1. What are MPEG files?
2. How to play MPEG files on Mac?
3. How to convert MPEG to MP4, AVI, MPEG, etc. on Mac?
4. How to rip DVD to MPEG on Mac?

Part 1, What are MPEG files?

MPEG (pronounced M-peg), which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group, is the name of a family of standards used for coding audio-visual information (e.g., movies, video, music) in a digital compressed format.

The major advantage of MPEG compared to other video and audio coding formats is that MPEG files are much smaller for the same quality. This is because MPEG uses very sophisticated compression techniques.

When you have come into possession of a file with an .MPG or .MPEG extension, you usually have either MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 video. MPEG-1 video is used on VideoCD (VCD) discs and MPEG-2 video is used on Super VideoCD (SVCD) and DVD discs.

The MPEG standards consist of different Parts. Each part covers a certain aspect of the whole specification. The standards also specifies Profiles and Levels. Profiles are intended to define a set of tools that are available, and Levels define the range of appropriate values for the properties associated with them. MPEG has standardized the following compression formats and ancillary standards:

• MPEG-1: is the first compression standard for audio and video. It was basically designed to allow moving pictures and sound to be encoded into the bitrate of a Compact Disc. To meet the low bit requirement, MPEG-1 downsamples the images, as well as using picture rates of only 24-30 Hz, resulting in a moderate quality. It includes the popular Layer 3 (MP3) audio compression format.
• MPEG-2: Transport, video and audio standards for broadcast-quality television. MPEG-2 standard was considerably broader in scope and of wider appeal--supporting interlacing and high definition. MPEG-2 is considered important because it has been chosen as the compression scheme for over-the-air digital television ATSC, DVB and ISDB, digital satellite TV services like Dish Network, digital cable television signals, SVCD, and DVD.
• MPEG-3: Developments in standardizing scalable and multi-resolution compression which would have become MPEG-3 were ready by the time MPEG-2 was to be standardized; hence, these were incorporated into MPEG-2 and as a result there is no MPEG-3 standard. MPEG-3 is not to be confused with MP3, which is MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3.
• MPEG-4: MPEG-4 uses further coding tools with additional complexity to achieve higher compression factors than MPEG-2.[10] In addition to more efficient coding of video, MPEG-4 moves closer to computer graphics applications. In more complex profiles, the MPEG-4 decoder effectively becomes a rendering processor and the compressed bitstream describes three-dimensional shapes and surface texture. MPEG-4 also provides Intellectual Property Management and Protection (IPMP) which provides the facility to use proprietary technologies to manage and protect content like digital rights management. Several new higher-efficiency video standards (newer than MPEG-2 Video) are included (an alternative to MPEG-2 Video), notably:
• MPEG-4 Part 2 (or Advanced Simple Profile) and MPEG-4 Part 10 (or Advanced Video Coding or H.264). MPEG-4 Part 10 may be used on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, along with VC-1 and MPEG-2.
• In addition, the following standards, while not sequential advances to the video encoding standard as with MPEG-1 through MPEG-4, are referred to by similar notation:
  MPEG-7: A multimedia content description standard.
  MPEG-21: MPEG describes this standard as a multimedia framework.

Part 2, How to play MPEG files on Mac?

It is easy to play MPEG videos. You can use VLC playerfrom Video Lan and QuickTime Player.

Part 3, How to convert MPEG files to AVI, MP4, FLV, etc on Mac?

If you want to convert MPEG to AVI, MP4, FLV, etc. on Mac, you need MPEG Video Converter for Mac to help you.

1Install and Run MPEG Video Converter for Mac

You can download it for free:

• Intel Version

To install it, simply mount the .dmg archive by double-clicking it, and copy the application to your applications folder (or wherever you want it ).

2Load Videos

Drag and drop the MPEG files to the program.

3Convert MPEG to MP4, FLV, AVI, etc. on Mac OS X

After you added MPEG files, you can select an output format(MP4, MPEG, FLV, AVI, etc.) for each video file and specify a directory on your computer to save the output files.

You can also extract audio from MPEG to MP3 on Mac with this MPEG Converter for Mac.

You can know more here: How to edit, crop, trim video files and capture pictures on Mac OS X?

Note: You can also use this MPEG Video Converter to convert all videos such as MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, M2TS/MTS or rip DVDs(including comercial encrypted DVDs) to MPEG on Mac. on Mac.