I'm trying to convert some DVDs so I can load them up to my Tivo. I have 2 problems right now.

The first problem is that I'm trying to use DVD Fab Platinum and its splitting the DVD into VOB files 1 GB in size. The destination folder isn't anything special and DVD Shrink doesn't split them up so I know its not the type of folder. does anyone know DVD Fab well enough to tell me what I"m doing wrong?

The second problem is that the movies play fine on my computer, but skip when they get to my Tivo. All I'm doing is changing the VOB extension to mpg. I"m not doing any encoding. Just ripping, transferring to my Mac from my PC and loading them to my Tivo. Anyone on here know anything about this?>

So I got an answer to problem numero uno. Anyone have any idea on problem number 2? I can't get the occassional skips to stop and its really bothersome.

Skipping is most likely caused by burning to fast or else the quality of media used

I'm not burning, im just ripping a movie that I own. Is there some sort of "cleaning" I need to do on the VOB before I try to upload it to my Tivo?

I'm new and have been trying for 10 days now to find some combination of products (freeware) that will decrypt my personal DVDs, rip them onto my harddrive into 1 VOB or mpeg2 file. DVDShrink doesn't work for me bc it isn't supported anymore and it makes the movies skip when they play on my Tivo.

I've used DVDFab HD Decryptor but it rips into multiple VOBs which is fine, but now I can't find anything to join the VOBs and then convert them to mpeg2. Please help, my wife is going to give birth to our first child any day now and if I don't figure this out soon, its going to be a long time before I get to work on it again.

Please let's keep the problems and solutions in just one place. Two threads merged.

DVD Decrypter (different from DVDFab HD Decryptor) will join the VOB files together into one, after which you can rename to '.mpg'. However you might need another more up-to-date decryption program such as AnyDVD running in the background.

Set DVD Decrypter to IFO mode, then go to the options page. Select the IFO tab and change 'File splitting' to 'None'. Exit the options and try ripping.

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. I've tried DVD Decryptor in the past but I'm trying to stay away from unsupported projects. This could work, however it also means I'll have to buy AnyDVD.

Is there a good joining mechanism out there imkidd?

Try MPEG Streamclip (you may also need the 'Quicktime Alternative' with the MPEG2 plugin)

Search for both in the Tools section of Videohelp.com

Once you have the vobs decrypted and on the hard drive, a simple tool for joining them together into one big mpeg file is Vob2Mpg.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOB2MPG

It is free and very easy to use.

Yeah Vob2MPG (kerry beat me to the punch) or VOBMerge to join vob's to one big VOB......