Can I use clips of my home dvds in iMovie?
How do I do this?
iMovie '11, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
How do I do this?
iMovie '11, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Your home DVDs presumably started life in iMovie projects, which you no longer have?
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
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 think I should back up a little: these DVDs did not "start life" in iMovie, they are copies of old VHS cassette tapes. They are truly "home movies," not commercial, and I had them converted specifically so that I could edit them. The on-line support at Apple has beautiful tutorials rhapsodizing about how easy it is to make "home" videos even better, using their products.
Do I really have to buy (yet another) Apple product just to work on my own material?
FYI - DVDxDv advertises explicity that it can "rip" a dvd to its own format....
I get that! If they are in mpeg2 format my previous advice still applies. If not, what are they?
I agree with Klaus's advice. Here is a step by step for how to do it in MPEG Streamclip.
Can I use clips of my home dvds in iMovie?