Bring DVD into FCP?

Can I bring one of my old DVD burns into my FCP5 and work on it again? Say, add new VO, music and some updated still/video clips to make it really, really good? I know I can copy and burn a copy of my old DVD, and have done, getting a .cdr file (what is that?) following steps in disk utility, but I don't seem to be able to do anything else with it. Seems a waste now that I got that far! (OS X 10.4.76, FCP studio pro, G4.)

> Can I bring one of my old DVD burns into my FCP5 and work on it again?

Yes, though you'll lose a LOT of quality, since you were putting your media onto super-compressed MPEG-2 and then recompressing it yet again. To extract from a video DVD, you have to use MPEG Streamclip. A better way would be to recapture your original clips from tape and reconstruct the edit using your old project file.

DVDxDV and Streamclip can both "rip" your old burns back to something Final Cut will recognize.

DVDxDV is much easier to use, but it cost money.

You also need to know that compressing video for a DVD is a destructive process. DVDs never look quite as good as the original show export, and ripping the DVD sends you through that process twice.

DVDs are not good for archival storage. You may find that you can put a new fresh graphic into the show and it won't match the graphics that were already there.

Koz

You are right. I'll use the tape. Of course-about the compression! Forgot that.