Converting a .VOB file into .mp4 or other format to decrease the video memory size

Question

I have a folder that contains few .VOB format file. The folder actually contains a movie and typically a movie of that length would occupy 2 to 5 GB but the folder I have is 18 GB!

Is there any way I can convert it to .mp4 or any other format to reduce the space it occupies.

I have tried the following command, ( not sure what it does exactly) but I ended up with the same size of video.

ffmpeg -i movie.VOB -c:v copy -c:a copy out2.mp4 2> log.txt

Would be grateful for any help.

Solution

You're stream copying (re-muxing) the video and audio with -c:v copy -c:a copy. Think of it like a copy and paste.

If you want to reduce the size you'll need to re-encode it. The simplest command would be:

ffmpeg -i input.vob output.mp4

• See FFmpeg Wiki: H.264 for more details.
• For max compatibility I suggest also adding -vf format=yuv420p as an output option (put it before output.mp4).

Comments

[Hrushi]

The folder size reduced from 18GB to 4GB, thanks a lot!