Rescuing VERY old dvdproj files

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Level 1

136 points

Rescuing VERY old dvdproj files

Many years ago I created a number of DVDs of family movies. 20 years later those DVDs won't play properly (go figure). I have the old dvdproj files. I recently picked up an old MacBook G4 and an iLife '08 disk. I've installed iDVD just fine onto that computer, running 10.5.8.

There is supposedly a way for me to load a dvdproj file into iDVD and create, instead of a new DVD, an mp4 file as output of the movie. But I can't figure it out; can someone walk me through it?

I'd be grateful!

Mac mini, macOS 15.5

Posted on Jul 7, 2025 08:59 PM

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Answer 1

stevewhitemd Author

Level 1

136 points

Jul 8, 2025 09:28 AM in response to HWTech

Thanks, saw that. Yes, the MPEG files and audio are there for most. A few early dvdproj files DON'T have these; I think perhaps (as these were the first ones I did) I didn't use 'best performance'.

So I suppose I could pull the MPEG and audio files into iMovie 10 (??) and rebuild. That'll be some work.

For some of these projects I also have the iMovie project; these were pre iMovie 5 project files (remember, ~2003 or so). iMovie 10 doesn't recognize them; wonder if there's a way to do sequential updates?

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

66,758 points

Jul 8, 2025 09:06 AM in response to stevewhitemd

See the post by @Old Toad here:

How to convert dvdproj to mp4 -- see @Old Toad - Apple Community

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Answer 3

Yer_Man

Level 10

165,516 points

Jul 8, 2025 01:03 AM in response to stevewhitemd

Have you tried ripping those DVDs with an app like Handbrake?

https://handbrake.fr/

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Answer 4

stevewhitemd Author

Level 1

136 points

Jul 8, 2025 04:51 AM in response to Yer_Man

I did. The DVDs themselves don't play in the DVD player connected to the TV and don't load on the Mac. That's why I'm trying to see if I can work with the dvdproj.

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