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Importing DVD into Imovie for newbie

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I have a DVD a videographer made for me. He says I can do this myself. I would like to import the first 5 minutes into imovie to enter into a bird behavior contest. I have never done this and need to know if it can be done. Do I have to put the whole DVD onto my hard drive? It is 30 minutes long. Does my computer have that much room? Thank you.
 

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This can be done on a couple of different ways but all invoke converting the video into a format iMovie can support. It won't read the .vob files on the DVD directly.

Option One: Use a program called hHandbrake to convert the entire DVD to an iMovie supported format. From there you can edit the footage in iMovie.

Option Two: Use a program called MPEG Streamclip to open the DVD, select just the portion you want and export in an iTunes compatible format. Here's an example from a few years ago. If I were doing this now I might choose a different format. Just make sure you pick a format iMovie can support.
 
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Thanks for your input. Would it matter if he made it on a Mac? That might be a useless question since he stores everything on his hard drives. The video was made from nest box cameras and was recorded to 8-track tapes. Then I picked out what I wanted from each 8-track (there were probably 50 of them) and he put those portions on 8mm (or something like that) then put it in a hard drive. How archaic this seems now but it was all I knew how to do at that time.
 

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As longn as you can read the hard drive things should be OK. Do you know what format the files are in? It shouldn't be a huge issue though. Both MPEG Streamcip read the more commonly used vide formats.
 
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This is my imac: Version 10.5.8, 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo. I purchased it in March 2008.
I downloaded Handbrake. It says it will not work on my imac.. The earlier versions won't work either. I'm a little skeptical about upgrading because of compatibility issues I have read about (which may or may not be true).

Is this unit running Lion ( 7.1) ? Am I correct that first I have to get mountain lion in order to get Handbrake? If there is about to be a l0.7 should I wait for that?

I think it might be easier to get the videographer to do this. It's very difficult for newbies to grasp all this.
 

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The current OS is at 10.8.4 and 10.9 is due out sometime this fall. There is a version of Handbrake for 10.5 here. It should work.

What computability issues are you concerned about? I am currently running 10.8.4 con a 2008 MacBook Pro with the Intel Core 2 Duo without significant issues. I recently upgraded to 8 GB of ram but was running fine with 4 GB.

One issue to be aware of though is that if you are still using software that relies on the Power PC chip that software will not run on any version of 10.7 or 10.8. It will run on 10.6 but you would have to order that from Apple.

According to their site MPEG Streamclip should work with 10.5.8 http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html
 
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Oh my gosh--the 9.5 opened!! Thank you. Onward to new stuff to learn!
 

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For your machine, I recommend you upgrade to Snow Leopard 10.6.8 as that will give you the best compatibility for older apps. OS X Lion and Mountain Lion can not run older apps based on the PPC processor or that contain PPC code. Besides, Snow Leopard will be faster and smaller than Leopard (10.5.8) and should actually give you a pickup.

You can purchase the Snow Leopard retail DVD from Apple for $19.99. It's an easy upgrade, but with all upgrades, we recommend making a backup with Time Machine or cloning software first.
 

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Oh my gosh--the 9.5 opened!! Thank you. Onward to new stuff to learn!

Glad that worked. let us know if you have any problems. Handbrake can be a bit confusing at times.
 
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I would *strongly* second chscag's suggestion. 10.6.8 is ideal for your machine. I'd recommend maxing out the RAM as well (a very modest expense that will yield big rewards).
 
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Got back on my project tonight. Handbrake asked me for the source an I selected it. It took about a minute or so to scan and then nothing happened. So I just clicked on the start button and something is happening. It says it is encoding so I guess we will see what happens.

Handbrake said I had to have VLC so I am downloading that. VLC said i MUST uninstall Flip4Mac. Is that true?

Went to the Apple store today to just see if any of them would help me. Of course they would not. The employee didn't even know if my system was 32 or 64 bit. All I had to do was ask the question on google and got my answer.
 

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Encoding the video can take quite some time depending upon the speed of your machine and length of the video, When it is finished you may be able to open it without VLC but it is always a good program to have around. There are some files that VLC will open that QuickTime has difficulty with.

How to Install VLC Media Player on Mac OS X Lion - YouTube. I know this video mentions installation in Lion but the process is the same in Leopard. Since you have already downloaded the disk emage start about 1:17 into the video.

I did one thing differently creating a subfolder inside the Applications folder and dropping the contents of the VLC disk image there. Not the image itself just the ienclosed files as he does in the video.
 
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It says encoding is finished. What do I do now? I did get VLC installed.
 
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oh my!

I found it on my desktop (which is where I told it to go). I opened it and it is playing in Quick time. Is that good?
 

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That is good because iMovie is heavily dependent upon QuickTime. If it is playing OK there it will probably be OK in iMovie. At this point you should be able to open iMovie, answer a few basic questions about what you would like the result of the project to be then import the video.

Since I forgot to ask which version of iTunes you were using we'll stick to very general terms. The help files are pretty good if you get stuck. You will be importing the video from a file.

1. Launch iMovie
2. If asked about the type of project answer them as best you can. Widescreen is the aspect ratio for most current TVs/monitors and 4:3 is the old square screen.
4. From the iMovie File menu choose Import and from File then fine your movie file.
5.The import may take quite some time depending on length of the video. The time estimates may be ridiculous for the first several minutes. When the import is finished you're ready to edit to your heart's content.
 

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