convert dvd back to imovie on Mac

[etwicky]

Here's what happened. I had created a dvd in imovie on my mac. And then the OS got erased with a magnet!! Anyway, I had already saved the movie to a DVD but I wanted a hard copy to go back on my DVR tape. Is there a way I can save the DVD back onto the computer, convert it to avi and then have imovie save it onto the tape. I did use disk utility already and have the dvd saved on my hard drive in a .cdr format. I'm not sure if that helps or not. I also hope to only do this once so I don't want to buy any expensive software. can anyone help

[Case]

1. Copy the DVD to your hard drive. 2. Convert to DV. 3. Have iMovie save it on tape.
No need to image the DVD, just copying the VIDEO_TS folder will do. However, you could mount the image to make the files accessible.
Buy the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component ($20), so that QuickTime-based apps (like MPEG Streamclip) can handle reading MPEG-2 video.
Get MPEG Streamclip to do a DVD-to-DV conversion. Open VTS_01_1.VOB in MPEG Streamclip. When it asks to add other files from the same title, choose 'Open all files'. Then: File > Export to DV > [Make DV].

[rumplestiltskin]

"... convert it to avi..." Case is correct on all counts. AVI should have nothing to do with this process.

[Frobozz]

Connect your DV camcorder to your DVD player and play the DVD to tape.

[rumplestiltskin]

Connect your DV camcorder to your DVD player and play the DVD to tape.

Sounds pretty good except there will probably be a bit of quality loss as you're going from digital to analog and then back to digital again. However, it might be a small enough difference to make it worth a try. Nice suggestion.