How to Import DVDs into iMovie ‘08
The latest iMovie represent a major change from the previous version. The developers put in a lot of improvements to speed up the movie making process. Unfortunately, the ability to easily import DVDs was not on their to-do list.
Importing a DVD into iMovie is not a straightforward process. However, there is a way of doing it that doesn’t require the use of third party software. A far as I know, this method only works with iMovie ‘08 and the DVD you want to transfer can’t contain any copy protected material.
- Insert the DVD you want to transfer to iMovie.
- Launch Disk Utility.app (found in the Utilities folder under Applications).
- Select the DVD and click the New Image icon located in the toolbar.
- Name your image and select a save location (I normally save to the desktop).
- Once you have your image, doubleclick to mount it.
- Launch iMovie. The program should automatically recognize the DVD image and begin processing the files.
- Have fun editing your video files!
Update: Most likely due to a software update, this solution often results in iMovie crashing. One possible workaround involves using HandBrake to convert your DVD into an mp4 file. You can then import that file into iMovie. Depending on the length of the video, this method can take quite a long time.
Update 2: Another workaround is to use an app like VisualHub to convert your DVD to DV format. iMovie will have no problems importing a DV file. The process is quick and painless. The bad news? VisualHub has ceased to exist. So if you don’t already have a copy, you’ll either have to do some searching around or look for an alternative software solution.
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iMovie sucks at titling and I believe you cannot export to tape with this version. I also believe apple has iMovie 6 as a free download available to combat this problem although I do not think a lot of people know about that. I like the new interface though.
I love it. I was able to process my home made movie just fine after reading the post. Thank you so much.
When i save the disk in ‘disk utility’, it tells me that there is an error and it refuses to save the other disk image!
First, I would make sure that the DVD you’re trying to import is not copy-protected. If it’s a DVD from a major studio, there’s a good chance that it has some sort of protection and that will give you problems.
Second, as an experiment, try importing a different DVD. It could just be that the data on the DVD in question might be damaged.
[...] to import it. This not-very-well-advertised feature came as a surprise to me, though of course many others are well aware of [...]
I managed to get a disc image (DMG file) but using iMovie 6 did not recognize any files to import. Do I need iMovie 8? Cheers
I never used iMovie 6 but to the best of my knowledge, I think you need iMovie ‘08.
I tried this and thought “how easy” but after double clicking to mount the .dmg file and then starting iMovie, iMovie crashes. It gives a quick warning about checking camera or something and then the whole thing disappears. I am new to Mac. and this is a brand new computer. Any suggestions of what I am doing wrong or what I can do to fix this? I have tons of home movies I want to edit.
I’ve had this happen to me a few times. My best guess is that the DVDs in question are in a slightly different format that causes iMovie to go crazy.
I don’t have direct solution to this problem.
Another way to transfer your DVDs would involve connecting a DVD player to your Mac via a firewire video converter box. This solution doesn’t offer the best quality and it costs money. Canopus is one company that makes such a device.
If anybody has suggestions for Kengi please post them here.
I’m having the same problem. I record TV shows onto DVD and have had no problems in the past with the image files loading into iMovie until today. I’m using the same brand and type of discs as before, but with this disc, iMovie crashes every time. I’ve even tried creating the disc image several times. I am current on all of the updates.
Perhaps the Apple updates are making iMovie more finicky? I tested a DVD with iMovie the yesterday and it worked without a hitch.
I then tried another DVD today and iMovie crashed. Did Apple mess up iMovie with all the updates? I don’t know for certain but it kind of looks that way.
Unbelievable…. I’m new to Mac and imovie and immediately discovered the dilemma of importing DVDs. This solution was clear and seems to have worked wonderfully .. although I somehow got a duplicate of my DVD!!
Exact same problem here…has anyone figured this out. This is frustrating.
I noticed that you can import a .mov file to iMovie (although i haven’t tried it yet). Can you create a .mov file from an existing DVD (home movie/no protection)… easily and without buying Toast or something?
I found a short .mov file on my mac and imported it successfully to iMovie 08. So the question now is…
Can you create a .mov file from an existing DVD (home movie/no protection)… easily and without buying Toast or something?
Thanks
I managed to import a DVD of stuff I had recorded from old videos and the telly to .mov files but there was no sound with them. Has anyone else had this problem? I am using the latest version of QuickTime Pro.
Has anybody found a work around for iMovie crashing when the created volume is mounted on the desktop. If I eject the volume, iMovie starts right up. This really bites… come on Apple fix this problem!
As another option, you can use a program like HandBrake to convert your DVD to an mp4 file. You can then load up iMovie and import the mp4.
Depending on the length of the video, it can take iMovie quite a while to do the import.
PLEASE HELP!
I upgraded form iMovie 06 to iMovie 08 because I read this post. I can image the disc just fine, but when I mount the DMG, iMovie does nothing. If I file File->Import, and choose any of the import options, it tries to import fromt he built in iSight. When I select the video import options with the iSight window open, it doesn’t let me choose any other source. I am soooo frustrated. I need to do this with about 8 discs, and handbrake takes dozens of hours to convert on my computer.
Specs: 24″ iMac W/ iSight 10.4.11
1.5GB RAM
Jason,
Here’s what I do:
-make sure no other apps are running
-make sure iSight is turned off
-image and mount the video
-load up iMovie
If you’ve already done all of the above, then I’m out of answers.
(Thank you very much for the quick reply)
I have done all of that. I don’t know what you mean by “make sure iSight is turned off”. Then I double click the dmg, (or mount in disk utility) and it loads as a drive on the desktop./ Then I load up iMovie, and nothing happens . . .
Regarding my previous comment: “make sure iSight is turned off” I mean make sure the iSight activity light next to the lens is off. If you have no other apps running then that shouldn’t be an issue.
No other applications are running, but the light is on next to the isight after I hit “Import video”, and a window opens with the live feed from the iSight giving me the option to capture. It doesn’t even attempt to read from the mounted image. If I hit File—>Import and choose the mounted image, it shows a bunch of grayed out .vob files and that is about it.
To answer my own question: The autolaunching of importation in iMovie requires that you open the dmg from disk utility, and that the iMovie vob update is installed using apple software update.
Congrats on getting it working.
hey .. i am trying to copy a small dvd cd – dvdv rw i believe – from a digital camcorder into a normal dvd cd to be able to edit it on imovie.. however i dont think i can insert the small dvd into my mac.. is that right? wat options do i have to do this?
Yeah, you don’t want to insert that small dvd into your Mac if it’s the slot loading type. Doing so could result in a stuck disc.
They do make adapters that will convert your small DVD into a standard size one but I don’t have no experience with them.
If your camera has some sort of digital output like firewire then I would choose that option before attempting any kind of disc solution.
I have tried to import as outlined above and below and I get the option at the bottom of the window to select the source for the import by it I select the umounted dvd which appears as audio and video-TS folders, imovie 08 crashes..
What to do now??
GH
imovie crashes for me too
Beautiful! Thank you for this tip. I do have a question though. When the iMovie import window comes up, there are duplicate clips. I’ve just been ignoring the second set, but want to be sure I’m not missing something. Any ideas? If it helps, the disc I’m making an image of has two folders: video_ts and video_rm. Thank you.
My imovie freezes/quits when I open it after I mounted the image file (.dmg).
Any advice???
Thanks…
This is frustrating as hell. Imovie always crashes.
Is there another work around?
After I clicked the “new image” icon, it processed for a while but suddenly said, “Unable to produce image. Error with DVD (Input/output)”.
Thanks.
I think you’ll run into this issue if your DVD disc is damaged or copy protected. If you consistently get this message with a variety of discs, you might have a hardware problem.
I just had my tape transfered to a dvd and i tried your steps but it won’t import. At first it seems to work it says “creating image “DVD_VR.dmg” and it looks like its uploading but then it stops and says there’s an error. Can you help?
In imovie 08…If you export to quicktime then….burn on to dvd….. then put dvd into into another computer and import movies…it works fine
I had the problem of being unable to import a DVD home movie back into iMovie. After mucking about and reading a bit I worked out that if I go through Disk Utilities and “New Image”, I can then open the application Popcorn and select “Video_TS folder” and export it to “Player” and choose the type of your choice (MPEG4 or H264, etc). This can then be imported into iMovie. The only problem is this takes time.
Thank you Thank you Thank you
)
I have now successfully imported my sons birth and first year from old tape to DVD to iMovie – one happy mumma here.
Never thought I would find the answer so easy (well to you it was easy
i made it all the way to the import stage but when i press import it begins to import but then a message comes up saying “an error occurred during import”. does anyone know how to fix this????
Brilliant tip! Worked beautifully. Thank you!
umm, i have everything, but eveerytime i open iMovie,
it crashes and closes :/
help please?
I made an update to this post that might help you. I tested it last night and it works great but you need VisualHub or something similar. Unfortunately, trying to find this app is proving difficult.
This does not work! Creating a disk image using disk utility, mounting the disk image, and then opening iMovie causes iMovie to crash. Apple support has no answers either. This is ridiculous that this simple task does not work on iMacs. I don’t think I’m the only person in the US that wants to take home movies from a DVD and edit them to make more copies for relatives – ridiculous – Steve Jobs is more worried about protecting moving studios than his customers.
This was the clearest and simplest direction and it worked like a charm. I have the latest MacBook Pro with iMovie 08, so all the bells and whistles seem to be in place and I had plenty of processing and memory which may have helped me avoid the crashes.
Perfect! Worked exactly as stated in the instructions. Thanks a million.
It makes the image while it’s creating the image file…
But then it says it’s unable to create.
It says it’s an input/output error.
Any ideas?
Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you! I’ve spent all day trying to get an mpeg2 into imovie. Your solution was simple and perfect for moving my dvd content back into my mac without loss of quality.
Ok …ran into a problem using your method. The 3rd vob did not transfer over. There are three vob’s for a total of just over 1 hour of content on the DVD. Although the full 1 hour+ of video appears in the camera import window, only 55:28:08 imports to iMovie 08. Any ideas?
When I go to save it in the Disc Utility, it gives me the option of leaving it compressed or DVD/CD master, etc. Should I leave it on compressed (default)?
Yes, use the default settings.
OK, well, I tried it with the default settings and when iMovie tried to import, I got an error messaging asking me to check the camera. Any suggestions? Thanks!
Thank you so much it worked great!
Done every thing as described but when i mount the image and open iMovie ‘08 nothing occurs. I’m using MacBook Pro Alluminium. Is it necesary a specific data structure folder on the image to mount. AUDIO_TS VIDEO_TS? Thanks!
looks like it works fine, but the problem is the quality of the video, i think it’s being degraded for some reason, trying dvdxdv and some other programs to see if the video quality is improved
Answer to my own: Finally i get into it, but iMovie ‘08 fails importing the clips. Nothing to do i guess. What i done?. Using Toast Titanium 10 at video section i create a new dvd i place the vob files into it then insted recording it there’s a small button on the bottom that reads “Image”. That’s the way a made the dmg Image. (Using Disc Admin Utility [can`t remember the name now ] i just got the image mounted but iMovie ‘08 did not recognized it as camera). Then mounted at desktop with dislmountimage utility (right button click). Once it is mounted i opened iMovie ‘08 and there it is the posibility of import clips…but in this case…unfortunately iMovie says that there is a problem in the clips…I hope this bring some light to…
The image I made does get detected by iMovie 08, and seems to just work. But after the import process completes, it shows me that only the first three minutes of video is imported. The rest is missing.
When I check on the image and play it, everything is there. That means that iMovie imports only the first three mins of the disk, but not the rest. And no, the disk isn’t copy-protected. Jeez, I just shot this with a borrowed cam. Heh…
Thanks! This worked like a charm just the way you described in the 7 steps. FYI the version of iMovie 08 I used was 7.1.4.
For those of you that are experience crashes when imovie 08 in generating thumbnails of the DVD image import: I remember reading elsewhere that this is a bug with iMovie 08 that typically occurs when attempting to import more than say, 200MB of video.
I can confirm that this issue has been fixed in iMovie 09. I imagine that iMovie 08 users are going to be stuck with this problem until Apple pushes out a bugfix with a software update.
Thanks so much for this! I have iMovie 09 and had no problems at all with the steps as you laid them out. I have a renewed appreciation for Disk Utility and the internet in general – plus having co-workers that think I’m a genius is always nice… Thanks again! Keep up the good work!
Hi!
I burned DVD from a DVD recorder of my old VHS tapes.
Now when I try to import into iMovie ´09, all the clips are shown twice, and half of the DVD is not possible to import.
Any solution for this?
It was burned using Packard Bell HQ (High Quality)
It worked.
I am a natural scientist and I wanted to see, enhance and grab stills from a video taken by another scientist with an underwater camera , and sent to me on a DVD.
I use iLife 08 on a PPC G5, and I have received and installed all the Apple software updates.
Though you warned that the updates might block your method of importing, they didn’t.
It was easy and very successful. Thank you.
I tried to use disk utility for my video. I put in a home video and all went well until at the end of the process, after about 40 minutes, it said “Unable to create image (input/output error). I’m using a MacBook Pro and have tried to upload this twice now, both times getting the same result. Any idea how to fix this and should it take about 40 minutes for the image to load?
Thank you very much for the help, this fix worked very well for me and saved me from a crooked merchant who wanted to charge me $30 to copy the dvd he burned for me from an old home video.
i followed these steps, and iMovie has not recognized the mounted image. any ideas? i’m running OS X 10.5.8, and iMovie 8.0.5 (820).
Thank youuuuu
Hi, I imported a DVD to imovie 09 and it only imports 56 min, while the DVD is about 1 hr 30 min long. It’s weird because after it imports the DVD a sign comes up which states that it imported all of the DVD but in the event library only 56 min appear. Do you know why this may be? Thanks
Hello, I made the .dmg file, but every time I mount it and iMovie starts up it crashes. First it says ’scanning for devices’ or whatever like it’s supposed to, then it says ‘generating thumbnails,’ again like it’s supposed to. But after that, instead of bringing up the import window iMovie just closes unexpectedly. Every single time. It doesn’t give me any other problems otherwise. I tried to get some help over on the appl forum, but I haven’t yet gotten a response so I figured I would try here. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
when i try to upload it to imovie, it doesn’t let me… it does even acknowledge that my mouse is dragging over it.