Protected DVD - iMovie - iPod.

[Alicepire]

First up, 2 things:
1. I'm sorry if this has been posted before, I searched and I could find many suggestions which helped unprotected DVDs but not protected ones. I could be both blind and insane though, if that be the case please link me and give me a long sarcastic speech about how much I suck (I know I probably deserve it).
2. Yes, copying protected DVDs is a bad horrible thing that will mean the pirates win and every one dies. I already got this lecture from the people at the iMovie forum. I just want to edit a few TV eps for my own uses. I'm not planning on sending it or selling it to anyone. It's for me and my iPod only.

Here is what I want to do:
get files from a dvd and put them into iMovie
edit the annoying scenes out
then put them on my ipod.

I have the last two steps down, but it's the first one that's killing me.
What I've tried so far:
I downloaded HandBrake and converted them into mp4 format and then put them into iMovie, which worked, until iMovie kept crashing and everything took forever to do. I called apple and they said that I had to use a file that wasn't muxed.
So I got MPEGStreamclip and pressed the thingy to demux. It made 5 10 minute DVI files which had odd sound and were still muxed in iMovie (the sound was fine in quicktime and the original file was fine everywhere). So I got ffmpegx and tried to convert the mp4 file into mpeg 2 so it could have a go at demuxing and all I got was a file that wouldn't play in anything and took up a lot of space.

So.. does anyone have any suggestions? Please?

[terryj]

Here is what I want to do:
1. get files from a dvd and put them into iMovie
2. edit the annoying scenes out
3. then put them on my ipod.

So.. does anyone have any suggestions? Please?

1. Rip DVD to Hardrive with Mac The Ripper, a more robust DVD ripper.
(www.ripdifferent.com)

2. Open the ripped to HD .Vob files in MpegStreamclip. Open all
files when prompted. Fix Time Code breaks if prompted.
Edit out to hearts content. Save, not Export, file back to HD.

3. Get Visual Hub. Open the edited VOB file in Visual Hub, export to iPod flavor
of your choice ( 5th gen, touch, nano). Set it to import into iTunes.
Sync your iPod. Done.

[Alicepire]

So This involves editing in MPEGStreamClip instead of iMovie?

[albloom]

You can continue to use iMovie to edit the movie, but it cannot be from
a commercial protected DVD. MacTheRipper (the free 2.6.6 that Terry
pointed to) can deal with most protection schemes. The nastier ones
need version 3.0 (beta, donationware). Go to ripdifferent.com, join the
forums, and snoop around the two MTR forums.

In either case the unlocked VIDEO_TS folder is on your HD. You can open
it and drag the VOB's into iMovie as usual.

[terryj]

Albloom,
the VOBs ingested into IMovie/IMovie HD would have to
be converted to DV Stream first, before importing
in to be edited. I'm not sure about iMovie '08, As I don't
have it and haven't had a need for it. Since Apple told the OP
the files cannot be muxed, that also rules out .VOB files as well.

Alice,
For simple quick cuts, MpegStreamclip to Visual Hub
is a straighter path, without transcoding headaches/
unnecessary steps.
Just make your edits in Mpegstreamclip and then go to Visual Hub.

[albloom]

Heck, Terry, I can't even run iMovie 08. Not enough horsepower
on this old G4.

But I did drag a VOB into iMovie 3.0.3, and it showed up available
for editing just as Alice said. I was surprised.

[terryj]

REALLY!?!?!?
Did it give you a blue progress bar on importing before
putting the movie clips in the clip pane?

if so then it converted it to DV for use by iMovie3

that is surprising......

Hmm, this contradicts Apple's logic and postings,
unless they didn't take into account a change in Quicktime
tech down the road from when iMovie 3 was built?
What version of QT are you running AlBloom?