Converting a video from VOB to AVI while making the file smaller

I'm very happy with Handbrake, an open-source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded video transcoder, available for MacOS X, Linux and Windows. VLC is another good option.

"The gold standard in video encoding/conversion is two tools:

FFMpeg and MEncoder.

If they can't do it, it probably can't be done. Most of the GUI tools around are based on one of these two libraries (in fact MEncoder is itself partly based on FFMpeg). They both support decoding encoding and recoding pretty much every video format under the sun. They are also both open source and free and have been ported to most platforms (including xp).

The disadvantage is that they are both command line tools and have a learning curve about as steep as a mile high concrete wall, so they don't really fit your ""something that beginners can easily use"" requirement. I Thought I'd post them here in case you wanted to do something a bit more specific. (The MEncoder website does have a list of GUI front ends for various tasks.)"

Give Avidemux a try, it's a nice GUI approach which uses FFMPEG as the backend.

WinFF is one of the best GUI front-ends to FFMpeg for Windows.

"This one i have used for years, simple to use

FLV to AVI MPEG WMV 3GP MP4 iPod Convert

It says flv to ...... But it can convert any file to any format and specific sizes to match mp3 players etc"