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General discussion

Re-diting a finished imovie project

by HelenInOz Dec 13, 2008 5:36PM PST

My friends created an imovie project of our overseas trip, and burned me a copy to dvd -as VOB files. The movie consists of still photos, video footage and music laid over the top. The only re-edting I want to do is to replace some of the still photos with others (they live interstate so it is not as simple as me going around to use their computer).

My questions:
1. Is there a way I can take this finished project back into imovie (e.g., by converting it to mpg?)
2. If there is a way to get it back into imovie, will it split the movie into audio track, movie track etc. as per normal imovie project?
3. If it won't split it as above, all I need from the original movie they created is the video footage, I have the photos and music they used myself. So can I edit out the music from the video footage (from their project), and start an imovie project again -with their video and then relay new music over the top, with new photos etc.?

Thanks!

-Suzanne

Discussion is locked

2 Posts

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Re-editing

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Dec 13, 2008 10:06PM PST

While this is possible, it is not easy and the results are not always good.

The best way to get it back into an editable state is to convert the dvd into DV format. This is the format that iMovie uses best. It can also use MPEG4 but not MPEG1 & MPEG2.
The best program that I know of to do this is Visual Hub, which is unfortunately no longer available. All is not lost though.
There is a good, free, application called Handbrake (Google it) that will read your DVD and convert it to MPEG4. You then have to import that file into iMovie and start to work your magic.

It "might" split the Audio and Video tracks but if it does not, you can do that within iMovie.

Once it is in iMovie, you can chop away at it, and add stuff, to your hearts content.

Good luck,

Let us know how you get on

P

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I have been using handbrake

by MAD geek Dec 13, 2008 11:22PM PST

I have been using handbrake for a while now, and it works great, just insert the DVD, I would just save it as quicktime in the toggle presets bar, this way you know there are no sound visual errors, then click start, it worked for me.

After it is done just import it into iMovie.

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