DVD Created On Apple Mac - Can I edit it on the PC

An uncle sent me over 2 DVD's of our Wedding Video. One of them is his own version and the other is the uncut version. I know he created them on an Apple Mac. The DVD's work on the home DVD player, but I can't get them too work on the Laptop (Windows). I want to edit the uncut version myself on Windows Movie Maker. Is there any software I can download which will convert the file, so that I can in turn edit it?

If they play on a dvd player they "should" work on a pc (to play), whether it was created on mac or pc.

The thing is that a dvd is not just a movie file that you can lift off the disc. To edit them you need to rip them and encode them.

There's a Windows version of a mac application called Handbrake that will convert the dvd to mp4 format on your pc (Download the GUI version). However, I'm not sure if you can edit that in Movie Maker. You'll need to check that out yourself.


PS, it would be a doddle to do what you want on a mac

Try to drag the .vob files from your dvd's Video_TS folder onto your hard drive then change the file extension from .vob to .mpg, then use windoze Movie Maker to edit the unedited video.

If the file extension change doesn't work for you try using the free vob to mpg converter and then try editing the mpg's in Movie Maker. You can download the converter from - http://www.videohelp.com/tools/VOB2MPG

Do you have DVD burning software on your PeeCee? If not there's a wealth of freebies on the net.

j26 said:

... PS, it would be a doddle to do what you want on a mac

Click to expand...

yep, and then some!

Cheers - I found some sw on the PC that would play the DVD.
I downloaded that videohelp sw. On my DVD there's 2 files - Audio & Video. The Audio Folder is empty. When I convert the file to mpg format it plays fine but there's no audio. I've got Adobe Premiere Elements on my PC. If I go to "Capture Media" I click on the DVD then I click into the Video File & highlight the 6 or so files that are in it. Again, it plays but there's no audio. Anyone know the way around this.....

Ask your uncle to send you a disc with the original video files, which will probably be in some mpg format depending on the camera used. You should be able to use them in most video editors.
If you start ripping and editing and then creating a new DVD you will have considerable quality loss.

You're right there Chris. I downloaded some sw - DVDx 2.10 & it encodes it into MPEG Format. I had a quick look at it & the quality is a lot poorer. I'm trying it again & have made a few changes, hopefully to push the quality up a bit. I'm not 100% sure but I'm sure my dad was saying that the uncle put it together on a tape originally. I'm over in Oz so I'll get dad to give him a shout tomorrow. Just to be sure - if he had it on tape originally, what format should I ask him to provide it on (in case he digitised it before creating his own version)? I've got a Sony Camcorder myself (tape version). I'm not 100% sure but is it no different than the old tape cassettes, whereby if I have his original tape I can put it into my Sony & go about it myself. If not, what's the best plan of action? I'd better move quick before he tapes over something or deletes it.

The tape could be a miniDV tape, which is a digital format. This would be DV quality, which is very good, especially to do the initial editing. Given that your uncle did the editing on a Mac I would be almost certain that this is the tape format he used.
You would ideally want th clips in DV format, which may require several DVDs, but the end-result will be worth it.

Yep, it's MiniDV's I'm using on this end too. I'll see how it goes.......Thanks.