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Level 1

4 points

Why won't my mpeg import into imovie?

Hi,
Just got a new macbookpro 17inch. Liking it but having to learn the switch to mac. I have an mpeg file i want to try to resize, but imovie doesn't seem to recognize it at all. I thought macs were supposed to be the computers where everything just worked. Why won't it let me take this in? I thought mpegs were fairly common and quicktime has no problem opening it. Am I using the wrong program? Do I need to go back onto my ancient Toshiba and use Windows Movie Maker just to resize a video?

macbook pro 17 inch, 2.6 Ghz, 2 gig ram, Mac OS X (10.5.2)

Posted on Mar 26, 2008 3:01 AM

Best reply

Jon Walker

Level 6

19,467 points

Posted on Mar 26, 2008 5:41 AM

Why won't it let me take this in?

Because multiplexed files like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, VOB, Flash, etc. employ a somewhat different form of technology. They are essentially a single stream of data in which the various components are spatially synchronized by placing them in interspersed physical blocks of data while QT content normally consists of parallel tracks of data which are temporally synchronized to a common arbitrary unit of time.

I thought mpegs were fairly common and quicktime has no problem opening it.

MPG (i.e., muxed MPEG-1) files are "Playback Only" supported by QT. That means the files can be played (assuming they are properly terminated and have no "timecode breaks") in QT but cannot be edited nor converted (without loss of audio) by QT applications. "Muxed" MPEG files (usually MPEG-2 video multiplexed with MP2 audio), VOB files (usually MPEG-2 video multiplexed with AC3 or PCM audio), and M2V (MPEG-2 video)/AIFF (Linear PCM audio) paired elementary data streams are normally not supported at all unless the user has purchased and installed the QT MPEG-2 Playback component. And even then AC3 audio is not "natively" QT supported as a "muxed" option. Thus, while MPEG-1 and MPEG2 files are fairly common, they are not a normal based on QT technology as embedded in the QT core structure.

Am I using the wrong program? Do I need to go back onto my ancient Toshiba and use Windows Movie Maker just to resize a video?

That would likely depend on what you mean by "resize a video." QT Pro will allow you to re-scale the dimensions of either an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 file without having to re-compress the file. The normal QT Player will allow you to temporarily change the display size of a playing MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 file but not save these changes. On the other hand, if by "resize" you are referring to the storage size of the file, then you would need an MPEG-based, third party application in order to re-compress the file to either a different compression format or the same compression format but using a lesser data rate. Since iMovie '08 is an editing application and MPEG-1/2 file are not editable in it, then "Yes", you are using the wrong application.

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19 replies

Mar 31, 2008 9:46 PM in response to rainsong23

I might have another solution that seems to work for me.
I am a newcomer to the wonderful Mac World (old PC user) and I have had the same problem since I bought my Macbook Pro approx. a month ago.
This is what I have come up with so far and this is free since I spent some money on the computer I didn't really want to buy a new program the first thing I did (wife probably wouldn't be to happy).
I downloaded the free (and excellent) media player VLC http://www.videolan.org/ and while playing your Mpeg file you go to File - Streaming/exporting wizard, you choose transcode/save to file and click next. Choose "Existing playlist item" and find your Mpeg file that is playing and click next. now I choose Transcode video - MPEG 4 and Transcode audio - MPEG 4 and clicked next. On the next screen I made sure that the MPEG 4 option was marked and then clicked next. Choose where to save the file (I seem to have problems when I used the old location and just changed name so for each new file I would go in and choose the location that seems to take care of the problem). Then I click next and then Finish. It did this pretty quick I tried it with a smaller file and it does it faster then real time (I guess it depends on your computer). After this I had an MPEG 4 file that can be imported direct in to Imovie 8 or you can burn it direct to a DVD in IDVD 8. I don't know how important the quality of the video is for you but it was good enough for me anyway. I should also mention that this also worked with an AVI file (Haven't tried WMV files yet). I hope that this will help you.

Have a good one.

Mar 31, 2008 9:52 PM in response to rainsong23

rainsong23 Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 6, 2008 6:26 AM in response to BigSwede68

thanks everyone for all the useful info. I really love the way this mac forum is set up with a "my questions" section. I'm a bit too busy to really get to this thing right now, but when I get a moment I've got all the pertinent info to check up on right at my fingertips.

rainsong23 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 7, 2008 12:28 AM in response to Brandon Howard1

ok I've bought the visual hub and tried converting into several different file types as mentioned, but none of them will open inside imovie. This is really frustrating.

Why won't my mpeg import into imovie?