I'm looking at playing my videos from my handycam on my mac mini on the tv. I have seen that there is a mpeg-2 codec you can buy for quicktime that also plays .vro's (the other format my camera does).

Does anyone know if it works when playing it as a file in frontrow? I have heard it doesn't work in imovie....

Also does anyone have any other suggestions to play mpg's or vro's on mac without converting the file and loosing video quality?

Thanks in advance.. Bec

Get MPEG Streamclip. Demux the file to M2V and (one of a choice of) Audio file. Open in Quicktime. Wait anything from 10 seconds to over a minute. Save as Quicktime Reference movie in same folder as demuxed files. Using Front Row, play the Quicktime ref. movie and it should start instantly and play perfectly, as opposed to possibly freezing Front Row.

Have Fun.

Hi, thanks for the reply. Sorry for my slow response, I didn't think anyone replied as I didn't get a mail notification.

I ended up buying the mpeg-2 plugin for quicktime and yes it works in frontrow, however things aren't perfect

I use my mac as my htpc so i don't really want to have to convert all movie files as i create them on the mac. Infact my mac doesn't even take the minidvds as they get stuck in the slot. So I have to copy the folder from my pc to my mac to watch them on the tv. However I will play around with what you've suggested to see if i can get it to work there....

Anyway, now I have the problem where the .vro files play fine in VLC, but in quicktime/frontrow they are sped up, have no sound and only the first part of my video is played then it ends..... any idea's?

It plays avi's etc fine as i have the perian codec....

thanks in advance.. Bec

I don't know exactly about .vro files, whether they will open in MPEG Streamclip or not. What I have found even with the MPEG-2 plugin for Quicktime, is that certain MPEG-2 media won't play properly in the Quicktime Player, which is why I use MPEG Streamclip. That program can split the file into the video and audio components, which for some reason Quicktime can use more effectively, just with the downside of increased time taken to open the file (during which time Quicktime player becomes completely unresponsive). Hence the suggestion of saving as a Quicktime Reference file, which for some reason overcomes the lag of opening, and you can alter (using -J video properties) the Video aspect ratio in case for some reason it is squished or stretched (e.g: 16:9 SD video appears to be 720 by 404 pixels for me).

Bleargh. I hope that made some sense because by the end it wasn't making sense for me.

I just thought i would get back to you and thank you for your suggestion...

I have been fiddling with mpeg streamclip and i see I can get it for windows too. This is perfect for me. I have had a play with it on my mac (on the floor infront of the tv - not the best place for modifying video files) and I see it works and does what I want....

I am currently getting it for my windows, though it only wants quicktime alternative or for me to buy the mpeg2 plugin for quicktime on windows (forget that as i've already unnecessarily bought it for my mac!). Hopefully I can do all of my editing on windows machine and copy over the finished file to play on mac... could have saved myself $40

And yes, mpeg streamclip does accept vro files that are outputted by my camera...

Hopefully this will all work Thanks again - Bec

Glad to hear all's going well. Have Fun