FileMB

This article will teach you one method of converting .vob DVD video files to a more friendly format known as .avi for use in video editing software. This article assumes you already have a folder with your “.VOB” video files (See: How to rip video from a DVD disk) somewhere on your computer, and that all encryption has been removed from those files. Once your files have been converted to .avi format you should be able to use them in almost any video editing software, including iMovie.

Converting .vob files to .avi files is easy — all you need is a program to do the work for you. There are plenty of quality programs available online for free. My personal favorite is one called Super DVD Ripper, but it isn’t free (there’s a free trial available to download that is fully functional for a certain number of times you run the program). For the sake of saving you money, this tutorial will focus on a free program called Handbrake which is available for both PC and Mac (this tutorial follows the PC version, but the Mac version is similar). Download handbrake here, then install it.

Using Handbrake to convert .vob files to .avi format

Once you’ve installed Handbrake, open it up click “browse” at the very top to locate the folder where your .vob file(s) are saved.

Next, click the second “browse” button to chose a folder and filename for the new file. IMPORTANT: make sure you change the file type of the new file to be “.avi” (click right image)

Next, change the “encoder” type to be Mpeg 4 and the audio encoder to be mp3. If you don’t do those, you might not have sound or video in your new file.

If you’re tech savvy and know what you’re doing, you can mess around with the rest of the settings to tweak the video output to your liking. For most users, though, the defaults should work just fine. Go ahead and click “Encode Video” at the very bottom of the page. Handbrake opens up a new window and takes a few minutes, depending on the length of your video, to convert your files. When it’s done open up the new .avi file you created and make sure it looks the way it should.

Now you can drag and drop your .avi file to the video editing software of your choice! If you’re editing on a different computer, you can export this video file to a miniDV tape using Windows Movie Maker (PC) or iMovie (Mac). You can also use an external hard drive to copy the .avi file directly to your editing computer. Congratulations! You’ve converted a .vob file to .avi format. There are many variables involved with conversion so you may get better results with different programs and different settings, but those settings aren’t covered in this tutorial.