What kind of MPEG-2 does iMovie support?

This method of fooling a iMovie into thinking my memory stick was a camera is genius. Thank you!

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but there is a slightly easier way. It omits having to make a disk image with Disk Utility. You make the same nested folder structure as on your camera and you leave it at that. Then in iMovie you go File/Import/Camera Archive and it should work the same.

If you have a camera, you can test what the folder structure should be.Make a small video clip and attach the camera with iMove running.

When the import from camera window pops up, down at the bottom left there will be a little button "Archive all". Hit this and then a "save" dialogue will open Save this some where like the desktop(apple doesn't recomend iMovie's events or projects folders 'cause it can slow down iMovie).

Now you can examine this "camera archive" folder structure.

My structure was Sony/DCIM/101MSDCF/xxx.MPG, but I think you can get away with naming the Sony part anything.

To import the MPG files into iMovie goto File/Import/Camera Archive and locate you folder.

I did a test using a BBC program in MPEG2. I put it into the folder and it imported it.

As I newish Mac user I can not understand why Apple has "crippled" their video software with this lack of support for MPEG2. Its an aspect of Apple that I am becoming wary of now. Like the absence of Flash on the iPhone and iPad. I read some where that the reason for the MPEG2 omission was to help promote QuickTime's own file and codec system.

As I newish Mac user I can not understand why Apple has "crippled" their video software with this lack of support for MPEG2.

What has iMovie got to do with mpeg2?

mpeg2 is the final compressed delivery format of a DVD, not intended for editing. To do so entails 'reverse engineering' the mpeg 2 folder to convert it back to a DV stream which involves quality loss.

"+What has iMovie got to do with mpeg2?+"

Well, I don't just mean for iMovie, I also mean for Quick Time etc. I find it incomprehsable that the MPEG2 functionaltiy has to be bought as an extra. I can't understand Apple's logic.

How can a free app like VLC provide MPEG2 support, but after shelling out almost 2 grand my Mac can't?

Or take MPEGStreamclip. If I had the Windows version it would have MPEG2 capabilities for free but because the way OS X's MPEG2 capabilities have been crippled the Mac version doesn't have the capabilities.

And as this post shows there is a codec in OS X that allows the importation of MPEG2 but for god-knows-what-reason Apple makes us jump through hoops to access it.

It's a question of licensing of the codec. The following information may be useful to you:

MPEG-2 Playback - Frequently asked questions:

http://images.apple.com/hk/en/quicktime/mpeg2/faq.html

QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component and QT 7.6

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/

"+It's a question of licensing of the codec+"

Well it isn't, really. The idea that after paying almost 2 grand for a new Mac but I still have to cough up more cash for MPEG2 playback component is a bit of a joke.

If Apple wanted to they could have included it. They don't make us buy MP3 playback component licenses. They don't make us cough up more cash to use any number of patented licensed technologies on our computers. Its a premium product with an all in price (or, I thought it was). A bit like British Airways versus Ryanair ( Ryanair is like like Spirit or Southwest Airlines)

Its amazing, because take the Arial font versus the Helvetica font. Microsoft were lambasted for being too cheap to pay for the license to use the Helvetica font in Windows, but instead commissioned the creation the rip-off Arial instead to save a few bucks.

Yet on a Windows system you get MPEG2 playback/encoding. Take the MPEGStreamclip example. Its a free app and on Windows it gives full MPEG2 demux/ remux/encding decoding. Yet it cant do that on a Mac because of the absence of the MPEG2 playback componet.

The question arises why did Apple choose not to bundle the MPEG2 playback component on all Macs? I am of the opinion that it is for Apple's own benefit. It certainly isn't for their customer's benefit. Just like Flash on iPad/iPod which was omitted because of a bust up between Apple and Adobe.

I have my first ever mac about a year now, but I am seeing a side of Apple I didn't know about. They are only too happy to cripple a product to suit their own strategic agenda and to he11 with their customers.

Another example is the bluetooth functionality on the iPhone. It only allows a headset to be linked to the phone. You can't tranfer photos or files from your your iPhone to computer or another bluetooth phone via bluetooth! What kind of insanity is that?
Apple deliberately crippled the bluetooth functionality.(And from a quick go on the iPad I think its the same)

I'm sorry. This has turned into a bit of a rant. It just annoys me.

Im not sure about mpeg-2 and imovie but for me it was an issue with .MTS files and the folder structure as mentioned above.

I spent the entire night and the last week trying to get compatibility of .MTS files shot on a Canon HFS11 into FCE 4 (FCE 4.0.1 to be exact).

I shot 3 months worth of footage on the HFS11 and would daily dump the AVCHD folders into date folders (ie 06 0110, 07 0110, etc etc) for organisation and for space.

PROBLEM

Since I had all the .MTS files off the camera I didnt know if I could use Log and Transfer to bring them into FCE but it is possible. Like other forums many people suggested you had to have the folders exactly like they were on the camera. This is true, unless of course you have deleted some files or if any become corrupt then the structure isnt exactly the same. For me I had deleted any junk files using a fast .MTS viewer (called a windows 7 machine!) without realising it was going to affect the 'import' process in FCE.

SOLUTION

I found that the files in the CLIPINF folder (.CLI files) were matched to the .MTS files in the STREAM folder. So if you delete any .MTS files I guess Log and Transfer reads the INDEX.BDM file or the .CLI files and says hang on, something is different. So I went through my .CLI files and found the names missing from the .MTS files and duplicated a colour bar clip I made and renamed it to the missing files. Viola, and FCE 4 could 'import' them.

Does this help anyone or did everyone already know this!!!

Cc.

I did the exact same thing twice, with two different camera disks, and my file structure looks exactly as yours suggests. No dice. Nothing. The files WILL NOT appear in iMovie.

Kevba's solution for using the USB stick worked great for me! Thanks!