How to use the Quicktime MPEG-2 component

[tealgrey]

I am trying to create a DVD. Last year I purchased the QuickTime mpeg-2 playback software component from the Apple website. I was using the program called "MPEG Streamclip" so that I could edit some video clips I had on my computer and ultimately create this DVD. The problem is, my MPEG Streamclip doesn't seem to support export to MPEG-2 even though I bought the Quicktime MPEG-2 component from the Apple website. The export to MPEG and "Convert to TS" is grayed out. Why would this be?

My video is a quicktime video that was encoded with the MPEG-4 codec from another editing program called HyperEngine-AV. But I also had this same problem with another quicktime video I had made from imovie earlier. MPEG Streamclip doesn't seem to be able to convert these videos to MPEG-2. I just thought it would be nice if MpegStreamclip could export to Mpeg-2 and create the necessary audio_TS files and the video_TS files ready to burn to a video DVD.

I am not an expert at this but I thought that in order to create a DVD, the video must be able to be exported as an MPEG-2 file.

The name of the component I purchased was:
QT 6 MPEG-2 PLAYBACK-MAC OS X-INT
(it downloads as: QuickTimeMPEG2.pkg)

And so to check that I have installed the Quicktime MPEG-2 component correctly I would like to ask:
Where should Quicktime MPEG-2 component be installed on a Mac?
Here is where it is on my Mac:
nameofharddrive/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeMPEG2.component
nameofharddrive/System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeMPEG2.component
Are these the correct locations for it?

What might I be doing incorrectly?

Thank you for any suggestions,

[tomlee59]

Are you using the latest version of the Component? There have been several updates over the lifetime of the code, to enable operation with newer versions of QT, Intel Macs, etc. If you haven't updated, try that first, then see where things stand.

[Case]

my MPEG Streamclip doesn't seem to support export to MPEG-2. The export to MPEG and "Convert to TS" is grayed out. Why would this be?

The $20 Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component is not an MPEG-2 encoder, but decoder only. It allows QuickTime-based apps to read MPEG-2 video.

[tealgrey]

Thanks tomlee59 and Case for this helpful information. tomlee59, because of your advice, I updated my MPEG-2 Playback Component - thanks for this advice!

But regardless of this update, I obviously had a misunderstanding about this plug-in. Case is right. Thanks Case. The Quicktime MPEG-2 Playback Component is not an MPEG-2 encoder, but a decoder only. I wasn't aware of this.

I was misled last year by someone who suggested to me that if I purchase this MPEG-2 Playback Component, I would be able to encode my videos into MPEG-2. That was incorrect advice. I was using the video editor called "MPEG Streamclip" and was hoping I could convert my MPEG-4 videos into MPEG-2 (so that I could put them onto a DVD) because I had purchase the MPEG-2 Playback Component. Case is right - it doesn't work because the MPEG-2 Playback Component doesn't encode - it only decodes.

Thanks Case and tomlee59!

[tomlee59]

Hi tealgrey,

The MPEG2 component allows streamclip to export to other formats from MPEG2 (as well as allow streamclip to edit MPEG2 files). You apparently want to go the other direction, from MP4 to MPEG2.

That being the case, perhaps you could give ffmpegx a try. Or if you are able to run Windows on your Mac, you could use any of a number of Windows tools. An easy one is Quick Media Converter (which is free), which is the rough equivalent of ffmpegx, in that it is a do-all multimedia Swiss Army Knife. It will pretty much convert any format into any other format.

[rumplestiltskin]

Why not use iDVD? Just drop the mp4 file into the iDVD window and it will begin encoding to MPEG2 immediately. When done, "save as disk image". Then burn the ".dmg" file it produces using Disk Utility. I know you can burn directly but, if you do the disk image first, it eliminates a bad burn from requiring a whole new encoding process.

Let us know how it goes.