I have an apple and I am trying to find a way to make a dvd out of a video I downloaded that is an mpeg. I tried importing it into idvd and imovie but they dont accept mpegs. Final cut pro doesnt import the sound. Any ideas?

idvd doesn't support mpegs? i don't know mac well enough to say for sure, but on a PC it goes like this:

1. Take downloaded video
2. Encode it into Mpeg file thats one of the following specs:
a. mpeg2, (full D1) 720x480, 29.97 FPS, whatever bitrate you want
b. mpeg2, (1/2 D1) 352x480, 29.97 FPS, whatever bitrate you want
c. mpeg2, (1/4 D1) 352x240, 29.97 FPS, whatever bitrate you want
d. mpeg1, 352x240, 29.97 FPS, VCD bitrate
3. Make sure you've got a compliant sound file as well, either AC3 or PCM
4. Author with desired software
5. Burn.
6. Watch.

There's gotta be Mac software to encode into a compliant mpeg, because I can't imagine iDVD doesn't accept MPEG. It's probably just not compliant.

Are you sure the video is an mpeg to begin with? It sounds like it could be some kind of DivX AVI file. The sound issue could be because the sound is a VBR mp3. If that's the case, you're going to need to separate the video and audio streams, encode the audio into a PCM file, encode the video to standard compliant mpeg, put the video and the sound back together, and author to the DVD.

If it is an mpeg, I suppose it could have AC3 sound, though I don't think I've seen that before, and I don't think FCP can natively edit AC3.

This might be a little much to fathom all at once. Wait for one of these guys around here on the Mac to help you out if my directions are confusing you or pissing you off. Sorry if I couldn't be of any help.