Alternatives to QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component

"I am new to Mac so please forgive my ignorance. I have a Sony video camera which has .mpg files. I wanted to use these files in imovie so I googled how to convert them and came up with MPEG Streamclip. It wiped my MPEG-2 Playback Component. I downloaded it again from the Apple store but when I went to install it told me it was too old for my system. What can I do now?" A question from Apple Communities.

Many QuickTime users would come across playback errors now and then. Actually, QuickTime now only supports a few media file formats, including QTFF (QuickTime File Format), AIFF, WAV, DV-DIF, MP3, and MPEG program stream. With additional QuickTime components like MPEG-2 playback component, QuickTime could recognize ASF, DivX Media Format, Flash Video, Matroska, OGG and others. With the help of these codec component, you could watch almost all media files on QuickTime. The problem is that not a codec component would enable you to play all media files on QuickTime. So, is there any alternative to QuickTime playback component or even QuickTime? This guide would show you some solutions.

Part 1: Brief Introduction to MPEG-2 Playback Component

The QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component provides QuickTime users with the ability to import and play back MPEG-2 content, including both multiplexed (a.k.a. muxed, where the audio and video tracks are interleaved into one track) and nonmultiplexed (a.k.a. elementary) streams.

MPEG-2 is the standard for the digital TV world due to its great performance in video compression. Its wonderful video compression that produces interlaced and progressive videos even allows for backward compatibility with MPEG-1. Meanwhile, the audio encoding is also available in MPEG-2. MPEG-2 audio compression provides for superior bit rates of up to 64kbps. As to the stream performance, MPEG-2 is able to combine different MPEG streams in a single transmission stream.

QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component supports a number of files such as mpg, mpeg, vow, vroom, m2v, m2a, and m2s. Audio files supported by this component are any of the above files that contain audio layer 1 or 2. This component could also play back non-protected DVD discs as well.

As to its disadvantages, any MPEG file that has a PCM, DTS, or AC3 audios are not supported. Meanwhile, any disc with a CSS protection is not supported by this MPEG-2 playback component.

Since MPEG-2 playback component has multiple cons, and some people couldn't even download MPEG-2 playback component on their computer, we would like to recommend 2 alternatives to QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component below.

Part 2: Alternative to QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component – Leawo Blu-ray Player

The first alternative to QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component is Leawo Blu-ray Player, actually an all-inclusive media player that could play back video and audio files of almost all formats, without any need to install any kind of component. Compared to QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component, Leawo Blu-ray Player is more powerful. Firstly, it supports almost all file formats, like WebM, MOV, MP4, DV, AVI, WMV, etc. Secondly, it’s a region free Blu-ray media player that could play back Blu-ray and DVD discs back without being restricted by disc protection and region restriction. There are also other features that you may concern about, like 3D movie playback support, virtual remote controller upon disc menu, etc.

The below steps would show you how to play video files with the help of Leawo Blu-ray Player as alternative to QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component. It has both Windows and Mac versions. So, download and install the corresponding version first.

1. After downloading and installing Leawo Blu-ray Player on your computer, launch it.

2. Click the orange "Add File" button to browse and add source video files into this free Blu-ray player. It would automatically start to play back.

3. To adjust the video, audio and subtitles during playback, just right click on the screen and then choose "Audio settings", "Video settings" and "Subtitles settings" options respectively.

4. You could do more settings upon battery control, skin switch, etc.

It's really easy to play back Blu-ray, DVD, HD video, ISO image file (video) and audio files with Leawo Blu-ray Player. This media player is a totally free alternative to QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component, but much easier and more convenient.

Part 3: Alternative to QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component – Leawo Video Converter

You could also use Leawo Video Converter to convert video files before you could play these video files within QuickTime. Leawo Video Converter is a professional video converter tool that could convert video and audio files between hundreds of formats like MP4, MP3, AVI, FLV, MOV, WMV, etc.

The below steps would show you how to convert video to QuickTime. Download and install Leawo Video Converter on your computer first. Then follow the below guide.

Step 1: Add source movie files

Launch Leawo Video Converter (Leawo Prof. Media on your desktop) and then click the “Video Converter” option on the home interface. After that, click the “Add Video” button on the “Convert” module to browse and add source video files.

Step 2: Set output format

Click the button next to the “Add Photo” button and then choose “Change” option. Go to the “Format > Common Video” group to choose output format. You could choose either MOV Video or MP4 Video since QuickTime is compatible with them.

If you like, you could adjust the output file parameters like video codec, video quality, bit rate, aspect ratio, frame rate, audio codec, sample rate, etc. To do these, click the drop-down option next to "Add Photo" button and then choose "Edit" option. Make these changes according to QuickTime requirements if you want to.

Step 3: Edit video files

This is optional. You could edit source video files before converting them to QuickTime MP4 or MOV videos. Click the "Edit" icon in the end of the loaded video title to enter the editing panel, where you could trim, add image or text watermark, crop, adjust effect, apply 3D effect, and remove video noise.

Step 4: Set output directory

Click the big green “Convert” button on the main interface and then you will see a “Save to” box on the popup sidebar. Set output directory in it.

Step 5: Start converting videos for QuickTime

Finally, hit the bottom “Convert” button to start converting videos for QuickTime.

It will take you a few minutes to finish the conversion. When the conversion finishes, you then will be able to load converted WebM files to QuickTime player for playback or other Apple related software for retouching or sharing.

Conclusion:

These 2 alternatives to QuickTime MPEG-2 playback component would both successfully help you solve format incompatibility issues. You could adopt either of them to play back videos on your computer. Leawo Blu-ray Player helps you solve the playback issue, while Leawo Video Converter helps you solve format incompatibility issues when you want to transfer your videos to iOS devices or upload to YouTube or blog for sharing. Take the one that meets your needs.