cannot rip dvd

If the DVD is in the standard format of mpeg2 it is highly compressed and not intended for editing. You therefore have to 'reverse engineer' the material. You will experience some quality loss.

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://store.apple.com/us/product/D2187Z/A/quicktime-mpeg-2-playback-component-f or-mac-os-x

(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.

And from the TOU of these forums:

Keep within the Law

1. No material may be submitted that is intended to promote or commit an illegal act.
2. Do not submit software or descriptions of processes that break or otherwise ‘work around’ digital rights management software or hardware. This includes conversations about ‘ripping’ DVDs or working around FairPlay software used on the iTunes Store.

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. See this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3381

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.

I do not know about other programs but I use "Handbreak" (free) to convert a DVD to a fromat that will be reconized by iMovie. Hope this helps. I also use this to get format of DVD to use in iTunes.

You drag the video file into that window and select what you want to convert it to. That also activates the buttons etc.

Is this a video file or a data DVD full of photos?

If the latter all you have to do is copy the photos to iPhoto, then you can include them in an iMovie project.

MPEG Streamclip is good, but can't handle all formats (unfortunately). A couple of other things to try:

Control click on the DVD icon and then on show package contents (if that doesn't work, keep digging - clicking on every item/folder - until you can either click on show package contents or until you see a bunch of individual icons = your pictures). If you can get there, you may be able to copy them to your desktop.

As suggested, another is to try Handbrake - I don't use it, but it's worth a shot.

While typing this, another thought occurred to me: if this is in some proprietary Windows format, you won't be able to do much of anything with it with a Mac. If you have a friend or neighbor with a PC, take it over and see if it can be copied/converted there and then copy it to a USB stick to take back home.

Babowa is right, but it would be useful to know what software he used to make that slide show. Dos it play on a DVD player?

I feel sure the ____ wedding photographer put some kind of copyright encryption

That wouldn't surprise me a bit.

It can be a standard DVD (I'm surprised he'd be using a re-writable disk though as evidenced by the +RW designation); in any case, it would be the format of the pics/videos that could be a proprietary Windows format.

>Yes it does play on a standard DVD player.

In that case, it is either a regular DVD Video compliant disc with the pictures made into a slideshow which MPEG Streamclip can rip easily, or just a bunch of .jpeg photo files and your player is capable of working in Photo CD mode. You can copy those directly in the Finder.

Burned discs can't be copy protected, only those made at a DVD replication plant. That only begins to be viable if you are having several hundred discs made.

I just checked my Roxio Toast (for Mac) and am wondering if the studio used a software designed for Windows because......using Toast for Mac (they also make a Windows veersion), I can burn discs readable only by Macs or by Mac/PC and wondered if the same applies for a Windows version (have it only readable by a PC).... if you can get in touch with that studio, I'd ask some specific questions such as what software was used and what format the content (pics) is in.