how do i import a .mpg file into iMovie

If you have the latest version of Apple's operating system, Lion, and you can find the video clip, wherever it is, right click on it, go down to the bottom of the resulting menu, and when you see services, click that, and you will see "encode to use with apple devices" or something similar.

Using this lets you transcode the video into something Apple can use.

This is the dialog box that comes up when you <CTRL> + click on a .mpg file and choose: Encode Selected Video Files. If you want to then save it to the desktop or somewhere to find it easily, uncheck the box Same as source file and choose the Desktop or wherever you like in the Destination: pulldown menu. It worked for me just now moving a file from .mpg to .m4v

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2410950

The above link talks about the problem and how one person was able to use Streamclip to work with the files. I know nothing about Muxed audio so I am just passing it along.

Hugh

I think I found the solution (at least for me):

Lennert_S

I had the same problem, that these options weren’t in my context menu and also couldn’t be found under the services. But for some reason when I log in with a different user, the options were there…

What I did, I went to “/System/Library/Services/” and there the two ‘workflows’ were.
I copied them and placed them into “/Users/(me)/Library/Services”. Attention, for some reason the Library folder is now hidden in Lion, but you can still access it via the “go to folder” function (cmd+shift+g) and typing in the path, for example “/Users/Tom/Library/”.

After copying the files I had the questioned options active in my services, and they were already checked and in my context menu.

My thoughts to the problem: inside the Library folder of my other user account (where these options were already available) was no “Services” folder.
Maybe this “bug” only happens, when you have custom user-specific services installed – in my case it was my “EspionageMenue.service”, which was only installed on my regular user account, but not on the other one.

Hope this helps someone else as well =)

Cheers, L

I didn't have any trouble converting .mpg, but I have several programs that somehow might be helping. I think if you get another example of a .mpg and do the services-encode thing, you will find that everything works. But if not, maybe the next paragraph might help.

It wouldn't hurt to download VLC, Mpegstreamclip, and Perian, all free as far as I know. As far as I know, they have all the codecs that are available.

Maybe there is someone who has more experience with all this than me who can weigh in, but I have no trouble converting .mpg in Lion.

Hugh

I've done this with several different MPG files and every time now the video converts perfectly but without any audio. I've got no idea what I need to do.

The clip works fine and has audio on my PC I'm confused.

I just upgraded to Lion because of this advice (and it was about time), but I don't see any of these Services options when I right click. I have a mpg on my Desktop that is playable through Quicktime, etc., but won't go into iTunes, iMovie, or iPhoto...

Thanks for any advice!

Adam

MPG or MPEG is the short form of Moving Pictures Experts Group, includes MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4. iMovie only imports .mpg encoded with MPEG-4. If we import .mpg encoded with MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 to iMovie, it will end in fail.

You may try this method to import all kinds of MPG to iMovie

Hope it also helps for you.

I'm still using Snow Leopard. I tried the right-click encode method and got video with no audio. But when I tried opening it in Quicktime and selecting File…Export…, then chose "movie" I got both video and audio. There were lots of other choices (480p, 780p, etc.) I just picked "movie" and got an mov file that seems to work.

Note, there is another selection on my version of Quicktime player that says Export To… and you can pick iMovie. That didn't work for me.

Hey! Thanks, this worked with OSX El Capitan 10.11.6 on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)!

But u got to select the video files within Finder and then click on "Finder" -> Services" -> "Encode Selected Video Files"

Use MPEG Streamclip to convert it to DV.

(61540)

If you have Lion, you can convert by selecting clip, go to services, convert clip.

Hugh

I can't see services when i open up the file in finder.

I'm new to mac so need as much help as I can get.

Thanks

Thanks very much for this.

For some reason the files don't have any audio when they convert.

Any ideas why?

no idea. Are you sure that the original clip had audio?

Hugh