FFMpeg convert VOB to H264 and multi language

Question

I try to convert VOB files to H264. I know it seems to be crazy to do that but the goal is to use it with the Apple TV.

To just converting a VOB file to mp4 with the right audio stream is not really a problem.

The problem is when the VOB file contains multi-sequences in different languages. For example, in the mp4's file I will have 3 seconds of video including for example a book on the screen in english, then, the same 3 seconds with the book in french and so on... But with the VOB file I will have only the 3 seconds in the right language.

When I check the VOB file, I only see one stream #0.0 for the video.

So my question is, how can I avoid to include the differents videos sequences with these different languages ?

Thx for your help.

Answer 1

In that VOB, all the video sequences are concatenated with the DVD authoring that tells the player which portions to play depending on the language choice.

So, in order to extract just a coherent single language video, you will have to examine the VOB and note down the timecodes of the language you want. Then using, probably, the concat demuxer, extract the segments and join them.

e.g. if the timecodes for English for 14-17 seconds and then 3m 34sec to 6m 20 sec, you would create a text file like this

file 'input.vob'
inpoint 14
outpoint 17
file 'input.vob'
inpoint 214
outpoint 380

(times are in seconds)

and then

ffmpeg -f concat -i list.txt out.mp4