DVD into iMovie

[painter63]

A friend from Hawaii recently sent me a DVD he burned from some VHS tapes that he took on a dive/whale watching trip several years ago. I would like to import some sections of the DVD into a small presentation made via iMovie. Is it possible to do this without getting the original VHS tapes? I am quite sure that he does not have the originals any more. It sure would be helpful in preparing a lecture for my school science class if someone could tell me if it is possible and then how to do it.
Thanks

painter 63

[randas]

You can use a program like handbrake (google it) to rip the dvd onto your harddrive

[adk]

I would also recommend downloading handbrake. It will rip your DVDs into MPEG4s which will work in imovie. Or you can do it like I did before I discovered handbrake - play it in a dark room and tape it with a miniDV camera. Yes, I am obviously a technical genius.

[ftaok]

I would also recommend downloading handbrake. It will rip your DVDs into MPEG4s which will work in imovie. Or you can do it like I did before I discovered handbrake - play it in a dark room and tape it with a miniDV camera. Yes, I am obviously a technical genius.
If your miniDV camcorder has an AV pass-thru, you could have just played the DVD in a standard player and recorded the footage (or passed it straight thru) onto a miniDV tape.

Alternative to handbrake, you could use DVDxDV to covert the DVD to dv footage. I hear MPEGStreamClip and Cinematize can also do this.

I'm not sure if there are any quality differences between DV and MPEG4.

ft

[painter63]

Randa, adk, and ftaok,

Many "thank you's" go out to you for the rapid and helpful replies to my most recent request. I have downloaded both programs and each seems to work. I actually have started the iMovie presentation using each one.

Again, THANK YOU for your help.
painter63