VOB to AVCHD Converter

How to Convert VOB to AVCHD Online

1. Upload Your VOB File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select one or more VOB files from your DVD rip or DVD-Video camcorder folder (typically under VIDEO_TS). Batch upload is supported, and the converter preserves the order of files you queue.
2. Pick Quality Preset: Default is Very High (Recommended), which keeps the H.264 encode close to the VOB's MPEG-2 visual quality. Choose Highest for archival masters, High or Medium for everyday playback, or Low/Lowest to fit larger libraries onto AVCHD discs. You can also switch File Compression mode to Constant Bitrate, Variable Bitrate, Constant Quality (CRF), or Specific File Size for finer control.
3. Set Video Resolution and Trim (Optional): Keep original DVD resolution (720x480 NTSC or 720x576 PAL), or scale up with a Preset Resolution like 1280x720 or 1920x1080. Adjust by Resolution Percentage, set custom Width x Height, or use Trim with a Time Range to clip out menus and bumpers before encoding.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. files are processed on our servers and deleted automatically after a few hours and the resulting .mts AVCHD stream downloads immediately — no sign-up, no watermark, no email required.

Why Convert VOB to AVCHD?

VOB (Video Object) is the MPEG-2 container that ships on every consumer DVD-Video disc, including DVDs burned by Sony, Panasonic, and Hitachi DVD camcorders from the early 2000s. AVCHD, jointly introduced by Sony and Panasonic in 2006, repackages H.264 video and Dolby AC-3 audio inside an MPEG transport stream with the .mts or .m2ts extension. Converting VOB to AVCHD is the standard path when you want DVD-era footage to play on Blu-ray hardware, sit alongside HD camcorder clips in an editing timeline, or live on an AVCHD-burned data disc instead of fragile 4.7 GB DVD-R.

• Blu-ray player compatibility — AVCHD authored to BD-R or BD-RE is natively recognised by Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, and LG Blu-ray decks, the PlayStation 3, and the PlayStation 4. A folder of legacy .vob files generally is not, unless the disc is authored as DVD-Video.
• Editing on prosumer NLEs — Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro all ingest AVCHD directly via their built-in importers; VOB usually has to be remuxed or transcoded before scrub previews work smoothly.
• Camcorder library consolidation — If you shoot with a modern Panasonic HC-V or Sony Handycam that records AVCHD, transcoding your old DVD camcorder VOBs to AVCHD lets the whole archive live in one timeline format.
• Smaller files at similar quality — H.264 is roughly 2x more efficient than the MPEG-2 in VOB at the same perceived quality, so a 90-minute DVD title that occupies 4 GB of VOBs typically lands near 1.8-2.5 GB of AVCHD at the same resolution.
• Authoring back to optical — AVCHD can be burned to standard 4.7 GB DVD-R or 25 GB BD-R using free tools like multiAVCHD or MakeMKV's authoring helpers, so old camcorder content gets a HD-style menu disc.
• Future-proofing finalized DVD camcorder tapes — DVD-RAM and mini-DVD media degrade; pulling the VOBs once and storing as AVCHD on a hard drive preserves the footage in a format ffmpeg and modern editors still treat as first-class.

VOB vs AVCHD — Format Comparison

Quality Preset and Bitrate Guide

AVCHD's spec caps total bitrate at 18 Mbit/s when the stream is burned to a DVD-based AVCHD disc and 24 Mbit/s when authored to Blu-ray, an SD card, or AVCHD 2.0 (Progressive) targets, per the AVCHD specification published by Sony and Panasonic.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will converting VOB to AVCHD make my DVD footage look HD?

No — the conversion re-encodes the existing 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) pixels into H.264, but it can't recover detail that was never recorded. If you pick a 1920x1080 preset the converter upscales (interpolates new pixels); the file is technically "HD" by resolution but visually no sharper than the source. Pick "Keep original" resolution unless you specifically need a 1080p frame for editing alongside HD clips.

My DVD camcorder produced multiple VOB files for one recording — can I join them into one AVCHD?

Yes, DVD-Video chops anything over 1 GB into sequential VOB files (VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, etc.) so that older filesystem readers can handle them. Upload them in order; the encoder treats them as one logical stream and outputs a single AVCHD file. If you'd rather work with a clean MP4 master first, see VOB to MP4.

Can I burn the resulting AVCHD to a regular DVD-R and play it on a Blu-ray player?

Usually, yes. AVCHD on a 4.7 GB DVD-R (often called an "AVCHD disc") is recognised by most Sony, Panasonic, LG, and Samsung Blu-ray players, the PS3, and the PS4. The Wikipedia AVCHD entry notes that "not all Blu-ray players support AVCHD video authored on DVD media," so verify your model's manual — older Pioneer and some Oppo decks are picky. For maximum compatibility, burn to BD-R.

What audio does AVCHD support, and will my AC-3 audio carry through?

AVCHD supports Dolby AC-3 (the original DVD audio codec) and linear PCM in pro mode. Because VOB usually ships AC-3 already, the converter can pass the audio through with minimal generation loss. Switch the Audio Codec in Advanced Options if you specifically need PCM for editing.

Why is my AVCHD file larger than the original VOB?

This happens when you upscale resolution, pick a Highest preset, or change Constant Bitrate to a higher value than the source. A 9.8 Mbit/s VOB transcoded to 24 Mbit/s AVCHD at the same resolution gets bigger, not smaller. Drop to Very High or Medium, or use Constant Quality (CRF) around 20-23 for size-efficient encodes that still match the source visually.

Does AVCHD support multiple audio tracks and subtitles like VOB?

AVCHD allows multiple audio tracks (up to seven 5.1 streams per the spec) and supports presentation-graphic subtitle streams, but most online converters only carry the first audio track and discard DVD subtitle streams (which are bitmap-based and embedded in the VOB). If you need every audio track preserved, transcode the audio separately and remux. The visible subtitle text is not converted.

Should I trim out the DVD menu and copyright bumpers before converting?

Yes, if they're inside the same VOB. DVD menu segments often live in VTS_01_0.VOB (the menu set) while the main feature is in VTS_01_1.VOB onward — uploading only the title VOBs avoids the menus entirely. If you have a single concatenated dump, use the Trim option with a Time Range to skip the leader and trailer. See Trim VOB if you'd prefer to clip first and convert second.

What's the difference between AVCHD's .mts and .m2ts extensions?

They're the same MPEG-2 Transport Stream container. Camcorders record to the SD card with the .mts extension; Sony's PlayMemories and most NLEs rename it to .m2ts on import to match the BDAV transport stream convention used inside Blu-ray. The bytes inside are identical, and players accept either. This converter outputs .mts by default.

Can the converted AVCHD play directly in iMovie or Final Cut Pro?

Yes — both ingest AVCHD natively. iMovie expects to see the full AVCHD folder structure (BDMV/STREAM/00000.MTS) when importing from a camera, but it will also import a stand-alone .mts file by dragging it into the media browser. Final Cut Pro X imports .mts directly. If you need an MP4 instead, run AVCHD to MP4 after this conversion.