MPEG Streamclip is a powerful high-quality video converter, player, editor for MPEG, QuickTime, transport streams, iPod. And now it is a DivX editor and encoding machine, and even a stream and YouTube downloader.

You can use MPEG Streamclip to: open most movie formats including MPEG files or transport streams; play them at full screen; edit them with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Trim; set In/Out points and convert them into muxed or demuxed files, or export them to QuickTime, AVI, DV and MPEG-4 files with more than professional quality, so you can easily import them in Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro, Toast 6, 7, 8, and use them with many other applications or devices.
Supported input formats: MPEG, VOB, PS, M2P, MOD, VRO, DAT, MOV, DV, AVI, MP4, TS, M2T, MMV, REC, VID, AUD, AVR, VDR, PVR, TP0, TOD, M2V, M1V, MPV, AIFF, M1A, MP2, MPA, AC3, ...

Download MPEG Streamclip 1.9.1 for Mac OS X
To install MPEG Streamclip, simply drag it into your Applications folder. A complete user's guide is included in the application. You can read it with the Help menu.

This free software requires at least Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) and QuickTime 6. It is also compatible with Mac OS X 10.3.x (Panther), Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) and QuickTime 7. It works with PowerPC and Intel based Macs.

For MPEG-2 playback and conversion, you need the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component. You can buy it from Apple (www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2). If you have either Final Cut Pro or DVD Studio Pro, then the component is already installed and you don't have to buy it; but you may need to download the latest version from Apple. If you bought an older version of the component, you can update it to the latest version (www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/update). Note that the MPEG-2 component is neither required nor useful for MPEG-1 or MPEG-4 files. But it is required for VOB files and transport streams, because they are MPEG-2 files.

For DivX playback and editing, you have to install DivX (www.divx.com/divx/mac).
You can also install another codec like 3ivx (www.3ivx.com) or XviD (n.ethz.ch/student/naegelic), but  only with DivX 6.5 and later (or DivX 5.2.1) you can encode DivX files with MP3 audio.

For FLV playback and export, you can download and install Perian (www.perian.org).

For WMV playback, you can install Flip4Mac WMV Player (www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm). If you also need to export WMV files to another format you have to buy Flip4Mac WMV Player Pro.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR WMV EXPORT: if you want to export to WMV with Export to Other Formats, the free Flip4Mac WMV Player stops at 30 seconds; for full length export you have to buy Flip4Mac WMV Studio (www.flip4mac.com/wmv_studio.htm).

MPEG Streamclip lets you play and edit QuickTime, DV, AVI, MPEG-4, MPEG-1; MPEG-2 or VOB files or transport streams with MPEG, PCM, or AC3 audio (MPEG-2 playback component required); DivX (with DivX 6) and WMV (with Flip4Mac WMV Player). MPEG Streamclip can export all these formats to QuickTime, DV/DV50, AVI/DivX and MPEG-4 with high quality encoding and even uncompressed or HD video.

Video conversion is performed in the YUV color space; you can choose to scale video to any frame size using a professional 2D-FIR scaler (better than bicubic) but you can also leave it unscaled. Other optional video processing features include a powerful motion-adaptive deinterlacer, a field dominance converter, a chroma reinterlacer and an option to perform interlaced scaling instead of progressive scaling. Audio can be converted to uncompressed or to IMA, AAC, MP2 or AMR using the high-quality MP1/MP2/AC3/PCM built-in decoders of MPEG Streamclip; it is also kept in perfect sync with video using a timekeeping system.

MPEG Streamclip can save edited movies as MOV files, and (when possible) as AVI or MP4 files. Edited MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 files are saved as MPEG or TS files.

MPEG Streamclip (with or without the MPEG-2 Playback Component) can also convert MPEG-2 transport streams into muxed MPEG-2 files, for immediate burning at full quality with Toast 6 or 7 and Sizzle; it can also demux MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 files and transport streams with MPEG, AC3, PCM audio to M2V and AIFF (or M1A or AC3) files, for immediate burning at full quality with DVD Studio Pro or Toast 6 and 7. A special demuxing option is available for Final Cut Pro 4/5: this application does not work well with M2V files, but MPEG Streamclip can write a special "unscaled" M2V file that preserves full video quality when imported into Final Cut Pro.

MPEG Streamclip can handle files and streams larger than 4 GB, split in any number of segments, or with multiple audio tracks, and can also optionally handle timecode breaks. It is compatible with MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, MPEG layer 1/2 (MP1/MP2) audio, AC3/A52 audio, and PCM audio.

The player included in MPEG Streamclip lets you preview the files and transport streams before doing the conversion; it also lets you visually set the In and Out points for the conversion so you can convert just the part of the file you are interested in, and also cut commercials and other unwanted parts, or edit the stream and join two streams with Cut/Copy/Paste.

MPEG Streamclip supports batch processing: just drag some files in the batch list, choose a conversion and a folder, click the Go button and MPEG Streamclip will automatically convert all your files.

MPEG Streamclip supports the DreamBox DM7000/DM5620/DM500 and the DM7020 (www.dream-multimedia-tv.de), and the Topfield TF5000PVR/TF5000PVRt/TF5500PVR (www.topfield.co.kr), two important families of DVB set-top boxes (all digital satellite receivers, except the TF5000PVRt which is terrestrial and supports DVB-T); two powerful connection tools for these devices have been developed and included in MPEG Streamclip. You'll no longer need to use FTP, mount SMB disks, or use MacTF to download and upload files: MPEG Streamclip does this for you. For the Topfield, you can even upload TAP files (you can find TAPs here: www.topfield.cc). And for the DreamBox DM7000, there is also a multiboot tool that lets you install firmware images in an external USB stick.

MPEG Streamclip is also compatible with most MPEG-2 devices that use program or transport stream files, including FireWire MPEG-2 devices like Sony IP7/MicroMV, Sony HDR-FX1 (www.sony.com) and JVC GR-HD1 camcorders; DVHS recorders; FireWire/Ethernet/USB set-top boxes or digital video recorders, like EyeTV (www.elgato.com), ReplayTV, the Samsung SIR-T16, the Humax PVR-8000, the Homecast, the Technisat S2 and the Siemens M740 AV; USB cameras like Panasonic SV-AV100, Sony T1 and JVC Everio (www.jvc.com); DVD camcorders like Panasonic VDR-M70 and Hitachi DZ-MV230. MPEG Streamclip is also compatible with most DVD recorders, since it can open and convert unencrypted VOB or VRO files, and supports AC3 audio.

You can import transport stream files from FireWire MPEG-2 devices using DVHSCap or VirtualDVHS, two free applications available from Apple as part of the FireWire SDK 20 (developer.apple.com/sdk). NOTE: the latest FireWire SDK is not publicly available, please scroll down the list until you find the FireWire SDK 20, or click this direct download link from Apple: FireWire SDK 20. Install the package and you will find DVHSCap and VirtualDVHS in /Developer/FireWireSDK20/Applications/.

MPEG Streamclip is compatible with iMovie 3, 4, 5, 6. If you want to know how to use MPEG Streamclip with iMovie, you can look at Matti Haveri's "SVCD on a Macintosh" (www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html). In the same page you will also find: how to extract MPEG files from a VCD or SVCD; how to extract a frame from a DVD; and many more MPEG facts.

French users will find useful information in the Mac-Vidéo forum (forum.mac-video.fr); adesir, the forum administrator, is the French translator of MPEG Streamclip.