How to transfer "clips" from a DVD to iMovie

[Abigaill]

I am trying to make a small clip from one of our college videos which were taken during our field trip. This clip would be just of my friends and the time spent with them. We had the video in a DVD from which I will be extracting some piece of data to make my clip. So to achieve this, I will be transferring this extracted data to iMovie where I can make a small video. But the only problem is that I don't know how to transfer those clips from college DVD to iMovie. Could you help me in this matter?

[REDBULL]

It is not possible to directly transfer a part of a video from DVD to iMovie. The reason behind this is that the DVD's contain an encrypted file. So to overcome this problem you have to use some software with which allows you to copy from DVD. This is not at all an easy task, but if you want an alternative to this then you can even play the DVD on a DVD player and then record the selective clips with the help of a camcoder/handycam. You can then transfer the file to your computer with the help of supporting cable. You can even then capture it in iMovie as usual.

[Sean J]

I don't think that's a better idea. Although DVDs have encrypted files, they also have Macrovision protection which protects the file content to be copied. Moreover, if you try to record the video with the help of a camcoder, the camcoder tries to normalize the brightness of the video and the Macrovision will try to mess it up. This affects the video that is made at the end making it unwatchable sometimes. This is what I have experienced personally.

[Bharat89]

iMovie will not take the clips from a video DVD on its own. You have to use some utilities which will extract and convert the videos to be viewable in editing applications. The names of some of those utilities includes DVDxDV, Cinematize, and MPEG Streamclip, etc. I personally use DVDxDV and quite happy with it. With DVDxDV you can convert the DVD video back into any Quicktime video format instantly. The only requirement for this application is Mac OS X 10.4 or higher, and Quicktime 7.03 or higher.

[arturro]

I am not sure about how you will be taking part of the video clip and then use it in iMovie but I can tell you how you can take few part of your videos. You simply have to install a DVDBackup to rip video from your DVDs, dvdbackup is a free tool to rip video DVDs from the command line. It has the advantages of being small, fast, and easy to use.