Quicktime doesn't play MPG?

[ainjo1919]

I have an MPG file I transferred from my Sony hard disk drive camcorder but Quicktime doesn't let me see the video. A pop up comes up and says, "The movie could not be opened. The file is not a movie file." I don't understand why, and the file is actually Mpeg 2, but it's just named MPG. I also tried opening it up on iMovie but no luck either.

Anything I can do or why doesn't it let me open it? Thanks in advance!

 

[chilipie]

Try downloading MPEG Streamclip, and see if it will open with that.

 

[jackerin]

I don't understand why, and the file is actually Mpeg 2, but it's just named MPG.

That is because Quicktime does not play MPEG-2 out of the box. If you want to play it in Quicktime there's the Quicktime MPEG-2 component you can buy from Apple; you can also use VLC or Mplayer for playback.

 

[Diaresi]

Install Perian

Perian enables QuickTime application support for additional media:
File formats: AVI, DIVX, FLV, MKV, GVI, VP6, and VFW
Video types: MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2, DivX, 3ivx, H.264, Sorenson H.263, FLV/Sorenson Spark, FSV1, VP6, H263i, VP3, HuffYUV, FFVHuff, MPEG1 & MPEG2 Video, Fraps, Snow, NuppelVideo, Techsmith Screen Capture, DosBox Capture
Audio types: Windows Media Audio v1 & v2, Flash ADPCM, Xiph Vorbis (in Matroska), and MPEG Layer I & II Audio, True Audio, DTS Coherent Acoustics, Nellymoser ASAO
AVI support for: AAC, AC3 Audio, H.264, MPEG4, and VBR MP3
Subtitle support for SSA/ASS and SRT

 

[ainjo1919]

Thanks everyone. I'll give some of those a try and let you know if it worked

 

[dguglielmo]

That is because Quicktime does not play MPEG-2 out of the box. If you want to play it in Quicktime there's the Quicktime MPEG-2 component you can buy from Apple; you can also use VLC or Mplayer for playback.

yeah i must say i love VLC. I use it for all my video playback cuz it works w everything pretty much

 

[mkrishnan]

Thanks everyone. I'll give some of those a try and let you know if it worked

It's great to have VLC or Mplayer around, but in terms of basics, you really should get both Perian and the WMV Quicktime Components (aka Flip4Mac). Having these installed will dramatically improve the chances that QT will just play whatever you come across.

 

[dguglielmo]

It's great to have VLC or Mplayer around, but in terms of basics, you really should get both Perian and the WMV Quicktime Components (aka Flip4Mac). Having these installed will dramatically improve the chances that QT will just play whatever you come across.

bleh as much as you need flip4mac to play wmv files within an internet browser it is so glitchy and i hate how with some videos you have to wait till its fully loaded in order for it to play properly... a little off subject but nevertheless it my ten cents

 

[mkrishnan]

It's not perfect... but it's much better than things were before Microsoft made the arrangement to make flip4mac freely available as the official solution. Their WMP for Mac was terrible.