What's the best way to import DVD into iMovie 11?
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/5597
italiano
english
français
española
中国
日本の
العربية
Deutsch
한국어
Português
RussianQuestion
My got a new Mac for Christmas and I'm trying to help her import a bunch of DVDs with home movies transferred from VHS into iMovie 11.
Google turns up several results but most are trying to sell you an app to rip encrypted DVDs. Other results suggest using Disk Utility to copy the DVD into a .dmg file which iMovie would recognize as a camera it could import from, but that doesn't seem to work with the current version.
I was able to use Handbrake to rip it to an MP4 and import that into iMovie but I'm curious if there's a more efficient way that avoids two transcodes and would be easier to explain to my mom.
Solution
Not really, you've utilised the quickest, easiest and cheapest route available with doing it with Handbrake. Don't bother trying to find another piece of software that will do the job better, Handbrake is really the best when it comes to ripping and encoding Apple friendly formats. Thanks, hope this helps.
OTHER TIPS
Handbrake is free but not the most user friendly. Here is a great tutorial on using Handbrake: http://www.methodshop.com/gadgets/tutorials/handbrake/index.shtml
My personal favorite (for ripping movies for playback on your Mac) is MacDVDRipper Pro ( http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31118/mac-dvdripper-pro) which actually rips the disk image to your Mac retaining the menus and extra features you might have on the DVD. Then you can mount the disk image on your Mac and use it like a "virtual DVD". This software is not free though.
iMovie can import QuickTime movies, DV video and MPEG 4 video. What's in the VIDEO_TS folder is MPEG 2 video, so that's not on the iMovie list. There are several applications available that will convert video from a VIDEO_TS folder to one of the formats usable in iMovie. MPEG Streamclip is popular. Cinematize is designed for this. Toast and Popcorn 2 can do it.
You do not need to rip DVDs unless they are encoded with copy protection. So if these are DVDs you recorded you can just drag the VIDEO_TS folder to the hard drive to copy them and don't need another commercial product. I mention this because the main reason people use iMovie is for their home videos, not for editing movies from commercial DVDs.
