A problem with Handbrake

I'm trying to import my dvd of home movies into my macbook so that i can edit it on iMovieHD. I've read a lot of threads on how to do it and I've got the gist of it.

My problem is with Handbrake. I encoded my dvd (I have no idea what "encode" means. I am completely new to the video editing world) and it finished rather quickly. My DVD is an hour and a half long.

So I encoded it and it finished quickly. I checked it and it played a second of footage from random scenes chronologically for 45 seconds and then it was done. I tried this with .avi files and .mp4 files.

I read that I have to convert it to DV but Handbrake only outputs into .mp4, .mkv, .ogm and .avi.

How can I solve that problem? Which setting do I need to possibly change in Handbrake? Thanks in advance!