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I just downloaded a DVD which is for a movie. After uncompressing the DVD file I see .VOB, .IFO and .BUP files. If I open the first .VOB file it shows me the DVD menu but I can't interact with it. So, my question is... is Totem able to play those kind of files? If so, how can I achieve that? What other app could I use in order to reproduce those files?

Edit

Using VLC didn't work neither. I forgot to mention I have already tried that. Let me rephrase: if I open the first video file it shows the DVD menu, BUT I can't interact with it.

Cristian
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10 Answers10

24

Open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for VLC, and install it.

Then go to Applications --> Sound and Video --> VLC.

In VLC, press Media --> Open Directory and select the folder that contains the VOB files.

Matthias Braun
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Salih Emin
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    This is right. The key is to open the folder that contains the video files, not open the files themselves. – Ryan C. Thompson Nov 27 '10 at 23:19
  • This solution was close... but not that close. It does not play the videos in order, and I don't have any chance to choose what video to play. – Cristian Nov 29 '10 at 01:04
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    I'm running a debian 7.4 system and found that this hint sounded very helpful to me. I got a disc with .vob videos on it, but I was unable to reproduce them. So I installed the vlc player. But opening the folder of the .vob videos didnt work. Then I tried to the "play disc" option and that worked perfectly. I could see the main menu and navigate through the options and play different videos from there. Thank you for the good hint. – Bodo Hugo Barwich Aug 02 '14 at 12:43
20

Finally I figured out how to do it. These are the steps:

  • Create a subdirectory called VIDEO_TS and move all files there.

  • Create an DVD ISO file by executing:

    genisoimage -iso-level 1 -dvd-video -volset-size 1 -o output.iso root_folder

  • Mount the DVD ISO by executing:

    sudo mount -t iso9660 -o loop output.iso /media/cd/

The result will be a compatible ISO image which can be played using any video player (Totem, MPlayer, Dragon, etc.).

For those ones who are too ubuntufied, you can use K3B to create a DVD project and select "Create image only" before burn it.

Cristian
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6

Just install VLC player it will play all VOB files.

Install VLC from the Software Center.

Also, you need this:

sudo apt install libdvd-pkg
sudo dpkg-reconfigure libdvd-pkg
Gabor
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karthick87
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    Why suggest commandline when it is easy to just open Ubuntu Software center and install vlc? Everybody here (I assume) use Ubuntu, not any other distro. That is why every non techy thinks "Linux?? nooooo there is to much commands I have to learn !!". Well this is not true for me and you but we must prove it by avoiding (lazy?) answers that suggests do a sudo somthing... No offence he ? just a suggestion... :) – Salih Emin Nov 27 '10 at 13:17
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    It happens the same as with Totem. – Cristian Nov 27 '10 at 16:20
  • Thank you very much...I installed many things and tried to open files but failed and finally VLC player helped me. I was really becoming angry at ubuntu...but fortunately got it played :) – Kamran Bigdely Mar 28 '11 at 02:38
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    In Ubuntu 15.10 it was not enough - but with libdvdcss2 VLC works well now. – G. Demecki Jun 18 '16 at 15:39
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I found the following solution using mplayer:

mplayer -mouse-movements dvdnav:////home/me/FOO

Here /home/me/FOO is the directory where the .vob files reside.

Seth
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Silvio Levy
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  • I did mplayer -mouse-movements dvd:////home/me/FOO in Lubuntu 20_04. I wonder why 4 /, is it for escaping? Do not think as \ escapes. – Timo Jul 31 '21 at 14:37
4

I found the following item:

I would check out https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs and follow the instructions on there (I generally find VLC is the best option). It explains everything you need to know about playing DVDs in Ubuntu.

It is specifically tailored to playing DVDs but a vob file is what is used on DVDs so should also cover what you are looking for (except when going to play it you open a file instead of a DVD).

you may need to install the libdvdcss packages as well to make DVDs play correctly.

I hope this helps.

So: You can right click on a VOB file and select VLC, or open VLC and find the VOB file.

August Guillaume
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1

You don't decompress the DVD file. You have two options:

  • Burn the .iso file to a blank DVD.

  • Mount the .iso file.

Either way should produce a playable DVD, and Ubuntu should automatically detect it.

Clay Smalley
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1

Use smplayer. It is a great player. You will need to add the medibuntu repo to install w32codecs or w64codecs for that.

khAttAm
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1

The current version of Totem, 2.32.0, on Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick is able to play a DVD .iso file without decompressing it or anything like that. Just right-click on the .iso and "Open With > Other Application..." and choose Totem. I had to open the .iso twice for it to work, but it works fine and I'm able to navigate the DVD menus and turn on/off the subtitles and everything.

Matthew Gatto
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0

For some linux installations it may be easier to encode the VOB to a video file. Here is an example using libav-tools . With ffmpeg would be the same I guess, but I haven't tried:

avconv -i VTS_01_1.VOB -f avi -c:v libx264 -g 300 -bf 2 ~/video_01_1.avi

Usually the place where the VOB files are located has read-only access. The output file will be in the users main directory.

Some options explained:

  • -f avi : force output format
  • -c:v libx264 : encode with the h264 codec to create small, but quality files
  • -g 300 : GOP size is 300 which means one intra frame every 10 seconds for 29.97fps input video
Francesc Guasch
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mount the file and play it with default video player...

FOSS DIVERSER
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