Convert VOB to MP4
VOB files are the video content of DVDs - what you get when you rip a DVD to your computer with a tool like MakeMKV or HandBrake. Each .vob file holds a chunk of the movie in MPEG-2 (a video format from the 1990s that no phone, browser, or modern smart TV decodes) plus AC-3 or MP2 audio. Wave decodes the MPEG-2 video and re-encodes it as modern H.264 in an MP4, so your DVD collection becomes files that play on iPhones, iPads, Chromecast, and any current device. Everything happens in your browser locally.
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. The audio (AC-3, MP2 or LPCM) is converted to AAC, the one audio format every browser and phone plays inside an MP4. 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.
DVD-Video launched in 1996 and defined the .vob extension as part of the disc structure: video and audio streams multiplexed into MPEG-2 Program Stream chunks, indexed by an .ifo (information) file, protected by CSS encryption, and split at 1 GB per file because early DVD-ROM drivers on Windows 98 could not seek past 2 GB safely. Every DVD sold from 1996 to roughly 2010 used this structure, and consumer DVD burning software (Nero, Roxio, iDVD) all wrote VOB output for compatibility with set-top players.
The MPEG-2 video inside a VOB shipped at 4-9 Mbps typically, at 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL), often anamorphic (encoded at 720 wide but signalled to display 16:9). Wave handles the anamorphic case correctly - the aspect ratio metadata copies into the MP4 so modern players show the picture in its intended shape rather than stretched or squeezed. Wave also honours field order for interlaced content, running yadif de-interlacing so the MP4 plays smoothly on progressive-scan displays like phones and laptops.
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?
It stays 5.1. Wave converts the AC-3 track to 5.1 AAC rather than copying it, because Chrome and Firefox play AC-3-in-MP4 silently. A home-theatre receiver still gets six discrete channels from the MP4.
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.
The colours look washed out. Is that Wave?
No, that is DVD source characteristics. DVD encodes video in ITU-R BT.601 colour space, which many players still get right, but some browsers and mobile devices assume BT.709 (HD colour) and misinterpret the levels. Wave preserves the source colour space; the fix is a colour-space conversion on export, which is not currently exposed in Wave.
What is the difference between an ISO file and a VOB folder?
An ISO is a byte-exact image of the whole DVD (all VOBs, all IFOs, the disc structure). A VOB folder is the extracted contents. Wave converts individual VOB files - if you have an ISO, extract it first with any DVD tool or mount it as a virtual drive and copy the VOBs out.
Do I lose the DVD menus and chapters?
Menus, yes - those are interactive VM programs, not video, and there is no MP4 equivalent. Chapter markers get lost too because they live in the IFO file rather than inside the VOB. If you need chapters, use a dedicated DVD ripper like MakeMKV that reads the IFO and encodes chapter atoms into the output.