[Macworld]

Post your comments for From DVD to iMovie to Facebook here

[arkham999]

Ideally you won't recompress as H.264 off of the DVD, because you're going to recompress again at the end once you finish your movie. Pick a raw, uncompressed format out of the DVD.

[joeyschwartz]

arkham999, on 20 August 2012 - 10:41 AM, said:

Ideally you won't recompress as H.264 off of the DVD, because you're going to recompress again at the end once you finish your movie. Pick a raw, uncompressed format out of the DVD.

Unless you have a Raid 0 system, don't pick uncompressed or "raw": those formats take up way too much disc space. A better solution, is to use either ProRes422 or Apple Intermediate CODEC, because they employ "lossless" compression and the files are much easier to handle due to their smaller size.

This post has been edited by joeyschwartz: 20 August 2012 - 07:59 PM

[teajay74]

joeyschwartz, on 20 August 2012 - 07:59 PM, said:

arkham999, on 20 August 2012 - 10:41 AM, said:

Ideally you won't recompress as H.264 off of the DVD, because you're going to recompress again at the end once you finish your movie. Pick a raw, uncompressed format out of the DVD.

Unless you have a Raid 0 system, don't pick uncompressed or "raw": those formats take up way too much disc space. A better solution, is to use either ProRes422 or Apple Intermediate CODEC, because they employ "lossless" compression and the files are much easier to handle due to their smaller size.

I think he means that you should extract the MPEG2 stream from the DVD and edit that on the timeline, then export the final result to H.264 for Facebook rather than going from MPEG2 (from the DVD) to H.264 (using Handbrake) then recompressing the edited timeline to H.264 (with iMovie) a second time for upload to Facebook. In other words, I think he meant re-compress once rather than re-compress twice or use a less compressed intermediate format like DV or, as you suggested, AIC, for the editing phase. Obviously, the DVD stream is compressed (MPEG2) so it's not a "raw, uncompressed format" but I think he was talking about the the 'pure' MPEG2 stream.

[akvilla]

You cant encode to ProRes or AIC unless you have Apple Pro products (motion, compressor, or FCP). I recommend Mpeg Stream Clip(http://www.squared5.com/) to extract the mpeg. Don't really use imovie, but it might natively edit mpeg2. Since you cant use ProRes or AIC, extracting to the native format would be best, and imovie might transcode it to AIC anyways. In Mpeg Streamclip use file "open DVD..." then try "Convert to MPEG". Converting to h.264 will probably work, but if iMovie transcodes it again when it imports, it will be compressed a third time and you will lose quality each time.

[purefreebass]

looking at the other comments here…and adding my own building curiosity…does anyone know what are the codecs thats iMovie DOES support during import?

[DavidRazorsek]

purefreebass, on 27 August 2012 - 06:19 PM, said:

looking at the other comments here…and adding my own building curiosity…does anyone know what are the codecs thats iMovie DOES support during import?

Agreed, this comment section is a disaster. If the original user was confused at the start they will have completely given up by now. I thought I knew the answer to the original question but now even I'm starting to get confused...

[Chris Breen]

DavidRazorsek, on 28 August 2012 - 05:49 AM, said:

Agreed, this comment section is a disaster. If the original user was confused at the start they will have completely given up by now. I thought I knew the answer to the original question but now even I'm starting to get confused...

Given that we're talking about posting clips to Facebook rather than working on our next Blu-ray masterpiece, I think we can give purity a pass. Follow the original instructions.

[jimbabka]

The instructions don't work. I followed them exactly, but the m4v file that was created cannot be imported into iMovie '09 (the file is grayed out when I try to choose it for import). The question is, then, what file formats *can* be imported into iMovie?

[Norbert]

I wanted to put a DVD into iMovie too, and read all kinds of convoluted instructions about using multiple programs and such on the web. At one point I gave up. I freely admit I am a video newbie. But my friend said "Just use Handbrake with the defaults. There may be a few sections in the drop-down menu. Convert all of them. Choose large file and go." I imported the resulting MP4 files into iMovie and it works fine (although it takes forever to "generate thumbnails"). I believe you can take your finished iMovie and export it into any size you want, including a highly compressed one for Facebook, right? Don't be scared to experiment. I think M4v is just a kind of MO4 and should import to iMovie. (?)