AVCHD to VOB Converter

Convert AVCHD to VOB

An AVCHD file holds H.264 video and Dolby AC-3 audio inside an MPEG-2 transport stream — the format consumer HD camcorders have written since 2006. A VOB is something older and stricter: an MPEG-2 program stream, the payload that fills the VIDEO_TS folder of a DVD. Going from one to the other is not a rewrap. The video is decoded from H.264 and re-encoded as MPEG-2, which is a real generational loss and, on HD footage, usually a bigger file than you started with.

That trade only makes sense for one reason: something downstream insists on MPEG-2 in a .vob. DVD authoring software is the usual culprit, along with older set-top players and a handful of broadcast ingest tools. If you simply want the camcorder footage to play everywhere, AVCHD to MP4 keeps the H.264 stream family and skips the whole MPEG-2 detour.

How to Convert AVCHD to VOB

1. Upload Your AVCHD File: Drag the .avchd file onto the page or use "Add Files". Multiple clips can be queued and share one set of settings. Files upload over an encrypted connection and are processed on our servers.
2. Confirm Video Codec and Audio Codec: Video Codec opens on MPEG-2, with MPEG-1 as the only other choice. Audio Codec opens on MP2, and AC3, DTS (DCA) and MP3 are the alternatives. MPEG-2 is the right pick for anything DVD-shaped; see the audio note below before you leave MP2 alone.
3. Set Video Resolution — This Is the Important One: Video resolution opens on Keep original, so a 1920×1080 or 1440×1080 camcorder clip stays that size inside the VOB. For DVD authoring, switch to Width x Height and enter 720x480 or 720x576. Resolution Percentage, Preset Resolutions, Width and Height are the other modes.
4. Set File Compression and Convert: The compression group opens on Quality Preset at Very High (Recommended); Specific file size, Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality sit alongside it. Click Convert and save the .vob. No sign-up, no watermark, and files are deleted automatically after a few hours.

What You Get versus What a DVD Player Needs

The converter writes a valid MPEG-2 program stream under a .vob name. It does not make that stream DVD-Video compliant on its own — nothing here reshapes the frame size, the frame rate, or the bitrate to fit the disc spec. This table is the gap you have to close by hand:

We ran a 1440×1080 anamorphic AVCHD clip through the same MPEG-2 + MP2 path this page uses and probed the output: the VOB came back as an mpeg program stream with mpeg2video at 1440×1080 and a sample aspect ratio of 4:3 for a 16:9 display shape — the anamorphic geometry survived intact, and the frame size was untouched. That is the correct behaviour for Keep original, and it is also exactly why an authoring tool would reject the file until you set 720×480 or 720×576 yourself.

How the Quality Controls Behave on MPEG-2

MPEG-2 has no constant-quality mode, which changes what the compression controls actually do here. Quality Preset falls back to scaling the source video bitrate by a fixed multiplier:

Two consequences worth knowing before you pick. First, the default preset aims above the source bitrate, so the VOB is normally larger than the AVCHD file — MPEG-2 needs the headroom to hold its own against H.264, and this is where the size growth comes from. Second, Constant Quality and Constraint Quality do not work as quality knobs on MPEG-2: the encoder has no quality mode, so the number you type is converted into a plain bitrate floor and discarded. If you need to control the output size, use Specific file size, Constant Bitrate or Variable Bitrate, all of which the MPEG-2 encoder honours directly.

There is also a floor. The MPEG-2 encoder refuses to be starved at a given frame size, so a bitrate request below roughly 2 Mbit/s at standard definition, or roughly 7.5 Mbit/s at 1080p, is raised to that minimum rather than obeyed. Lower the resolution first if you need a smaller file — dropping to 720×480 both meets the DVD spec and legitimises a much lower bitrate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is my VOB bigger than the AVCHD file it came from?

Two effects stack. MPEG-2 is roughly a generation behind H.264 in efficiency, so matching the same picture takes considerably more bits; and the default Very High preset targets 1.32× the source video bitrate rather than trying to match it. On top of that, a program stream carries more packaging overhead than a transport stream. If size matters, drop the preset to Medium or lower, or switch to Specific file size and name a target — and set the resolution to 720×480 or 720×576 first, because fewer pixels is the change that actually helps MPEG-2.

Will this file burn straight to a playable DVD?

Not by itself. A DVD needs a VIDEO_TS folder containing IFO navigation files, BUP backups and correctly split VOB segments, and it needs the video inside those VOBs to already be 720×480 or 720×576 at the region's frame rate. This page produces one MPEG-2 program stream; authoring software builds the disc around it. Set Width x Height to the DVD frame size here and your authoring tool will have far less work — and far less reason to re-encode a second time.

Should I keep MP2 audio or switch to AC3?

Both are legal DVD audio. MP2 is the format PAL-region discs have always leaned on and it is what this page selects by default; AC-3 is the format nearly every NTSC-region disc uses and what most players and authoring tools expect first. If the disc is for a North American or Japanese player, switch Audio Codec to AC3. DTS is also on the list, but it is an optional extra on the DVD spec rather than a baseline format, so a player is allowed not to decode it.

My camcorder footage is 1440×1080. Will the VOB look squashed?

Not if you leave Video resolution on Keep original. We confirmed that the 4:3 sample aspect ratio survives the conversion, so a player that reads the flag still shows a 16:9 picture. The danger is resizing: any resize in this pipeline flattens the pixel aspect to square, so choosing a percentage or a preset height on anamorphic footage will stretch it. When you resize anamorphic AVCHD, use Width x Height and pick a pair that already describes the display shape you want.

Does converting to VOB deinterlace my footage?

No. There is no deinterlacing anywhere in this pipeline. Interlaced AVCHD — 1080i is very common on older camcorders — is decoded and re-encoded with its field structure and comb artifacts intact. MPEG-2 can carry interlaced video natively, so this is not necessarily a problem for DVD authoring, but if you were hoping the conversion would clean up combing on a progressive display, it will not.

Can I choose MPEG-1 instead of MPEG-2?

You can, and it is on the list, but there is rarely a reason. MPEG-1 in a .vob is a Video CD-era combination, capped in practice at much lower resolutions and quality, and DVD authoring tools generally expect MPEG-2. Pick MPEG-1 only if a specific legacy device asked for it by name.

What happened to the multiple audio tracks and subtitles from my camcorder?

A single conversion produces a single video stream and a single audio stream. Extra audio tracks, if the source had them, are not carried across, and AVCHD subtitle streams are not written into the VOB. Multi-track and multi-subtitle assembly is an authoring task, not a conversion one — a DVD authoring package adds those when it builds the VIDEO_TS structure.

What happens to my files after the conversion?

The .avchd file is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and both the upload and the finished .vob are deleted automatically after a few hours. There is no account, no watermark, and files are never shared or made public. Since AVCHD clips are often long and large, the real constraint is upload time — trim first with the Video Cutter, which accepts .avchd directly, if you only need part of the footage.