Quicktime and .MPG files

I would like to play .MPG files on Quicktime. I downloaded and installed perian, but still can not play the MPEG-1/2 files. Perian states that it supports

"About
Perian aims to provide a single package for all your playback needs. It is a collection of QuickTime components incorporating several libraries:
• libavcodec, from the ffmpeg project, along with code from the old FFusion component:
• MS-MPEG4 v1 & v2"

Is Perian essentially a codec pack to supplement Quicktime? Am I missing something here?

I checked the Quicktime preferences (See attachment) - All appears to be in order.

I can play these files on VLC .

Thanks in advance...

Update
I just installed Fip4mac and I can play wmv files with Quicktime. I tried to open a .mpg file and still can't/ Quicktime displays an error window stating that "The movie could not be opened. The file is not a movie file"

Help!!!!

Seems like I'm not the only one confused about this issue.

http://forums.cocoaforge.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=16766

The mpg files I'm dealing with are off a handycam. My Sony handycam states in the user manual;

MPEG
MPEG stands for Moving Picture Experts Group,
the group of standards for the coding (image
compression) of video (movie) and audio. There
are MPEG1 and MPEG2 formats. Your
camcorder records movies with SD (standard
definition) image quality in MPEG2 format.