Saving my home movies for posterity

The current popular format for video files is MP4. MP4 comes in various ‘flavors’, each with their own compatibility, e.g. ‘codecs’ (with subdivisions for levels and profiles). MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio has good compatibility: other current devices and programs are very likely to support it.

If you want to do this yourself, then for the conversion, I would suggest HandBrake, as it has nice presets, so users can skip making many detailed choices when using the app. Documentation (EN) - HandBrake.

You will need to get the DVD as input for HandBrake (or any conversion app). It is often thought better to copy the DVD to your computer drive first, as reading from DVD disc while encoding will wear down your optical drive a bit more, as well as a speed difference.

Welcome!

Just to be clear due to your username....

...do you understand that you are not working with Apple support employees here? This is a community of end users volunteering mutual tech help. We cannot go "hands on," and can only work from details your post. If that works for you, continue to work through your project here.

Apple will not see your query here.

Otherwise, you'll need on-site instruction or help, and neither can be arranged through these forums.

I only want to make sure you know how this works, as we have 100s of people daily fooled into thinking that "Apple Support Communities" means Apple are here.

In the meantime, I am asking the moderators to move this to a more active forum where you can get more views. This one is supposed to be for asking how to use the forum software and gets few views.