Conversion of VHS for iMovie use

Have some old VHS tapes of kids / wedding etc that I want to convert to DVD. I would also like to be able to use the footage in iMovie to create a couple of family DVDs. Can I use DVDs as a media source for iMovie - someone suggested using Handbrake for ripping the footage but in the FAQ on handbrake it says the output format is perhaps not suitable. Should I just convert the VHS tapes to mini DV and then run them out of my DV camera?

Yes, absolutely you should use your miniDV camcorder. Then you know the files for sure are in the right format. You can either dub from your VHS tapes onto your camcorder, then play that back into the Mac. Or if your camcorder supports pass thru analog to digital conversion, you might be able to do it in one step (i.e. play VHS tape thru camcorder right into the Mac without recording it to DV tape first.
Patrick

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    Wow!  How brilliant! 
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    Hi.
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    export the .VOB files as Quicktime files
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    You want to output PAL/NTSC DV_streams if you want to import it to iMovie/iDVD! If the source is PAL, output PAL and vice versa (converting decent quality PAL<->NTSC is another can of worms).
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    See also:
    http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCDon_a_Macintosh.html#edit_convertMPEG
    http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCDon_a_Macintosh.html#PALNTSC

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    I am going to convert some of my old VHS tapes to a digital format that I would like to edit in iMovie. What format should I convert them to? Companies seem to offer AVI or Mpeg - which is better? Does it make a difference?
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    It sounds like you are suggesting that I should have them transfer the VHS analot tapes into an uncompressed version - is taht you you mean by DV?
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