Transferring iDVD projects to a useable format

[Mary H]

Hi,
In 2009 we created some movies that were made into iDVD projects from what would have been iMovie 6 at the time. I have all the media but am stumped as to how to reopen these videos so they can be reworked. Is there a way to do that or am I stuck working from scratch?
Thanks,
Mary

I have an M1 MacBook Pro, Ventura 13.2.1, 16 GB

 

[ColdCase]

I think I've read that some of the coding needed to opening those old video files has slowly been removed from the mac over the years. Handbrake should be able to convert them to a format your mac can understand. Are you going to want to put them back on DVD?

 

[R S K]

I don't understand what exactly you're trying to open. The iMovie project? The iDVD project? Just the raw footage (from the DVD or the original media?)?

 

[Mary H]

No, we won't be putting them back on DVD and they are not on a DVD now. They are the project files that we would have originally made into a DVD for a video portion of a teaching session. The mov files are not readable. They just come up as a black screen, or as unreadable by QT.

 

[R S K]

Then they most likely are using a legacy codec that is no longer supported by macOS/AV Foundation.

About incompatible media in Final Cut Pro - Apple Support

Detect and convert incompatible media in Final Cut Pro in macOS Mojave.

support.apple.com

You will need an app, possibly Handbrake, that can read and transcode them for use.

 

[Mary H]

We have the full file *.iMovieProject files with everything in them. The Audio Waveforms folder, the Cachefolder, *.iMovieProj file, the Media folder, and the Shared Movies folder. It is not on a dvd. Any dvds we would have made are no longer viable, plus if possible I would like to see what changes we would like to make to update the videos.

 

[R S K]

That's great, but I highly doubt you will be able to open such an old project with the most recent version of iMovie. A lot has changed. As I said, not being able to open/play the media itself will most likely be due to an unsupported legacy codec.

How can I open old iMovie projects with t… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

MediaInfo, for example, will be able to tell you which codec that in fact is and anything else you might want to know.

MediaInfo

MediaInfo is a convenient unified display of the most relevant technical and tag data for video and audio files

mediaarea.net

 

[Mary H]

Thanks, that's what I was afraid of.
I am now downloading VLC to see if I can open the *.dv files, and I will see if I can start rebuilding them from the bottom up.
We are several computers removed from the original one, and am now learning a new system again.

Thanks, again
Mary

 

[R S K]

Had you mentioned the fact that they are .dv files I could have told you right from the start that they are most definitely incompatible and that is the issue.

They will need to be converted with VLC, Handbrake or whatever on any macOS beyond Mojave, yes!

 

[Mary H]

Thanks everyone

 

[R S K]

Everyone? 🤔

 

[Mary H]

Everyone? 🤔

Everyone who replied (guess there were only 2 of you), even if I wasn't able to solve the problem.
I ended up deleting all the files, and will start at the beginning.

Have a great day