mpeg2 into iMovie

[mirrob]

Just want to make small family movie ...

Lot's of good information in this ... I'm a total rookie dad just trying to move a couple of mpeg2's to imovie so i can connect a couple of video clips from the activities (games, dance, vacation, etc) and make a slightly larger movie of it . I'm not looking to change compressions ... improve details or any of that hi tech stuff that has been mentioned ... I just want to take a couple of movie clips and make them into one. And this seems to me how 'we' casual end users would like to use the camera/imovie connection. It appears to be suggested on the getting started video from imovie that this is 'easy' to do. I can tell you ... it is not and I am very frustrated trying to make these two technologies work for my family. On the PC - I'd be done in 5 min with Adobie ... which ... I will go back and use once I get into the office. Suggestions ?

 

[spinnerlys]

Lot's of good information in this ... I'm a total rookie dad just trying to move a couple of mpeg2's to imovie so i can connect a couple of video clips from the activities (games, dance, vacation, etc) and make a slightly larger movie of it . I'm not looking to change compressions ... improve details or any of that hi tech stuff that has been mentioned ... I just want to take a couple of movie clips and make them into one. And this seems to me how 'we' casual end users would like to use the camera/imovie connection. It appears to be suggested on the getting started video from imovie that this is 'easy' to do. I can tell you ... it is not and I am very frustrated trying to make these two technologies work for my family. On the PC - I'd be done in 5 min with Adobie ... which ... I will go back and use once I get into the office. Suggestions ?

What Mac OS X and iMovie version, Mac and camera model do you use?

MPEG-2 is an old codec, that needs proper transcoding before being used to edit the contained footage, as MPEG-2 only stores every 15th frame, something editing applications don't like.

Adobe (not Adobie) Premiere might be able to open the MPEG-2 file, but it will tax the CPU much more than if you would use a proper format and codec (.mov with Apple Intermediate Codec for video and Uncompressed for audio, if you use iMovie or Final Cut Express).

As MPEG-2 is also the codec used to store video on video DVDs:

There is MacTheRipper, RipIt and Fairmount to rip (copy the DVD to your HDD while removing the copyright protection) the video DVD to your HDD. Then there is Handbrake to convert the ripped DVD to a file like .mkv, .mp4 and .avi with MPEG-4 codecs like Xvid and H264, which are not meant for editing though, as they don't store every frame of the video (video DVDs use MPEG-2 as a codec, which also only stores every 15th frame and the frames in between are approximations). After that you can use MPEG-Streamclip to convert the compressed video file to a .mov file encoded with the DV codec (or AIC - Apple Intermediate Codec), a codec iMovie can read and is meant for editing, as it stores every frame and takes up approx. 220MB/min. You can also skip Handbrake and use MPEG-Streamclip for converting directly to a DV/AIC encoded .mov file from the ripped video DVD, but you need the QuickTime MPEG-2 component (19USD) to be able to access the MPEG-2 encoded video DVD footage via MPEG-Streamclip.But it would save one encoding process.

OR

In order for you to edit your videos stored on the video DVD, you need to rip it via MacTheRipper/RipIt/Fairmount,if the video DVD is copy protected (all commercial video DVDs are). If it is not copy protected, you might be just able to copy the Video_TS folder onto your HDD. Now there are two ways to convert the MPEG-2 compressed footage.

1. Get Handbrake and convert the footage to an .mp4/.m4v file with the H264 codec. Further reading on Handbrake on transcodding video for iMovie.
Then use MPEG Streamclip to convert/export the .avi or .mp4/.m4v file to a QuickTime (.mov - CMD+E) file encoded with the DV codec (if PAL) or the Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) or to a DV file (CMD+OPTION/ALT+E).
Both, .mov and .dv, can be read by iMovie.

2. Get the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component from the Apple Online Store for 20 USD, open MPEG Streamclip, in there go to File > Open DVD and select your Video_TS folder on your HDD. Then either export it as QuickTime with the DV codec or AIC or as DV file as explained in step 1. This saves you one encoding process, therefore time and image quality loss.​

Screenshots:

MPEG Streamclip export options​

Handbrake export as .mp4 - example

or

A. Get footage from a video DVD into an editing application

1. Get the footage from DVD
2. Transcode the footage to an editing friendly format​

1. Get the footage from DVD - copied and pasted from How to backup/copy/rip video DVDs to your HDD and transcode them to another format.​

As commercial video DVDs use a copy protection scheme called CSS (Content Scramble System), additional software is needed to copy the content of a video DVD to your HDD, which is called "ripping". There are several applications to accomplish this.​

1.1. MacTheRipper 2.6.6 (free)

Insert the video DVD into your DVD drive and open MacTheRipper and click the GO button, after which you can select the place you want the video DVD's content saved to.
As this version of MTR is quite old, it will not read many modern DVDs.​

1.2. RipIt (19.95 USD, trial with 10 rips free)

Insert the video DVD and press the RIP button.​

1.3. Fairmount (free) - needs VLC 32-bit to decrypt the CSS (thanks to Satori for that information)​

1.4. Mac DVDRipper Pro (9.95 USD)

Insert the video DVD and select a destination folder, then press the RIP button.​

2. Transcode the footage to an editing friendly format​

As Handbrake does not offer any options to transcode into an editing friendly format (see here for details), one needs to use MPEG Streamclip to have more transcoding options like the .mov container format and a variety of codecs (DV, Apple Intermediate Codec, ProRes, ...), which makes buying (19.99 USD) and installing the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component a necessity, in order to open ripped video DVDs in MPEG Streamclip.
​

2.0 Opening a ripped video DVD in MPEG Streamclip​

2.0.1 MPEG Streamclip > File > Open DVD (SHIFT+CMD+O)

2.0.2 Browse to the VIDEO_TS folder of your choice and click Select

2.0.3 Many video DVDs come with several titles (menu, trailers, extras, film, ...), thus make sure you select the correct title, which might involve some trial and error though.

2.0.4 A successful opened video DVD looks like this:

2.1 Transcode the MPEG-2 encoded video for iMovie, Final Cut Express and Final Cut Pro - Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC)​

2.1.1 MPEG Streamclip > File > Export to QuickTime ... (CMD+E)

2.1.2 Export Settings for the Apple Intermediate Codec for PAL DVDs

Choose the AIC for Compression (video) and Uncompressed for Sound.​

 

[fallonjp]

I just purchased my first Mac and have some mpeg2 files that I'd like to transfer from my old pc. I've read many different posts on the subject and like mirrob I really don't want to edit the actual clips, but tie some of them together in iMovie, and I'd like to do this without purchasing any additional software. I do have Adobe CS4, is there any chance that this can help me convert the files?

I also have my old pc, would it be easier to convert these files on my old pc to mpeg4 and then transfer them to my Mac so I can import them to iMovie? Would this cause any issues with the files once on the Mac?

Thanks for any help.