Convert VOB to MP4
VOB is the DVD Video Object file - MPEG-2 video plus AC-3 or MP2 audio in an MPEG Program Stream. Wave re-encodes both streams locally using LGPL codecs and hands you an MP4 that plays on modern hardware.
What actually changes
A VOB file is what a DVD player actually reads - an MPEG-2 Program Stream containing DVD-Video video (MPEG-2 Part 2), one to eight audio tracks (usually AC-3 stereo or 5.1, sometimes MP2 or LPCM), and optionally bitmap subtitle streams. Individual .vob files are chunks of the DVD title split at 1 GB boundaries; a full title spans several files stitched by the disc's IFO index.
MP4 doesn't accept MPEG-2 Part 2 video in a broadly-playable way, so the video is always re-encoded. Wave uses the browser's WebCodecs H.264 encoder when available (hardware-accelerated on most machines) and falls back to the wasm MPEG-4 encoder otherwise. AC-3 audio can copy through into MP4 as-is; MP2 or LPCM audio re-encodes to AAC. If the VOB has interlaced fields (most DVD content is 480i or 576i), Wave de-interlaces with yadif before the encoder sees the frames, so the MP4 plays cleanly on progressive displays.
Three steps.
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Step 1
Drop the .vob file onto the card.
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Step 2
Wave inspects the streams and shows Re-encode needed for the MPEG-2 video.
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Step 3
Convert. Save the MP4.
Answers, specifically.
Can Wave rip a DVD directly?
No. Commercial DVDs are CSS-encrypted and use IFO index files to spread a title across multiple VOB chunks. Wave converts VOB files you already have on disk - unprotected files, or files a dedicated DVD ripper has produced.
My movie is split across VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, etc. What do I do?
Concatenate the pieces first (any file-join tool, or ffmpeg concat) into a single VOB, then drop the joined file onto Wave. The VOB chunks are literally just bytes split at 1 GB - a plain concat produces a valid Program Stream.
What about the 5.1 surround audio?
Wave downmixes to stereo AAC in the current build. AC-3 5.1 passthrough into MP4 is on the roadmap.
Do subtitles come across?
DVD subtitles are bitmap-based (VobSub / SPU). MP4 has no way to carry them natively, so Wave drops them. If you need subtitles, extract them separately with a DVD-aware tool and re-mux later.
Will the MP4 look worse than the DVD?
Slightly softer at the encoder step - any transcode from MPEG-2 to H.264 loses a small amount of edge detail. Wave targets a high-quality bitrate so the loss is imperceptible on almost any DVD-sourced material.