I have mpg files that won't work...any ideas?

Question

I have MPG files from an old video camera.  I want to be able to view them on my macbook, and also make a DVD of the old movies.
When I plugged my camera into the macbook the files were MPG, and quicktime would not play.  Questions are....should I download
the quicktime MPEG-2 component for Mac OS X? ( AND OR )should I try to convert the files to a diff kind...ie...MOV or MPEG-4? 
Thanks

Answer 1

I have MPG files from an old video camera.  I want to be able to view them on my macbook, and also make a DVD of the old movies.
Use iMovie '08/'09 to import the MPG (MPEG-2/AC3) files to your hard drive directly from your camcorder. This should convert the MPEG-2 video to edit compatible all I-frame MPEG-2 content, as well as, convert the AC3 audio to edit compatible AIFF lineral PCM audio and place them both in an MOV file container. This combination can then be edited in iMovie, played and/or converted by most QT apps to other compression formats or imported to iDVD for reconversion for authoring back to burnable DVD content.
If you files are already on your hard drive and cannot be imported directly to iMovie from the camcorder, then you can use Handbrake to convert the files to MPEG-4 or X264/H.264 video with AAC audio for playback, editing, or authoring to DVD. Otherwise your best bet is to purchase the QT MPEG-2 Playback component ($19.99) and use the free MPEG Streamclip app to convert your MPG files to DV, AIC, Photo-JPEG, Motion-JPEG, or QT edit compatible video format and any edit compatible audio format for playback, editing, and/or authoring as a DVD,