This is a question that probably gets asked a lot, but I haven't found anything that solves my particular problem. My DVD to .MKV process is something along these lines: -Rip desired title from DVD with DVD decrypter, demuxing audio in the process. -Convert MPEG2 to Xvid using DVDx 2.20 -Rip subpicture to .SRT with subrip -Mux into .MKV using mkvtoolnix Unfortunately the MPEG2 to Xvid part isn't working so well for movies. DVDx mangles the index of the output .AVI for files over about 2GB, and when I convert the .VOB files individually, I wind up with video that is slightly shorter than the original audio. So does anyone know any more reliable programs for converting MPEG2? I have tried things like autoGK and FairUse but I really just want a bare bones video conversion app that will accept an .IFO and let me transcode from MPEG2 to Xvid in a way that will produce a video file that will sync up with the original audio track when re-muxed, prefereably with the option of using the ffdshow encoder.
Aha! Using VirtualDub-MPEG2 I can batch-convert all the .VOBs to Xvid using ffdshow without any sync problems - and it's about 20fps faster than DVDx.
First of all, why do you convert to Xvid? And if you convert to Xvid, why mux it into an MKV?! Your process is really messed up...demuxing the audio, converting audio/video separately, extracting the subs...you'll never be able to keep them all in sync. If you want to convert your DVD straight to MKV(using x.264 or ffmpeg), the best I found yet is HandBrake. You don't need to rip the subtitles-it will include them automatically,burned in or switchable. It can convert with multi subs or audio. Just drag the IFO file in the conversion window. It can batch convert as well.