For real, no VOB players for android??

[tommer12]

I have searched high and low... this is crazy. I have my entire DVD collection ripped from DVDfab to VOB format and it works great with VLC player, WD Live tv, etc. I copy the movie I want to my Xoom and no player will play the friggin files. Some of the players will play the first VOB file, then just die out. Never making it to the next one.

I really do not want to convert or pay for a coverter to switch to MP4 formats...

 

[z06mike]

What players have you tried so far?

 

[tommer12]

Just about every single video player in the marketplace. Rocketplayer, vplayer, doubletwist, etc. I just found a VOB merger.
http://beginwithsoftware.com/videoguides/joinvobfilestool.html

Merging hot tub time machine right now and see how it goes.

 

[Arun01]

I have vob's too..i just used Total Video Converter to convert mine to mp4 ..you have to pay for it but im sure there might be some free converters out there.

 

[tommer12]

It seems like it is soooo close to working by default with Rockplayer or Vplayer. Its like the same mess I went through with WDLIVE box to get to play videos.. finally it works great now. I really do not want to convert and take up that time....

 

[LynnL]

This might be a dumb question, but did you try changing the extension to .mpg?

It won't solve the finding-the-next file problem, but at least they might play?

 

[tommer12]

It does actually somewhat play. I have the Black Knight and it has a fairly large VOB file and on my xoom, it spits it out perfectly through HDMI using RocketPlayer. But once that VOB is done.. it craps out.

 

[emcd4]

Try Moboplayer.

 

[tommer12]

Yeah, no love from mobo either. Its seems so easy.. but I guess not... Its like I just turned the hands of video playing back 12 months to my WDlive box and everyone trying to get it to work as well.

 

[e.mote]

Your problem stems from the weird way you chose to store your videos. Ripped videos are usually converted to MPEG4--ASP (DivX) for older stuff, AVC (H264) for current stuff. Most players therefor are designed for MPEG4, not MPEG2, and not the VOB container.

Your method was OK for the PC because it has a mature software ecosystem, and lots of available players. On mobile devices, you get hit by a double whammy of hardware restrictions and limited software. Most every current Android player is using ffmpeg lib, meaning no HW accel. HW accel will come for Android, but not for MPEG2. Online videos are all using MPEG4 AVC nowaday.

If you want to stick with VOBs, then buy a tablet geared for PMP use. The Archos Gen8 currently can play VOBs, as are a host of no-name Asian tabs. Chinese & Korean vendors have a long PMP history, and typically have strong video support. Their downside, for now, is no HC and low build quality.

 

[htc6500uk]

Versatile media playing is one of the "Killer" features that Honeycomb should have had from the outset as it one of the obvious features that Android tablets could beat the iPad on hands down.

Research has already shown that a lot of tablet use is made at home and the large screen is perfect for media playing. MPEG2 and VOBS have been around a long time and when a low powered WDTV media player or an Archos can handle a wide range of audio and video formats it seems perverse that Android users are having to wait for these features.

Honeycomb needs to be able to play just about any video or audio format thrown at it. Google/Honeycomb needs features like this to demonstrate an obvious advantage over other tablets and "Chinese" media players.

The more that a Honeycomb tablet can do, the more successful they will be. To my mind it's just the sort of thing the public and the press would see as a major "plus" factor. Why should one have to buy a number of separate devices when one device could do them all?

I have read that the VLC media player is being ported to Android so we can live in hope but it really should have been in Honeycomb as a native feature from day one.

A native way to save and/or print a web page should also have been a "native" feature as well as a screencap feature - at least this last feature is included on the Asus Transformer so there is hope!

 

[burden010]

I'd need to check but maybe a way around this would be to setup a playlist and play each VOB in sequence? I think, but again I'd need to check, that Moboplayer has the ability for playlists...

 

[e.mote]

Sure, HC should have any number of things. It should've been finished. But it isn't.

Consumers always want things done yesterday. The reality is that software development always lags. Rather than dwelling on the "shouldas", IMO it's more productive to focus on what is, and plan your decisions accordingly.

Lack of MPEG2/AC3 support isn't a matter of power. It's a matter of licensing. Many product decisions are made on business reality (read: $ cost), and not what's technically feasible. Most videos nowaday use MPEG4, and that's where the demand lies. Like it or not, VOB/MPEG2 viewing is a niche need. Those used to the PC's abundance in software will have to recalibrate their expectations for Android.

 

[tommer12]

I dont think its a honeycomb issue. I think there is not a player out there to handle VOBs correctly because there has not been a device to come even close to being able to play the hi-res video files. Xoom can do it. I have said before somewhere, if I have a single VOB such as the Dark Knight, it plays awesome on my Xoom and through HDMI out to my TV.. (streaming no less from my WD 1tb NAS drive). It really works.. to me, its a player issue and nobody has made a player to play multiple VOB files. Id pay $20 or $30 had a player to make all my current ripped dvds work on the xoom.

 

[tommer12]

and to top it off, MPEG4 stinks. I "converted" a VOB using one of the bazillion convertor software programs out there and it shows up on my xoom fine, but looks like crap compared to the VOB

 

[e.mote]

Suggest you try a good converter. There's a reason why the whole computing world is using MPEG4. For a no-brainer converter that can do drag-drop batch processing (so you can do all your vids in one go), try HandBrake with my automated script.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=978529

 

[tommer12]

Can I have this convert my existing VOBs? Or do I need to go back to the DVDs and do this?

I tried a convertor and it took about 2 hours.. insane.

 

[e.mote]

The script accept folders as input. Each folder should hold a movie, and should have the VIDEO_TS.IFO file (this contains the stream info), along with the VOBs.

Yes, depending on your system speed, it will take a while. That's why there is batch processing. You drop 5-10 movies onto the script, and let it run overnight.

Speed is set at medium as default. For about 30-50% faster processing, at the cost of about 10% size increase, edit script and change speed to 'veryfast'.

 

[Dramadeur]

I would recommend arcMedia player, after trying Buzz, MX, Mobo and Rockplayer I can say that arcMedia player handled this (megaupload. com/?d=O7ZMO5GK) video file the best so far.
If you turn off "skipping frames" at Buzz, video is being played with hanging / freezees, although CPU isn't being overloaded.
Other players just don't play ac3 audio properly.

give it a try to understand what I mean.

 

[kingcain]

I have all of my Videos in VOB format also. when I convert these movies to MPEG4 is there a way to save all of the DVD features like subtitles, menus, and extras?