I play VOB files direct through my Pinnacle ShowCenter media player.
I ripped some DVDs using DVD Decrypter, then merged the film VOBs using VOBMerge. (I merge them to avoid pausing between VOBs on playback.)
Anyway, the resulting merged file is the corrcet size in bytes, but the media player shows the film to have an incorrect film length (e.g. 39 mins for a 128 min film).
I repeated the proces using Smart Ripper instead and all worked well.
Any comments on using DVD Decrypter vs. Smart Ripper?
First off you do not have to Rip the Movie as a Bunch of VOB files there are Options in Both DVD Decryptor and SmartRipper to Rip the Movie as a Single Big VOB file so you do not have to Join them all together afterwords....
In "DVD Decryptor" go to "Tools" to "Settings" to "File Mode" and under "File Splitting" set it to "None" , Then go to "ISO read Mode" and do the same thing... Now when you rip the DVD it will Be Just one Big VOB file...
In "Smartripper" go to "Settings" and under "File Splitting" set it to "Max File Size" and then set the Max File size to "9000mb" and now when you rip the Movie in "Movie" mode it will be just one Big VOB file...You can also just Rip it as a VOB file with Just one audio track and No subtitles or as a Bunch of seperate audio and Video and Subtitle Streams or any Variation of the above.....
I ripped to a single file using DVD Decrypter, and this worked fine.
I now see that the problem was not with either of these ripping tools, or even VOB Merge 2.5.
The film length as shown my Pinacle Media Centre software is still shown as incorrect (too short). But, if I preview the movie in the Pinnacle software, the film plays correctly (and completely) - provided I don't use the slider to scroll through the movie, then the film jumps as though a couple of VOBs are missing.
It seems there is a problem then with the reading of the time encoding by the Pinnacle media software I use...