Totally lost newby here needing help!

[Duane in B Town]

I recently bought my first Apple computer, an iMac. I have some old VHS format tapes that I converted to DVD. So far, so good. The DVD plays fine in the iMac, but the video isn't downloadable because it it in the Video_TS format. A very cool Apple tech support guy sent me your way; again, so far, so good. I found a thread about downloadable converters, and downloaded 'HandBrakeCLI'. It downloaded OK, but now I can't for the life of me figure out how to open both HandBrake and the DVD player at the same time to get it on the hard drive in order to in turn import it to iMovie.

I know just enough about iMac to be dangerous, only marginally better on my old PC based machine. Anybody out there who can give a computer challenged newby a few pointers?

[VirtualTracy]

First step is to pop the disc in the drive and when the disc icon shows up on your Desktop, double-click on it to open up a Finder window showing the contents of the disc.

Now just click and hold on the file/s you want copied to your iMacs hard drive and drag them from the Finder window right onto your Desktop.

Now you have successfully copied the movie/s from the DVD and they are ready for the second step.

Exactly what are you hoping to achieve with these movies? Do you need to do some editing?

I gather you want to convert the Video_TS files so that they can then be imported into iMovie?

I haven't used Handbrake for a couple of years so I'm a tad rusty.

[Duane in B Town]

Getting them into iMovie to edit them is exactly what I want to do.

There are three folders listed at the top of the file list; VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, and VIDEO_TS.VOB.
For each segment, or clip Finder has three files. They are listed as: 'VTS_(clip number)_0.BUP', VTS_(clip number)_0.IFO, VTS_(clip number)_0.VOB.

There are a total of 5 clips or segments with three files each, plus the three folders for a total of 18 files. Is there any particular order of dragging and loading these files? Geez, what a mess.

[ex2bot]

Duane,

Welcome to MacOSX.com!

You can use Handbrake to convert the files in Video_TS to .Mov (H.264) files. I am not familiar with HandbrakeCLI. I'd suggest using the regular Handbrake, which runs in a regular window (instead of through the Terminal, as HandbrakeCLI might).

Click the "Source" button in the upper-left hand corner (unless it's already asking you to point to a folder). Select the Video_TS folder you want to convert. If it's on the DVD, you click on the DVD, then click Video_TS. It will start working reading the Video_TS folder and show a blue progress bar.

Change the filename and location of the destination file if you wish.Then click the "start" button. Wait and wait some more. Then test your new .m4v file. This file will play in Quicktime or iTunes.

Let us know if you run into a snag.