Importing DVD to iMovie

I am completely new to iMovie so forgive me if this is a completely stupid question.

Many years ago I had 8 mm home movies transferred to VHS tape. A few years back a friend transferred the tapes to DVD. I am wondering if there is any way to get those "movies" from the DVD into iMovie. All Ican tell you about the DVD is the "format" is listed as Universal Disc Format (UDF). I am working with iMovie 9.0.4.

Help will be very appreciated

poppi

If the dvd is one that you can play in a dvd player, then use Handbrake which will give you a movie file which you can then import into iMovie.
HandBrake

importing DVD to iMovie

MightyGem said:

If the dvd is one that you can play in a dvd player, then use Handbrake which will give you a movie file which you can then import into iMovie.
HandBrake

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Thanx MightyGem. I downloaded handbrake and tried to convert the DVD but got a message that it was not compatible with the source but it directed me to libdvdcss.pkg which I also downloaded. I then selected the DVD as the source and clicked. It tokk a full 2 hours but I ended up with an icon on the desktop titled DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER.m4v. In short, it worked. A few questions though:

The "video" seemed to be saved to iTunes and when I opened it it "played" in iTunes. Seems it should have been saved to iMovie??

Went to iMovie and clicked File > import > desktop > DVD_VIDEO_RECORDER.m4v and it did import to iMovie (took a full hour).

Another question: In my hard drive > applications I have iMovie 9.0.4. In my external hard drive I have iMovie HD 6.0.3. Should I trash the iMovie HD?

Is iMovie 9.0.4 iMovie 11? I can't find a cross reference anywhere.

Can you recommend a good reference book for iMovie?

Sorry for all the crazy questions. I am just getting my feet wet and am very ignorant.

Thank you

poppi

iMovie 9.0.4 is iMovie 11.

Apple has extensive help files on iMovie available in the built-in help as well as on its web site. Try apple.com/ilife/imovie for starters.

The "video" seemed to be saved to iTunes and when I opened it it "played" in iTunes.

Click to expand...

m4v files are automatically loaded to iTunes when you open them. You can play them with Quicktime if you wish by Right/Ctrl clicking and then choosing Quicktime from the Open with... list.

iMovie does not play movie/video files without you importing them first.

If you can take the time and patience to wirk through the iMovie Help, most of what you need to know is in there.

Should I trash the iMovie HD?

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You could if you want. I have both on my Mac and have sometimes still used iMovie6HD. Although I can't remember the last time.