question would be : whats the best prog to use to convert a VOB into video / audio files that windows encoder can cope with? Until I get an answer, I'll have to struggle on with Oneclick, but I would like a more upto date / faster way of preparing the mpeg.... btw, many thanks for the help. You're going to love the resulting mpeg... (!)

You can do basic editing with VobSubMod and then transcode it to a desired output format. I do this to convert VOBs/m2v's to DV format when needed. However, you will need a codec installed and recognizable by VobSubMod to get the output format you want. Anyone know if WME9 shows in as a codec in VobSubMod, and does it work in the tool? If not, is there a basic MPEG2 codec that can be used to make a compliant .mpg file from VobSubMod?