Q: I have a video that I converted into a .m4v but for whatever reason it won't allow me to import it into iMovie or even view it, a pop up keeps telling me that the file format isn't recognized.  I don't know what to do.

So does this "disk" contain commercial content (not a homemade movie)? Since you can't download disks, exactly what is it that you downloaded? And where did you get it?

Video viewers as an alternative to Quicktime. VLC usually plays most file formats. Try seeing if they can let you view it. If not, possibly the download is corrupt. The last 3 are coverters. Maybe they can make it into a file format iMovie will recognize.

Video Player - Divx

Video Player – Flip4Mac

Video Player - VLC

Video conversion - Handbrake

Video Conversion – Video Converter Ultimate

Video Conversion – Video Mate

Since the iMovie warns you that the format is not recognizable, so, it is probably about the incompatibility issue, you can refer to video conversion and make it into a file format iMovie will recognize as what Eric Root has suggested you above, using Video Mate or other software suggested above to convert it to iMovie ProRes MOV format or iMovie MP4 etc. Good luck.

m4v, like AVI, WMV, etc., is just a wrapper. The actual video inside is encoded with a codec. Whatever one you chose from Handbrake is not readable by iMovie.

What is the format of the original movie?

If Quicktime will play the original disc or whatever you "downloaded" from this, you could use the "Export" option to convert to .m4v format. however, does iMovie have the capability to read this format? If it can't, then Quicktime can export in a variety of other formats and one of these may be reabable by iMovie.

What is the size of the movie?

Simon