Should I be able to see it listed?
That would depend on where you are looking. The QT MPEG-2 Playback component is a playback plug-in component and will be listed as such in the Finder. It is not an export codec, so it will not be list as a target option for conversions. Further, since QT is PS (Program Stream) but not TS (Transport Stream) compatible, it will not handle MOD content even with the MPEG-2 Playback component installed. Luckily, the free MPEG Streamclip application + the QT MPEG-2 Playback component can.
Help!
What you have to do will depend on your son's specific work flow. For instance, if he is trying to edit the content in a current version of iMovie, he would have to convert the MOD file(s) to an iMovie compatible compression format. I, personally, would probably use AIC/AIFF or AIC/Uncompressed for this but other video formats like DV, MJPEG, or H.264 (along with any of the QT compatible audio formats) could be used. Simply use MPEG Streamclip to perform the conversion. If, on the other hand, all he wants to do is trim and merge segments of the content, then that could be done entirely by MPEG Streamclip and saved in the same or converted to a different target compression format when done. (NOTE: if the files are on a compatible camcorder, they can be imported directly to iMovie for editing and avoid the hassel of manual Finder-level conversion.)
