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Can anybody recommend a good program to convert my DVD files into either AVI (DivX / Xvid) or MPEG2 ?

First of all the files are my own recordings and not commercial material.
I do have the latest DivX Create package with the MPEG2/DVD Plug-in but for some reason it won't accept the 880K VOB files from my home recordings.

MPEG Mediator does a better job and accepts all the VOB files but it stops after the first recording / Title. I tried it with both the DivX 6.1 and XVid both stopping in the same place.

AVOne Gold created a load of AVI files with no video and the last file reported a problem with the audio stream.

At present I'm importing them in NeroVision 4 (Nero Burning Suite 7) then selecting Edit then splitting each VOB into separate material before exporting each section as MPEG 2 which is taking a very long time as it's doing it at around 1 1/2 times real-time.

The only advantage with creating MPEG2 files is compatibility with more editing packages.

The MPEG2 files convert to DivX so it's something to do with way my Philips recorder is writing the VOB files that the DivX Converter doesn't like. I know it accepts 1GB VOBs.

Note that VOB files on Home recorders aren't encrypted and should have the Macrovision bit turned off though and earlier version of the firmware for this series of recorders did have it turned on preventing you from copying your own recordings.

I have got AutoGK and X Video Converter but haven't had much luck in the past with them ,which could well be down to how I've set them up.

Anybody got any more ideas ?

And to follow this up the DivX Converter has started working again tonight. And all I've done is to re-enter the serial number.
DVD 2 passed through producing a file just over 1 GB with a duration of a little under 4 hours.
The only other thing I've done different is to use the default 'Home Theater" mode rather than HQ.
At least it's working so I use less harddrive space.