I want to import my personal dvds into my iMac to edit

"HandBrake" is a good program to convert dvd's to a more suitable (and less space consuming) format. it is a free program at handbrake.fr

Forget Handbrake.

You need to convert the VOB files in the TS-Folder of the DVD back to DV which iMovie is designed to handle. For that you need mpegStreamclip:

http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

which is free, but you must also have the Apple mpeg2 plugin :

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/

(unless you are running Lion in which case see below))

which is a mere $20.

Another possibility is to use DVDxDV:

http://www.dvdxdv.com/NewFolderLookSite/Products/DVDxDV.overview.htm

which costs $25.

For the benefit of others who may read this thread:

Obviously the foregoing only applies to DVDs you have made yourself, or other home-made DVDs that have been given to you. It will NOT work on copy-protected commercial DVDs, which in any case would be illegal.

If you are running Lion:

From the MPEG Streamclip homepage

The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.

To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.

The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

vts? I am not a great specialist on movie formats, but I use mostly (choosing from the right side drawer of handbrake) apple tv-format preset, which is H264 to my knowledge. iMovie should understand this... H264 is Apple-initiated format which is currently increasing popularity even so that Microsoft dumbed their silverlight and Adobe had to surrender with flash-video.

I hope that this is of any help

mikko

Handbrake will do it straight from the DVD, but not from VOB files or Video_TS folders. You just have to change the output format to either Quicktime movie or to iPod format. Either one of these will give you a movie you can import to iMovie. Just be sure to use the highest quality settings to preserve your HD video. I have the latest Toast, which also converts video from non-encoded DVDs. A very useful app and well worth the investment.

First: Go to settings and install your printer from there behind a printer icon. You don"t need any disc, OS will find the drivers by itself.

I am using this build-in universal print&scan which is just fine. You will find all the parameters there once you enlarge the window with one of those black arrow heads.

it just works ;-)

However, every printer manufacturer should have their updated print programs available at their support site. At least this is the case with my old HP multifunction which is from 2006...

What I wanted to say is that you should go to System Preferences of your Mac, and there you will find Print & Scan settings. Click +-sign to add your printer. Once you see your printer in the lefthand-side window, click it to open the print & scan program. You may want to keep the corresponding printer-icon in the dock for quick access.

Sorry if I got you mixed up (I was writing the previous answer with my iPhone).

Epson printers have one of the best support for Macs. I think you just have to dig a bit deeper to get the correct utility and options for your Mac. I've used Epson printers with my Macs for over a decade and have not had any issues with them. The Epson printer update will appear in your software update window once you have the initial software intstalled. Just keep digging!

Will this ...importing DVD to iMovie ...work on my G4 PowerMac (2003) OSX 10.1?

Thanks

OS 10.1 ??

Why have you never updated to 10.4.11?

Sorry, I have no idea if anything will work!

Hello all

after more than one year as a mac user I think handbrake is the quickest and easient option for conversion of the

above menstioned files.

Many of my problems came from simply not being used to the mac environment, eg I was trying to drag and drop from desktop the files I wanted to edit directly into the editing portion of imovie, instead of importing into the application the files converted by handbrake and then dragging them from within the application to the editing post. Likewise with my printing problems.

Anyway thanks again for initial your support and to new mac users just stick with it for a while it takes some time to get used to the basics when you are coming from a pc environment. The people in this forum are always ready to help whatever the question.

All the best

Gead

Handbrake is the wrong conversion app if you want to edit the converted video. It's fine for ripping DVDs to play on your Mac, but not if you want to edit the video. It outputs MP4/M4V/MKV, none of which can be edited in iMovie or Final Cut.

As Klaus already indicated, get MPEG Streamclip and the Apple QuickTime MPEG Component (you need both for DVD conversion). Then use MPEG Streamclip to convert your DVD videos to QuickTime. If the videos are 4:3 (standard def), convert them to QuickTime/Apple DV-DVCPRO NTSC compression. If they are 16:9 (highdef), convert them to Quicktime/Apple Intermediate Codec. These are selections in the MPEG Streamclip workflow.

After conversion you will be able to edit the videos in QuickTime, iMovie and Final Cut.