I BOUGHT & downloaded MPEG 2 QT component, where did it go?

If you are running Lion:

From the MPEG Streamclip homepage

The installer of the MPEG-2 Playback Component may refuse to install the component in Lion. Apple states the component is unnecessary in Lion, however MPEG Streamclip still needs it.

To install the component in Lion, please download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta above; inside the disk image you will find the Utility MPEG2 Component Lion: use it to install the MPEG-2 Playback Component in Lion. The original installer's disk image (QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg) is required.

The current versions of MPEG Streamclip cannot take advantage of the built-in MPEG-2 functionality of Lion. For MPEG-2 files you still need to install the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component, which is not preinstalled in Lion. You don't have to install QuickTime 7.

So, I still need to convert it to a type that will be used in iMovie. Would the MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 beta allow that to happen?

Yes, but only if you install the QT MPEG-2 Playback Component you have purchased and that would validate the sale. (Apple is not known to give refunds in this situation since you have no way to verify that the downloaded software was never installed on any system.) As to conversions, MPEG Streamclip (plus the QT MPEG-2 Playback Component) can convert the content to AIC/AIFF, AIC/Uncompressed, H.264/AAC, MPEG-4/AAC, DV/DV, DV/Linear PCM, or any other iMovie edit compatible compression format for which your system is configured, as well as, demultiplex the source content to elementary M2V and AIFF which can then be edited in either QT 7 Pro, GarageBand, or MPEGStreamclip (but not iMovie) without transcoding the video data.

The QT MPEG2 component won't install because it is already on there.

Incorrect. The installer only checks the OS version. In point of fact, the "AppleMPEG2Codec.component" installs in the "~/Library/QuickTime" folder while the "QickTimeMPEG2.component" installs in the "~/System/Library/QuickTime" folder.

I guess I can try the MPEG Streamclip 1.9.3b7 & see if that works.

As previously stated above, the MPEG Streamclip "beta" package includes a utility that will correctly install the QT MPEG-2 Playback component. In addition, the installer package can be installed on a platform having an older OS and then copied to your target Lion system. Snother option would be to use Pacifist to install the component or extract the component for you to manually install yourself. In short, the purchased component is both compatible with Lion and required by "older" apps which rely on QT 7 32-bit support.

I have couple of converters on my Windows computer, may try them.

That is up to you. I prefer to have the QT MPEG-2 Playback component installed on my Lion system for use with QT 7 Pro, MPEG Streamclip, GarageBand, etc.

I installed the Playback component or at least, it indicated it was installed.

How did you install it? What indicator did you receive? Did you in fact look in the "~/System/Library/QuickTime" folder to confirm it was installed?

I went thru the steps given by Appleman1958 & it was working like it should until I attempted to export.

What steps?

I tried MPG4 & mov. A box popped up saying the MPEG2 component was not there on MPEG4 & QuickTime & anything else I tried to export it as.

If it says the component is not installed, then it cannot transcode or demultiplex the "muxed" MPEG-2 video. Once again, physically confirm the component is actually installed in the required location for access by "older" apps.

It was indicating it did not finish but when I looked at folder they were there. So, I tried to import both of those (indiviually) into iMovie. Neither one could be clicked on because they were gray & not black. (why would that be?

Did you physically check on the file using the Finder "Info" window. If the files "did not finish," then they are probably not properly closed and, therefore, cannot be opened in any QT based application. In fact, if the file size is zero or only 4 KB in size, only the file may have been created and no data was actually transcoded by the time the MPEG-2 component was determined to be missing. (I.e., the app cannot transcode the MPEG-2 video if it cannot access the codec which you say the app says is missing.)

did I miss a step?) I am new to Mac, so I may miss some basic things. I have made DVDs with photos on my Windows computer with Memories on TV.

Hard to say if you missed anything since you have never actually said what you did do in terms of the actual steps.

When I put on computer it was .cdr which could not be used in iMovie.

This statement is confusing. You talk about DVDs everywhere else but referenced CDR here which, for me, could actually refer to content burned to a CD-R optical disc as either a VCD (MPEG-1 content which does not require the QT MPEG-2 Playback component) or SVCD (MPEG-2 that does require the component) content. Each of these possibilities has different work flow depending on the files actually contained on the disc or disc image. The actual instuctions provided here by Laus1 and myself are been for VOB files containing "muxed" MPEG-2/AC3 or MPEG-2/PCM compressed data (or the same data in alternative file containers). Please specify exactly what you are trying to do here.

Laus1

Oops! Meant to type "Klaus1" here... Sorry!

If your response was meant for me...

I looked into Macintosh>system>library>QuickTime & found 17 items.

Apple GVAHW.component

Apple Pixlet video.comp

Apple ProRes Decoder.comp

Apple VAH 264 HW.comp

Quartz Composer.resources

QuickTime 3GPP.comp

QT Components.comp

QT Fire Wire DV.comp

QT IIDC Digitizer.comp

QT H264.comp

QT Importers.comp

QT MPEG.comp

QT MPEG2.comp

QT MPEG4.comp

QT Streaming.comp

QT USB VDC Digitizer.comp

QT VR.comp

If "QT MPEG2.comp" refers to this component:

Then it would appear that you indeed have the correct component installed in the proper location.

I then brought up MPEG Streamclip beta & put my DVD in drive. I found Video_TS folder & dragged the .VOB files into Streamclip & when finished, I used FILE/Export using QT to convert files to Apple Intermediate Codec Component (which I saw in Library/QuickTime & also Apple MPEG2 codec.component). I chose to rename file clip & saved it. I opened iMovie & tried to import the file I just saved but they were gray, not black & would not import.

Made a quickie clip of what I do in MPEG Streamclip. Basically, this includes:

1) Dropping one or more non-zero VOB file for a single or multiple titles to the main MPEG Streamclip window.

2) Fix timecode breaks and set in/out points if needed.

3) Select desired export settings (in this case AIC video at 80% quality with uncompressed audio using default settings).

4) Set name and path for target output file.

When the conversion is finished, I test playback in the QT 7 player and add the file to iMovie if needed. Here is a 4 minute video I made minutes ago demonstrating my work flow. If you can't do this, then there is either problem with your computer, its software configuration, or Lion OS 10.7.4 has broken the normal work flow and this is yet another issue with the latest update to be reported to Apple.

http://idisk.me.com/jrwalker4-Public/QuickieVidTut.mp4