Import/transfer/upload/rip Mini DVD into iMovie

Mini DVD (also called as MiniDVD, mini DVD or miniDVD) refers to a standard DVD disc that is somewhat identical to the normal DVD but has a smaller diameter of only 8cm which is also know as "3 inch DVD". Although smaller in size, Mini DVD can be played in most DVD players with tray loaded, like DVD, it is an ideal medium for a broad range of mobile storage applications with or without multimedia content such as digital audio, video, still images, business presentations, Internet downloads or just data sharing.

Mini DVD has become on of the most frequently used mediums particularly with camcorder recordings for its outstanding advantages, including random access (you can make a play-list in edit/play mode in your camcorder), immediate playwrite/rewrite (you can immediately view your recordings with your camcorder), elimination of blank search, short of finalization time, production, one-stop production solution etc.

There is no shortcut for editing Mini DVD
Just like DVD, Mini DVD can't still be edited by iMovie directly, iMovie 08 is said to expand its list of supported formats to include MPEG-2, the format used to record DVDs and Mini DVDs. But as many people indicated, iMovie 08 is just said than done, it seems that MPEG-2 is just a good delivery format but not a editing format. MPEG-2 support could be a big hole in iMovie compatibility. In order to have a closer look at the problem, I'd like show you some examples, common Mini DVD users have encountered.

How to import Mini DVD into iMovie

As to my research, the following situations may happen or may have happened in people's daily life.
Situation 1: "I need to know how to import films from this Samsung VR-DC161 video camera which records to mini DVD media into a Mac preferably straightly into iMovie."

Situation 2: "My video camera records onto a DVD-RW dics that is about 4 inches in diameter. I put this DVD into My MacBook drive in hopes of importing the material in iMovie, nothing happens."

Situation 3: "Can anybody tell me if I import my footage into iMovie 08 from my Sony Mini DVD Handycam, does the quality of the original footage on the Mini DVD deteriorate at all? If does, is there a way I can import footage from the Mini DVD into iMovie with no loss of quality?"

Situation 4: "I have a DVD, it is one of the mini ones, my friends dad recorded something onto it from his camera and it won't go into my MacBook because since its not full size my disk drive doesn't recognize it. How can I convert it from my disc, and get it onto Mac to get it onto iMovie?"

Situation 5: "I am trying to make a movie on iMovie, however I made the movie with a DVD camera. I have the newest MacBook Pro and was wondering how to get the movies off the discs into actual files on my computer's memory. My MacBook Pro won't accept mini DVDs, only the normal sized ones. Is there any special software that not too pricy or anything?"

Suggested way out
As I mentioned above, iMovie will not deal with Mini DVD natively, you probably need a third party program to convert your Mini DVDs into iMovie compatible MPEG-4 (MP4, M4V), DV, HDV, MOV etc before editing. Fortunately, I can give you some threads
Way 1: I saw many people in favor of ffmpegX which can rip/convert DVD contents to DV that can be imported into iMovie directly. But there is one problem, sometimes you have to locate mpeg2enc (encoder required) manually when launch the application.

Way 2: You can also try this DVD ripper for Mac, it is a professional software that can smoothly convert/import you Mini DVD into iMovie supported file format without any extra codec installed. It can solve your problem easily, have a try!

Smooth things out with DVD Ripper for Mac
DVD ripper for Mac is an user-friendly and easy-to-use software that for both beginner and veteran. It can easily rip and DVD content and convert it into iMovie acceptable MPEG-4 (MP4, M4V), MPEG-2, DV, HDV, MOV files with least conversion speed and best output quality. Besides, it can also convert DVD to other popular file formats like AVI, WMV, MKV, 3GP, RM, ASF etc. Meanwhile, it can also extract audio tracks and from DVD movie and save as MP3, FLAC, AAC etc.

Mac DVD ripper is also a powerful editing tool that help you make your personalized videos. For example, you can trim your DVD to a certain length by Trim, tweak the aspect ratio of the video like Full Screen, 16:9, 4:3 by Crop, apply special effect such as Gray, Emboss and Old film from the options available to the video by Effect, adjust the output parameters for audio and video by Settings. Besides, you can also merge several files into a single one for converting and preview the whole process from the Preview window.

How to import Mini DVD using DVD Ripper for Mac
Below is a simple and intuitive picture showing how to use DVD ripper for Mac, just a glance to lead you through the whole process.

After converting, you can import the converted files to iMovie for further editing.