[Machound]

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The article says the "$20 QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component" is required. Is the $29.99 upgrade to QuickTime Pro also required?

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Yes, and the article neglects to mention the $20 QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component is the biggest rip-off at the Apple Store. It's just a rotten piece of software. The codec often fails to do what Apple says it does, which is read MPEG2PS data. MPEG2TS data is specifically excluded from the codec (though it does sometimes work in the context of MPEG Streamclip, as per the article, it crashes just as often.) QuickTime's $20 codec won't ever recognize AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio tracks. When QuickTime's MPEG2 codec does "work" for transcoding MPEG2_PS video to another format, the video quality is usually horrendous.
My advice is to try another solution that doesn't involve QuickTime's many limitations. Several of those are listed above.
MPEG2 handling remains the perpetual Achilles heel of Mac OS X and Quicktime. I've done lots of this and it's always frustrating, notwithstanding many work-arounds. Windows people have the definite edge with MPEG2 handling. Apple keeps dropping the ball with MPEG2 & hoping it will go away, but MPEG2 won't go away anytime soon.
End-users shouldn't have to pull their hair out with time code problems, with A-V sync issues, with digging into obscure and overly complex third party software like ffmpegX, or messing with the command line. MPEG2 is in an awful state of dilapidation on the Mac side... it's frustrating beyond words.

[osteo2001]

A question for you folks: If I originally took my video with my HD DV camcorder and then like everyone else burned it to a dvd; is there a program that can revert it back to 1080i clarity. I have looked at the programs discussed above and the best resolution I have seen is the 720....is that the best there is? Do all of the programs revert to final cut hd express?
thanks

[Chris Breen]

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s there a program that can revert it back to 1080i clarity

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No, that which has been taken out can not be restored. IOW, the video has been encoded for standard DVD playback, thus losing the benefits of the original video. You can't make those benefits return by upsampling the video you pull from the DVD.

[Bruce8]

Re. Apples $20 QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component --
I could find no version number or history information on the Apple site. Does anyone know what version this is, and when it was released?
Is this a case of paying $20 for an old, hardly updated product which (apparently, according to comments) does not always work, and according to Apple site itself, does not work with AC3 audio?
{edit: I found a listing on versiontracker, it lists latest as ver. 7.0, released April 2005}
Even though I like my Mac and Apple software, for video I'd rather have a reliable (and not too expensive, on my budget) video conversion program that does not require command line parameters or multiple component workarounds.
How about an article surveying the options for these sorts of video conversions, and highlighting which solutions do not require you to buy the Apple MPEG2 component?

[quicktimekirk]

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/
Read the FAQ page for the "limitations". The $20 goes to the Moving Pictures Export Group (MPEG) as part of licensing fees.
MPEG-2 is a playback and delivery format. Think of it as a print from a Polaroid camera. You can't make duplicates, edit the image, easily share it with friends or bring it into video editors with conversion.
It is highly compressed. iDVD can place 26 GB's of DV formated material onto one disc and that is why your conversions look so poor.
MPEG-2 is going away and Apple didn't "ignore" it. It help author the MPEG-4 industry standards in conjunction with the MPEG folks and they ratified new MPEG-4 specifications in 1998. We are seeing some of these new "features" in our Apple software and MPEG-4 can be edited without third part tools.
Pull you hair out if you want. The format was never intended for conversions in the first place.
To the other poster:
QuickTime Pro is not required and MPEG Streamclip is free software.

[sjk]

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MPEG-2 is going away and Apple didn't "ignore" it.

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MPEG-2 isn't going away any time soon but it's understandable why Apple doesn't want to overly encourage its usage.