.mod into iMovie? NOT the same old question...

hi guys, recent mac convert here, but very frustrated. please read carefully, this is not just another .mod to imovie question.

i've tried to explain in detail what happened to me. maybe something in the sequence of events caused my issue... 😟

ok, i have a load of vids from jvc everio originally saved on pc as .mods. i changed file extensions to .mpg so i could use them. no problem.

had my imac a few months and decided to revisit the old vids and edit them in imovie.

1) realised i could not import the mpgs to imovie, so i used handbrake to convert mpg to mp4 (if i remember rightly), then imported to imovie. worked, but handbrake took a looongg looonngg time. i think the file size was much bigger too, not sure now.

2) found a fix on this forum where i created an archive exactly same folder structure as jvc camera has. changed a couple of the mpgs back to mods and imported successfully. happy days. did it much much quicker than using handbrake to convert first.

3) had to close imovie and restart every time i did one though so i could organise the events one at a time easily. but no problem.

ok, so everything absolutely fine. until...

at some point imovie imported iphoto vids. after that, imovie crashed on startup with a message about one particular iphoto vid and asking if i should ignore it or not. i tried yes and no options hundreds of times. no joy.

i also deleted the com.apple.iMovieApp.plist several times following advice i found here also. no luck.

4) i discovered that a handful of the iphoto vids were avi's. i deleted (moved) them from iphoto and (at last) i got imovie started again. maybe this tip alone will help solve someone else's problem?

5) went back to my 'fake' camera archive, dumped a couple of .mods in, tried to import as before, imovie crashes. every time. every single time.

6) imovie does not import the clip, it hangs on importing thumbnails. i checked the .mods were ok by changing back to .mpg and playing in mplayerx. everything fine. interestingly, in imovie import window, it shows the clips as 0s and some of them it allows me to play in preview but without sound, others just crash imovie it the moment i press play in that preview pane.

ok, what else i have i tried:

7) deleted imovie and re-installed (shut down imac first and re-booted before re-installing). does exactly the same. i should note here that imovie works fine with the movies previously imported. it is just the camera archive .mods that have stopped getting imported.

8) i have tried renaming the files with various combinations, e.g. MOV1A1.MOD, MOV6F2.MOD etc., etc.. - important point here is that this is what i did first with no issues. it appeared i could name them anything as long as i copied the number/letter/number format, and they imported without issue.

so here i am, 3 days in, my back is killing me sitting at this computer with barely no sleep. this is madness!

can someone please tell me how to trick my imovie back into accepting the .MODS via the camera archive scenario?

or what i've done wrong to cause all this grief?

one thing i haven't tried is to put the files back on camera. well i did try and i couldn't work out how to do it. thought maybe if i just imported via usb, as i have done without issue, it would accept my older files. but like i say, i could not do it.

one last thing - all the .MODS were done with same jvc everio camera.

anyone out there able to help me? please?

mike