Free online USM to VOB converter

What the USM format is

USM is a video container associated with CRI Middleware's CRI Movie technology. Game studios use it for pre-rendered cutscenes, cinematics, menus, and other playback assets distributed with PC, console, and arcade games.

USM files commonly contain a compressed video stream plus game-audio streams such as ADX or HCA. The video codec, audio format, interleaving, and encryption vary by title, so a general-purpose player or converter may not open every USM file. You typically encounter USM files inside a game's installation directory or extracted from its archives; they are not normally intended for direct editing.

What the VOB format is

VOB is the MPEG Program Stream container used by DVD-Video. It can contain MPEG-2 video, DVD-compatible audio such as AC-3 or MPEG audio, subtitles, navigation data, and multiple interleaved streams.

VOB is suitable when the result must be used in DVD authoring software, examined with DVD tools, or played by hardware and software that expects DVD-Video media. A standalone VOB file is not a complete DVD: a playable disc normally also needs an VIDEO_TS folder containing IFO and BUP control files.

How to actually convert USM to VOB

For a file accepted by the built-in converter, use 101convert.com: upload the USM file, choose VOB as the output format, start the conversion, and download the result. This option requires no installed software, but it cannot bypass every game's encryption or support every USM variant.

For local processing, first extract or decode the USM into a normal video file. Use a USM-specific extractor such as USMTool or VGMToolbox, selecting the tool's USM demultiplexing or extraction function. If the file is encrypted, the required key or game-specific decryption support may be unavailable; do not rename the extension or pass the original file directly to FFmpeg and expect that to remove encryption.

After extraction, inspect the resulting video and audio files. If the extractor produces a playable MP4, MKV, or elementary video stream, encode it to DVD-compatible VOB with FFmpeg. For NTSC output, use:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -target ntsc-dvd -f vob output.vob

For PAL output, use:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -target pal-dvd -f vob output.vob

These presets convert the video to MPEG-2 and select DVD-compatible stream parameters. To create a disc rather than only a VOB, import the output into DVDStyler, DeVeDe, or another DVD authoring program and let it generate the VIDEO_TS structure.

Quality, compatibility, and limitations

The conversion is normally lossy twice: the game video was already compressed, and DVD-Video requires another MPEG-2 encode. Preserve the extracted stream for archival use and create the VOB only for DVD compatibility.

DVD-Video limits resolution and frame rate: typical maximum active resolutions are 720×480 at 29.97/23.976 fps for NTSC and 720×576 at 25 fps for PAL. A USM with another frame rate, widescreen ratio, variable frame rate, or high-definition resolution must be scaled, converted, or re-encoded.

USM audio may not be directly usable in a VOB. Extract or transcode it to AC-3, MPEG audio, or another format supported by the chosen DVD authoring tool. If the USM contains separate language, commentary, or interleaved audio streams, verify stream selection after extraction.