MPEGSTreamclip post Mojave

[danielmak]

I have continued to run Mojave on my main computer because I use MPEGSTreamclip a lot. I tried adding MPEGSTReamclip to a work laptop but the application would not work (crossed out when opening the DMG folder to drag the app to the Applications folder). Is there a workaround to get this program to work on the most recent Mac OS? Many people recommend Handbrake as an alternative but I have not had any luck with that program and my sense is that it re-encodes. MPEGSTreamclip is a golden application so I'd love to keep working with it. I tried to email the developer but his mailbox is full. Thanks in advance for any tips.

[Cyrax9]

Short version: No, MPEGStreamclip hasn't been updated in years and was left behind when Apple abandoned 32–bit Intel Apps. Anything newer than MacOS 10.14 Mojave will not run it as MacOS 10.15 removed the ability to run 32–bit code entirely.

Long version: Your best bet is probably still an old mac running MacOS 10.14 Mojave, even if you have to run it offline if you're absolutely dependent on MPEGStreamclip and its graphical interface. However, having said that, it may be possible to run an older version of MacOS such as 10.13 Sierra or 10.14 Mojave inside of a virtual environment on a newer Intel Mac depending on whether or not your organization has the software/licensing agreements necessary to do so. If you go this route you'll probably want to run 10.13 and not 10.14 as 10.13 is the last version of macOS that fully supports 32–bit apps. (They run in 10.14, but only barely as Apple was in the middle of removing support for them at that time.) If you're on a newer Apple Silicon Mac I'm pretty sure it's either completely impossible or extremely difficult to do as you would need software that could not only virtualize the OS, but also emulate the Intel x86_64 architecture which is much more complicated than simply making an OS run on similar hardware. (I remember reading something about people trying to do this, but it definitely wasn't the kind of experience you want to deal with regularly, and older OSes tend to work better in this kind of setup since they're less complex, used less powerful hardware, and you have to ape the entire system, not just the OS.)

Handbrake should be avoided as it always reencodes and at least in my opinion, reencodes quite poorly. It sounds like you want to just stream copy and avoid reencoding whenever possible. If this is the case, your only real option with the same flexibility (arguably more flexability) in formats and codecs is likely to be learning the command line and using FFMPEG. MP4Box stream copies, but is more limited in codecs and containers it supports and is also a command line tool, Apple's own "Compressor" app supposedly can stream copy, but it doesn't have the same level of codec/container support as FFMPEG although it may be suitable for your needs, and it has a GUI.

Shutter Encoder might be a suitable option for you as well. It's basically a somewhat dumbed down version of FFMPEG with a JavaScript (I think) GUI on it, but I know that it's possible to stream copy with it. If all you're doing is stream copying, this will work just fine and it's free. If you want to use more advanced options in FFMPEG, you should probably learn how to use it directly from the command line (Terminal app) as some of the more advanced features and more obscure codecs may not be offered in Shutter Encoder. (For example, it isn't or at least wasn't possible to encode lossless HEVC in Shutter Encoder even though it was possible directly from FFMPEG. Few people use this feature though, so it wasn't a priority for the Shutter Encoder developer to enable it in the app. I believe it was added after it was requested though.)

And trust me, I understand how you feel about MPEGStreamclip as I still have a machine running 10.14 kind of for the same reason! While it's not just MPEGStreamclip, (there are other 32–bit apps I still use too, including an FLV video player and some old games,) MPEGStreamclip is an app that I still occasionally like to use although I'll admit I'm doing most of what I did in MPEGStreamclip through FFMPEG now.

[danielmak]

Thanks for the reply and apologies for my delayed reply. I meant to reply last week and time got away from me. I have decided to use my work laptop for most things I do and not update this laptop that has 10.14.6 because this computer has everything I need: MPEGStreamclip, a stand alone version of Utorrent, Subler, and MyDVDEDIT. Plus MKVTools and TSMuxer work. I have tried other torrent programs on an updated Mac mini and they are all slow when it comes to uploading so it takes forever for me to reach the share percentage I like to reach and I'm back to the issues I noted about these other programs.

In the end, Apple's constant changing of the OS drives me crazy but not enough to switch to another system. Thanks again for this info.; it was very helpful.