Does iMovie support MPEG-2

andy.lawrence wrote:
Wondering if iMoive supports MPEG-2 files?

No. mpeg2 as files is not supported.
Yes. mpeg2, coming from HDDcorders or 'wrapped' as .vob from DVDcorders is supported.

iM09 is no 'all purposes/all codecs' editor, but meant for camcorder input. therefor, the automatic conversion mechanisms work only with such devices.
but you can 'fake' a camcorder, to make iM believe, the mp2 is coming from a camcorder.. 😉

When I bought my Sony HandyCam I took it to the Apple store - they were able to read and play audio & video.

I fiddled with MPEG Streamclip and the Mpeg-2 Codec - ugly and slow transforming but it works.

Then I tried to import directly to iMovie - loaded the contents of the camera by clicking the VideoCamera icon - it worked like a dream - audio and video.

I located the .MOV files in the iMovie event folder - they play in Quicktime player on my computers - of course I have Apples Mpeg-2 codec but the file only identifies itself as .MOV files.

I copied a .MOV from iMovie to another Mac and it wouldn't play. iMovie will Export as .MOV or other formats - these take a lot of time but work.