How to Import DVD Movie into Windows Movie Maker and iMovie

If you want to edit a DVD movie with Windows Movie Maker or import several DVD clips into iMovie to build a new DVD, but get frustrated with the DVD format, this guide may help you solve the problem.

Before you get started, it will be helpful if you learn something about the DVD, WMM and iMovie.
DVD - General DVDs have CSS copy protection in MPEG-2 or VOB format.
WMM - Windows Movie Maker supports WMV, AVI and MPG video files.
iMovie - iMovie accepts MOV and MPEG4 video files.

Part 1. How to import DVD into Windows Movie Maker
Part 2. How to add DVD clips into Apple iMovie

Part 1. How to put DVD in Windows Movie Maker

1To put a DVD movie into Windows Movie Maker

You have to rip your DVD to WMV or AVI video first, and then you can load it into Windows Movie Maker. I'd prefer using a DVD Ripper to do this.

Then install and run it, put your DVD disc into your DVD drive, click "Load DVD" to locate your DVD file and import it, or load it by clicking "Load File" to add DVD IFO file. (This DVD Ripper can rip copyright protected DVD movies, but you should remember that it's illegal rip DVD for any business purposes.)

2Select output format and subtitle

After you load the DVD files, click the format drop-down list to select "WMV – Windows Media Video (*.wmv)" or "AVI – Audio Video Interleaved (*.avi)" as the output format. A regular DVD movie has multiple subtitles and audio tracks, and you can select the right one for you.

If you just want a certain part of the DVD movie, you can click "trim" to cut the DVD movie. Just drag the timeline bar to set the start and end time, and then blue line will be the captured parts.

For advanced user, if you want to output higher quality video, click the "Settings" button to open the panel, here you can customize video bitrate, audio bitrate, resolution, framerate, etc. Higher bitrate will result in bigger file size.

3Start to convert

After the above steps, you just need to click "Start" and wait for the conversion to be finished. It takes about 40 minutes to convert a common two hours DVD movie.

4Edit DVD with Windows Movie Maker

Run Windows Movie Maker, in the "Movie Task" bar, click "Add Video" to browse your computer and located the converted files, and then you can start to make personal movies.

Tips: Many users may wonder how they can convert Windows Movie Maker file (*.MSWMM) to other video format. Actually, A *.MSWMM file is not a video file. It is a project file of Movie Maker (more like a record file). You have to open this file in Windows Movie Maker and save the movie to your computer: Go to Movie Tasks bar > Finish Movie > Save to my computer. After that you will have a WMV file which can be converted to another video format or burned to DVD.

Part 2. How to add DVD clips into Apple iMovie

iMovie is similar to Windows Movie Maker, it supports MOV and MP4 video, so you just need to convert your DVD movie to the right format. DVD Ripper for Mac supports both Mac OS Tiger and Leopard; you can download it for free from here:

The operation steps are similar to the windows version. You can directly drag and drop the DVD files into the "List panel", and set the output format by clicking the "Setting button". If you want to do some video editing work, you can hit the "Edit button" to crop, trim, apply sepcial effects, add watermark, etc. It's as simple as 1-2-3.

When the conversion is finished, you can run the iMovie, build a new project, and then drag the converted files to the work space to make your own movies.

When the task is finished, In the Menu bar, Click "File" -> "Export" and save it as QuickTime video. And you can enjoy your own video the way you like now! Of course, if this DVD Ripper for Mac can satisfy all your editting needs, you can finish all your work previously and skip this step.