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Not able to edit .mpg movie file in any movie editor

Hi,

I guess this issue has been adressed before, however after much googling, I still did not get the precise result.

I have some important movies I shot with a Sony Handycam DCR-SR32 hard drive camera. Now when I imported the files to my computer, they get imported as two files .mpg and a corresponding .modd file. The .mpg movies would play in various media players however I am not able to edit the videos in any software. I have tried the likes of Windows Movie Maker Adobe Premier Pro and Sony's own Vegas.

I tried converting the .mpg to other formats but I lost considerable picture quality. They look like poor youtube videos upon convertion. I want to edit those 20 something videos to make one movie and I have tried all possible ways that I knew of.

Please Please Please, if someone can explain whats wrong with the format or what is the BEST possible way to edit those movies in any of the softwares above.

Thanks in advance