Convert HEVC to VOB — Free Online Tool
Convert HEVC/H.265 video files to VOB format, re-encoding the video stream to MPEG-2 and audio to AC3 (Dolby Digital) for DVD-Video compatibility. This is a full transcode — no stream copying — as H.265 is not supported by the DVD-Video specification.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your HEVC file here
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Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
Because HEVC and VOB are fundamentally incompatible at the codec level, this conversion performs a complete re-encode of both streams. The H.265 video is decoded and re-encoded using the MPEG-2 video codec (mpeg2video), the same codec used on commercial DVD-Video discs. Any audio present is transcoded to AC3 (Dolby Digital) at 192k, the standard audio format for DVD. The output is wrapped in the VOB container with the required -f vob flag, which structures the file in a way compatible with DVD players and authoring software. Expect significantly larger file sizes than the source HEVC file, since MPEG-2 is far less efficient than H.265 — the same visual quality may require 3–5× more bitrate.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg tool. In the browser version, this runs via FFmpeg.wasm (WebAssembly) entirely client-side — your HEVC file never leaves your device. |
-i input.hevc
|
Specifies the input file — in this case a raw HEVC/H.265 bitstream file. FFmpeg reads and decodes this H.265 video to prepare it for re-encoding to MPEG-2. |
-c:v mpeg2video
|
Sets the video encoder to mpeg2video, the MPEG-2 video codec required by the DVD-Video specification. This triggers a full re-encode of the H.265 video — there is no stream copy possible between these two codecs. |
-c:a ac3
|
Encodes the audio stream to AC3, also known as Dolby Digital, which is the primary audio format for DVD-Video. This ensures the output is compatible with DVD authoring tools and standalone DVD players. |
-q:v 4
|
Sets the MPEG-2 video quality using the quantizer scale, where 1 is the highest quality and 31 is the lowest. A value of 4 produces near-high-quality MPEG-2 output at a reasonable file size, suitable for DVD authoring. |
-b:a 192k
|
Sets the AC3 audio bitrate to 192 kilobits per second, a standard bitrate for DVD-Video AC3 audio that balances audio fidelity with disc space usage. |
-f vob
|
Forces the output format to VOB by selecting the MPEG Program Stream muxer with DVD-Video-compatible parameters. Without this flag, FFmpeg would not produce a properly structured VOB file even with MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio. |
output.vob
|
The output filename with the .vob extension. This file contains the multiplexed MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio in the VOB structure, ready for import into DVD authoring software. |
Common Use Cases
- Preparing modern H.265 footage for import into DVD authoring software like DVDStyler or DVD Flick, which expect MPEG-2/AC3 VOB-compatible streams
- Burning H.265 recordings (from cameras, screen recorders, or streaming downloads) to a physical DVD-R disc for playback on a standalone DVD player
- Archiving family videos or event recordings originally captured in HEVC to the DVD-Video format for long-term physical storage
- Converting H.265 video for use in older video editing systems or broadcast tools that only accept MPEG-2 encoded files in a VOB or MPEG-PS wrapper
- Creating a DVD-compatible proxy file from an H.265 source to test menu authoring and chapter layouts before committing to a full disc burn
- Sharing video content with recipients who only have access to a DVD player and no modern streaming or digital playback device
Frequently Asked Questions
HEVC (H.265) is one of the most efficient video codecs available, achieving high quality at very low bitrates. MPEG-2, the video codec required by the DVD-Video specification and used in VOB files, is a much older standard from the mid-1990s and requires significantly more data to represent the same image quality. For equivalent visual quality, MPEG-2 typically needs 3–5× the bitrate of H.265, which means your VOB output will be substantially larger than the source HEVC file.
A raw VOB file produced by this tool is not a complete DVD-Video structure on its own. DVD players expect a VIDEO_TS folder containing IFO, BUP, and VOB files organized according to the DVD-Video specification. To create a playable disc, you need to import this VOB into DVD authoring software (such as DVDStyler, DVD Flick, or ImgBurn's build mode) to generate the full DVD file structure before burning. The VOB itself is the correct codec format, but it needs the surrounding metadata files to be disc-playable.
No. HDR (High Dynamic Range) metadata — whether HDR10, Dolby Vision, or HLG — is not preserved during this conversion. MPEG-2 and the VOB container have no support for HDR color spaces or metadata. The output will be standard dynamic range (SDR) MPEG-2 video. If your HEVC source contains HDR content, FFmpeg will apply a basic tone-mapping during decode, but the result will not be color-graded HDR — you may notice washed-out highlights or shifted colors compared to the original.
By default, FFmpeg will only map the first detected audio track for conversion to AC3. However, VOB files do technically support multiple audio streams. If you need to include additional audio tracks, you can modify the FFmpeg command by adding explicit -map flags, for example: ffmpeg -i input.hevc -map 0:v:0 -map 0:a:0 -map 0:a:1 -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 4 -b:a 192k -f vob output.vob. Note that DVD-Video officially supports up to 8 audio streams.
Video quality for MPEG-2 output is controlled by the -q:v flag, which accepts values from 1 (highest quality, largest file) to 31 (lowest quality, smallest file). The default used by this tool is 4, which is near the high-quality end. Lowering the value to 2 or 3 will increase quality and file size; raising it to 8 or above will reduce file size but introduce more visible compression artifacts in the MPEG-2 output. For audio, you can change -b:a 192k to a higher value like -b:a 320k or -b:a 384k for better AC3 audio fidelity.
Yes. On the command line, you can use a shell loop to process multiple files. On Linux or macOS, run: for f in *.hevc; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 4 -b:a 192k -f vob "${f%.hevc}.vob"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.hevc) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 4 -b:a 192k -f vob "%~nf.vob". This is particularly useful for the desktop FFmpeg command since the browser tool processes one file at a time.
Technical Notes
This conversion is a lossy, generational transcode — your HEVC source is decoded to raw frames and re-encoded as MPEG-2, introducing compression artifacts on top of any already present in the H.265 source. The -q:v 4 setting targets near-broadcast-quality MPEG-2 output, but fine detail, gradients, and fast motion will not match the original H.265 at the same visual bitrate. The VOB container uses the MPEG Program Stream (MPEG-PS) multiplexer internally, which the -f vob flag explicitly selects — without this flag, FFmpeg would not produce a valid DVD-compatible byte structure even with the correct codecs. HEVC features with no MPEG-2 equivalent — such as 10-bit color depth, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, HDR transfer functions, and resolutions above 720×576 (PAL) or 720×480 (NTSC) — are downsampled or discarded during transcode. If your source HEVC file contains subtitles or chapter markers, they will be dropped, as this tool does not pass subtitle streams into the VOB output. For full DVD authoring with subtitle overlays, you will need a dedicated DVD authoring application after generating the VOB.