If you just filmed a lot of stuff and burn them onto DVD, but unintentionally deleted the original video off the computer, then you can only watch the video on the DVD, you will not be able change anything to DVD; you will not be able to put it back into iMovie nor Quicktime.

If you need to get DVD back into iMovie to make some changes or get some part form the DVD, then it is not a straightforward process, but there is a workaround to do so.


There are two different situations here:
A) This method works only with iMovie ‘08 and the DVD you want to transfer can’t contain any copy protected material.
1.Insert the DVD you want to transfer to iMovie.
2.Launch Disk Utility.app (found in the Utilities folder under Applications).
3.Select the DVD and click the New Image icon located in the toolbar.
4.Name your image and select a save location (I normally save to the desktop).
5.Once you have your image, double-click to mount it.
6.Launch iMovie. The program should automatically recognize the DVD image and begin processing the files.
7.Have fun editing your video files!

B) This method work with iMoive ’08 and iMovie ’09 and the DVD you want to transfer contains copy protection. (Encrypted commercial DVD).
You have to rip the DVDs (like ripping CDs), converting the VOB streams into an editable format with iMovie. DVD to iMovie converter for Mac can easily remove various limitations on DVD. It can also convert DVD video to other format like MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MOV, DV or M4V that both iMovie ‘08 and iMovie ’09 can import.

Personally, I would strongly recommend you go with MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and MOV as the video file to rip the DVD to. They usually have much higher video quality and better audio effect.

DVD to iMovie converter for Mac also enables you to have full control over video quality; you can set the values of resolution, bit rate, frame rate and keep them them as the highest to get the best effect. The program is also a powerful video editing tool that allows you to trim, crop, add effect and merge files. You can also take snapshots if you need to.

Please read the step by step introduction below on how to put/import/rip DVD to iMovie on Mac.

Step 1 Download and install DVD to iMovie converter for Mac
You will download a .zip from the link, which contains Intel processor.dmg and PowerPC .dmg file, please choose wisely (if you work on Intel processor, then choose Intel processor.dmg and click on it). You will find a DVD Ripper .app file in it; please drag the .app to your Application Folder, the DVD Ripper will be then correctly installed.

Step 2: Output format selection for iMovie
To convert DVD to video file that iMovie import, you can choose MPEG-4/MPEG-2/MOV/DV as the output format. On the bottom of the panel, choose MPEG-4, MPEG-2, H.264 or MOV in the drop down menu next to Profile filed.



Step 3: Video Settings on Mac
If you want to customize the output video quality, you can click the "Settings" button to open the Settings window and set video resolution, frame rate, bit rate, encoder, etc. You can set audio resolution, frame rate, bit rate and encoder on the "Settings" interface.



Step 4: Merge into one file
If you want to join the selected titles, chapters or clips into one file, check "merge into one file" option. The converted video will be a huge single video file.

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