Downloading mpegs works just fine, but neither divx nor quicktime will play the files. What's up with this? "Get Info" lists them as Mactella PPC files. How do I convert them into Mpegs when Divx and QT don't even recognize the files?

Sounds like the Mactella is keeping it's TYPE and CREATOR attached to the files. Two things you can start out trying is first, if you ahven't already, go to your File Exchange control panel and specify that any video files; mpeg, avi, etc, be used with the Quicktime Plugin or Application. Second, for the files you already have, download the program Snitch, http://www.niftyneato.com/Snitch.html , get info on the files and change the the TYPE and CREATOR to be Quicktimes'. When you isntall Snitch you will need to add those to the Snitch lsit to choose from, whci will be under the Type and Creator pull down menu at the top right, and then down to 'edit list...'. Let me know if you need any help if with that.

Good luck.

Used Snitch...MPEG and TVOD are listed as type and creator. Files still won't play.

I had the same problem with a .rm(realplayer) file, and decided to take it to my Wintel machine and crack the sucka open with HexWorkshop. I noticed that there was some HTML code and "Gnutella Client" stuff.
I opened a similar(rm) file that worked, and simply copied and pasted into the mangled file. Worked perfectly! I haven't tried this with MPEG but I think this is the problem.
I don't know why Mactella does this, maybe its with long files or resumes that it makes this error as I haven't seen this phenom with MP3s.
So since Mac users are generally dumber(less technical?) than average, I recomend trying to download your media again.
Hope this helps!