1080p System Requirements

Question

I have one of these new Panasonic cameras that films in 1080p at 50fps. Great, plays on the TV nicely and to get it on the Mac, I use Rewrap2M4V. To edit the stuff, I had been opening those files directly in iMovie 06 and editing on a 720p25 timeline which works pretty well - Slightly annoying that FCE 3.5 (which I have) doesn't have a similar frame rate, only 30fps for 720p.
Suddenly I've discovered the App Store and iMovie 11 for just £8 - Am giving it a go as I've heard good reviews, but have never really gotten on with 08 or 09 - So far so good, and I can use MPEG Streamclip to transcode to AIC at 720p50 which IM 11 will accept.
And so, my question .........
My computer is a 4 year old iMac, with an Intel Core Duo at 1.83Mhz. Not great, but still holding its own. It plays 720p50 perfectly well in AIC. For sure, as I expected, the m4v files at 1080p50 are just too much for it, the video is not too bad, a bit jerky, and the sound stutters. But its not that bad. It makes me think that I wouldn't need much of an upgrade to play full quality 1080p at the full 50fps and yet those in the know seem to suggest i7 processors and quad core at that.
Does anyone have any experience of playing this 'slightly higher than AVCHD' top spec video on anything less than a quad core ?? i5 or even i3 perhaps ?? Does it work fluidly for viewing and editing ?

Answer 1

And the answer is .............
Followed AppleMan's advice, having found myself in an Apple Store just the other day without a file I could test annoyingly. Made a special trip in today with 2 files - First a native 1080p50 mts file straight from the camcorder, and second a m4v repackaging of the same file.
On my computer (an old Core Duo) the mts file isn't recognised by anything other than Movist, which gives it a good go, but the frame rate is quite stuttering. The m4v file again produces the same result but at least it can be imported into iMovie 06 or 11 where it is converted to an AIC file which plays fine.
In the Apple Store, tried the files on a MacBook Pro i5 and was pleasantly surprised that both files played very fluidly. No problems. So, trying my luck, stepped next door to an iMac i3 and again the files played with maybe a hint of dropped frames. Still very watchable, and with Movist, looking at the achieved frame rate, I was getting 48 - 50fps average for the 50fps footage, so it was easy to work with and difficult to understand why the camcorder box suggests a Quad Core i7 processor.
At present I am transcoding everything into AIC as my computer just can't cope with the high compression with 1080p50, but if my tests are to be believed, I could by an i5 iMac and with a simple repackaging to m4v, I should be able to work with the basic files in iMovie at full quality.
I did find that the m4v files had no sound, and I assume this is to do with the need for Perian when using Alan's Rewrap2m4v script. I thought this was just for the conversion, but obviously it needs Perian for the audio play back