How do I Import an iPhoto DVD "Verbatim" and not as iPhoto wants?

Question

I have a DVD of a set of iPhoto folders, that a professional photographer friend of mine that insists on using iPhoto, that will not import as it burnt to the DVD. Why?
You mount the DVD and it's perfect in iPhoto, but when you got to bring it in in any of the many ways you can, it just doesn't work as expected. I need the DVD to import as it was her version of 6.0.4, in mine.
Even when I create a folder and drag and drop it adds the photos from a previous drop to the folder. And when I look in the main library there are several copies/versions of the pictures.
I would like folder for folder import. That is not happening. I'm using iPhoto 6.0.4 on a PPC FW800.
Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.
G4 FW800, 2GB RAM, 2-DVR110s, 4-500GB HDs, 3-Monitors, 2-Turtle Doves, 1-iTTUSB   Mac OS X (10.4.8)   Totally Stuffed/Max'd Out with lots of great toys.

Answer 1

Thanks for the reply. The short version is just fine. Usually it's shorter.
The disc was burned as iPhoto 6.0.4 does and only will do. We got the cute little disc that shows you in red or green and numbers how much room you need and if it will burn and hit the button and off it went. When mounted, it shows up in the Source Panel perfectly as it should be. Dragging the folders out of the disc to the column just moves the position of the folder and no importing happens. When ejected the "moved" folder disappears. If I make a new folder and "drag and drop" the first import works, then the second on, the all the pics from the first drop are included also, even though I did not touch that folder.
If I do a straight import from the pull down menu, I get several versions of the photo and it mixes them all in with what I already have in the library and have to dig for the real picture and not the thumbnail or something else. I tried a smart folder and boy are they lacking in options for that. Like, "imported" when "today". That would have let me find what I just brought in to delete it when the importing went awry.
The only reason that iPhoto is involved it that it was originally used to download and catalog these photos. I'm building a website and have no real need for iPhoto other than getting my hands on these pics.
I did finally go into the disc raw, and looked through the folders on the disc itself, what a mess, I took the main folder and copied it over and then placed the "modified" files over the "originals", replacing them. It was a tad tedious, but got the job done. I spent hours, wasted, trying to make iPhoto work as the instructions, tutorials, forums, fixit forums all recommend and nothing positive came from it. I even tried making eMails attachments and there were too many photos that it stalled Entourage, of which 10.4.9 is suppose to have some interaction fixes for, so there's problems there.
I mentioned to my photographer friend that she might try Aperture. She has it, has, and says that it's more hype than help. And this woman knows her "stuff". And that if it weren't for the fact that the cataloging software that came with her cameras was PC and not Mac, she'd be using that and not iPhoto. I recommended a new Intel Mac and she says it'll be a PC next. She has work to do. Ouch.
I have always used iPhoto just because it was there and easy. But after last night and really having to dig through it, I found all kinds of nastiness. I thought for a moment, although, I have the database backed up, that I had lost at ton of pictures to low res thumbnails that seem to be all over the place. But no originals. Then after checking several copies/thumbnails, I found the originals.
Well I have the pics and am half done, and finally gave up for the moment, going to bed at 9:14am.
Now I have to extract photos from a Flash piece that is being replaced with a simple html page. iPhoto ain't gettin' near this one.
Thanks . . .
. . . the guy