Convert mpg/m4v/mts/mod video to mp4/mov for importing to imovie

"I'm having some problems getting my mpg video files to import into imovies. I've uprgaded to mountain lion and the latest version of imovies but everytime I try to import the files from my external hard drive imovies get's stuck when it starts to optimize the video, nothing happens. I then have to close the application. The video files play and sound fine through quick time on my mac directly from the external hard drive, but just won't seem to import into imovies."

What is MPG file? How to play it? How to import mpg to imovie?

MPG format has two different video encoding standards, MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. It means an .mpg file is a video file compressed with MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video codec. MPEG is video format used for storing movies in a highly compressed and storage efficient manner. MPG is a popular lossy video file format, compatible with most hardware devices and software programs. MPG is widely viewed as the standard for compression, and despite its status as a lossy compression format, still retains a high enough quality to support applications like web, cable, and digital TV and digital radio broadcasting.

To play MPG video you can use QuickTime and Windows Media Player, besides these, MPG files can be opened with Apple iTunes, most Roxio products, Cyberlink video players and many independent video players such as the VLC media player(This free software plays back most multimedia formats, including MPG, even if the file is damaged. The program is designed to handle almost any kind of audio or video file, regardless of how it was produced).

To import mpg to imovie for editing, you can get a video converter, like Doremisoft video converter for mac, it will help to convert most of video format to the format you need, to import into imovie, you can choose to convert video to mov, mp4, dv, etc.

With this converter, import video to imovie will be easy, nomatter what video format you can convert it, for example if you want to import avchd to imovie you can convert mts to imovie, if you get MOD file, just convert mod to imovie. Sometimes you can not import m4v into imovie, but you can use this software to convert the video.

To convert video to iMovie, the conversion is simple:
Get the video converter install into your Mac, then run it, after that, click "Add File" to load the video you need to convert into the converter.

Then set the output format for iMovie, just click the "Convert to" menu bar to choose "iMovie H.264(*.mp4)" or "iMovie ProRes(*.mov)" from "iMovie".

Then you can hit "Convert" button to start the conversion.