Convert WMV to VOB — Free Online Tool
Convert WMV files to VOB format, transcoding Microsoft's proprietary ASF-container video into DVD-compatible MPEG-2 video with AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio. This is the standard preparation step for burning WMV footage to playable DVD discs.
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FFmpeg Command
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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
WMV files use Microsoft's proprietary Advanced Systems Format (ASF) container with MS-MPEG4 video and WMA audio — neither of which is compatible with the DVD-Video specification. This conversion fully re-encodes the video stream from MS-MPEG4 to MPEG-2, the codec mandated by the DVD standard, and transcodes the audio from WMA (wmav2) to AC3 (Dolby Digital), which is the primary audio format for DVD-Video. The output is wrapped in a VOB container using the MPEG program stream format. Because both the video and audio codecs must change, this is a full transcode — not a remux — meaning processing takes longer and some generation loss occurs, but the result is a file that DVD authoring software and standalone DVD players can read natively.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary. In the browser tool this runs via FFmpeg.wasm (WebAssembly) entirely client-side; when run locally on your desktop it calls your system-installed FFmpeg executable directly. |
-i input.wmv
|
Specifies the input file — a WMV file using Microsoft's ASF container, typically carrying MS-MPEG4 video and WMA audio. FFmpeg will probe and demux the ASF container to extract both streams for re-encoding. |
-c:v mpeg2video
|
Selects FFmpeg's built-in MPEG-2 video encoder to re-encode the MS-MPEG4 video stream. MPEG-2 is the video codec mandated by the DVD-Video specification and is required for VOB files to be recognized by DVD players and authoring software. |
-c:a ac3
|
Transcodes the WMA (wmav2) audio from the source WMV into AC3 (Dolby Digital), which is the primary and most widely supported audio format in the DVD-Video standard. This replaces the Windows-proprietary WMA codec with one that DVD hardware universally understands. |
-q:v 4
|
Sets the MPEG-2 video quality using a quantizer scale from 1 (best quality, largest file) to 31 (lowest quality, smallest file). A value of 4 targets high-quality output suitable for DVD playback while keeping file sizes manageable for typical WMV source material. |
-b:a 192k
|
Sets the AC3 audio bitrate to 192 kilobits per second, which is a standard DVD-Video audio bitrate that provides good stereo fidelity while remaining well within the DVD-Video specification's supported AC3 bitrate range of 128k–448k. |
-f vob
|
Forces the output container format to VOB (MPEG program stream with DVD-Video signaling). Without this flag FFmpeg might not correctly identify the target as a DVD-Video VOB file even if the output filename ends in .vob. |
output.vob
|
The name of the output file written to disk. The .vob extension identifies this as a Video Object file ready for import into DVD authoring software as part of a VIDEO_TS disc structure. |
Common Use Cases
- Burning home movies or recorded events originally saved as WMV files onto a physical DVD disc for playback on a standalone DVD player connected to a TV.
- Preparing WMV footage captured from older Windows-based security cameras or DVRs for archival on DVD media using DVD authoring tools like DVD Architect or Nero.
- Converting WMV screen recordings or training videos into VOB files to include as content in a DVD menu-based course or presentation disc.
- Migrating a library of WMV files downloaded from Windows Media Player or legacy Microsoft media services into the DVD-Video format for long-term physical media archival.
- Supplying VOB-format video files to a DVD duplication house that requires DVD-Video compliant MPEG-2/AC3 content rather than Windows-proprietary formats.
- Testing whether WMV source material will meet DVD quality standards before committing to a full DVD authoring and disc-burning workflow.
Frequently Asked Questions
A standalone VOB file produced by this conversion contains valid MPEG-2 video and AC3 audio in the correct program stream format, but it lacks the IFO and BUP menu/navigation files that a complete DVD-Video disc structure requires. Most standalone DVD players need that full VIDEO_TS folder structure. You should treat this VOB as an intermediate file and import it into DVD authoring software (such as DVD Flick, Nero Vision, or DVD Architect) to create a fully navigable disc image before burning.
WMV with MS-MPEG4 encoding is often highly compressed for streaming or network delivery, whereas MPEG-2 in DVD-Video targets broadcast-quality bitrates typically ranging from 4–9 Mbps for video alone. The AC3 audio stream at 192k also tends to be larger than the compact WMA audio used in WMV files. The result is that a small WMV optimized for web delivery can expand significantly when transcoded to DVD-compliant MPEG-2/AC3 inside a VOB container.
Because WMV uses lossy MS-MPEG4 compression and VOB uses lossy MPEG-2, this is a lossy-to-lossy transcode and some generation quality loss is unavoidable. The default quality setting of -q:v 4 produces good results for most source material, but if your WMV was heavily compressed to begin with (e.g., a low-bitrate streaming file), artifacts may be more visible in the output. You can lower the -q:v value toward 1 or 2 for higher quality at the cost of a larger file.
WMV files do not support embedded subtitle streams in the ASF container, so there are no subtitle tracks to carry forward. VOB itself does support DVD subtitle streams (DVD subpicture format), but generating those requires a separate subtitle authoring step using DVD production software — FFmpeg alone cannot create DVD subpicture subtitle tracks in this workflow.
The -q:v flag controls MPEG-2 quantizer scale, where lower numbers mean higher quality. The default of 4 is a good balance; use -q:v 2 for near-maximum quality (larger file) or -q:v 8 to 10 for smaller files with more compression. To increase the audio quality of the AC3 track, raise -b:a to 224k, 256k, or 384k — the DVD-Video standard officially supports AC3 up to 448k. For example: ffmpeg -i input.wmv -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 2 -b:a 256k -f vob output.vob
On Linux or macOS, use a shell loop: for f in *.wmv; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v mpeg2video -c:a ac3 -q:v 4 -b:a 192k -f vob "${f%.wmv}.vob"; done. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.wmv) 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 this page's displayed command when you have more than 1GB of total WMV footage that exceeds the browser tool's file size limit.
Technical Notes
The VOB format is strictly bound to the DVD-Video specification, which mandates MPEG-2 video at either 720×480 (NTSC) or 720×576 (PAL) resolution and AC3, MPEG audio, or PCM audio tracks. FFmpeg's MPEG-2 encoder will respect your source WMV's resolution, but if it does not match a DVD-legal resolution, some DVD authoring tools may reject the file — you may need to add -s 720x480 or -s 720x576 and an appropriate -r 29.97 or -r 25 flag to enforce compliance. The ASF container's DRM (Digital Rights Management) flag is a known limitation: WMV files with active Microsoft DRM protection cannot be decoded or converted by FFmpeg, and the conversion will fail at the decoding stage. WMA Pro and WMA Lossless audio variants found in some WMV files may require the wmapro or wmalossless decoder; the standard wmav2 decoder used for most WMV files will not handle these. Multiple audio tracks present in a WMV source can be mapped to separate AC3 streams in the VOB using FFmpeg's -map flag, since VOB supports up to 8 audio streams. Metadata such as title, author, and copyright fields present in the ASF container are not transferred to VOB, as VOB does not have a comparable general-purpose metadata structure — that information lives in the IFO files of a complete DVD-Video disc rather than in the VOB itself.