Creating HD 1920x1080i/p on iMac, DVD or Blu-ray Disc???

Question

Looking for some basic answers which I can't find from the camera manufacturers, Apple, and the net in general. After reading literally thousands of posts on the many discussion forums for months, I just purchased a Canon VIXIA HF S200, which is a Flash Memory SD/SDHC consumer camcorder. (Thankfully my new iMac has an SD slot).
Just FYI, I've used Apple since @1995, mainly a Power PC and then a 2006 2 GB Intel Core Duo iMac. With that I've made many home videos. Generally, the movies (e.g., iMovie 6 -> iDVD) were put together with many different formats, vids from the net, vids from family members' cameras and mine, camcorders, still cameras with movie capability, etc. One movie might utilize material I've gathered for years in the form of jpg, png, pict., tiff, avi, mpg, mov, wmv, mp3, wav, aiff… you get the idea. I've always paid the extra $ for QT Pro, etc., in order to edit the various formats or convert them. iMovie6 handled basically whatever I threw at it, and gave me in return quality movies, or as good as the source material anyway, that I could burn in iDVD so family could have copies. I probably took iMovie as far as it could go, editing to the nth degree music-to-pic or vid timings, voice overs, etc. If I needed engineered title pages/pictures that iMovie couldn't make, etc., I'd make them in .ppt and save as jpegs or pull stuff off the net for the movie. My point is I've always found a way to solve any problems with research and trial and error. So now that I'm retired, I want nothing less than quality video content. (Meaning High Definition!)
I am now the proud owner of a 27" iMac 2.93 i7, and it is gorgeous. Had I known that Apple would be stealing all my fun by destroying Quicktime (yes, I kept QT 7.6.6), totally screwing up iMovie, and who knows what I'll find with iDVD and FCE when I buy it, I might have steered clear of the iMac that I thought was going to give me real High Definition capabilities. If you read through these forums carefully, you'll see that there are hundreds of definitions people use for the term "HD". Apple has basically been saying it's as simple as connecting a camcorder through firewire (of course, if you HAD a firewire camcorder, you would now be using adapters for 400/800 anyway). If you get a firewire HD camcorder, you are probably buying a soon to be bye-bye format in tape, or some kind of digital disc. Even the hard drive types are not promising. That leaves flash memory (light, small, quite sturdy)… but these don't have firewire, at least none that I can find for my needs.
So now I have a $900 camcorder (which is probably going back) that shoots in AVCHD, which is coded by way of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264. Of course, Apple wants no part of Blu-ray, for which AVCHD was made. It can author directly to Blu-ray, as well as something called AVCHD Discs, but I can't use Canon's software because I don't want Windows. Canon also natively records in 24 Mbps @ 1920x1080, at different frame rates. All this pretty much ensures that you will need to drop everything down to nearly standard definition while trying to navigate through iMovie, a QT app in need of energy, iDVD, FCE (whose specs don't even line up eye-to-eye with Apple's own iMovie)…
OK, I think you can see my frustration, and I do apologize for showing it so openly (kind of, anyway)… but I see this same pain in so many posts… is there ANYONE that can tell us what kind of HD camera we can use to make hard copies (DVD, Blu-ray, etc.) of home movies. I want to be able to save these family movies for 20 years or more, hopefully… though all the software, camera and Apple people seem to think everything is for streaming on YouTube or posting to FB… the IRONY is that while I am trying to make movies we can keep, everyone's trying to sell us ways to put our movies on the net, where we couldn't get rid of them even if we wanted to… so WE don't get to keep a copy, but the world will always have it once it's posted…
If there is anyone out there that really knows if we can produce DVD's or other discs that family can play in their homes, please help us out with something truly specific. Yes, I would certainly buy a Blu-ray burner if it would work on my "world class" iMac with HD, but no one even seems to know. I am not the only one begging to know what camera will work, or what software will do the trick, etc. I don't mean to imply that anyone's giving bad advice on purpose, but when a poster answers with "you can try converting to this, then ripping it from that, then just reformat to those with some whatever from whomever"… well, we could post back and forth forever without hearing each other… Apple used to stand for simplicity as well as reliability; but now, for example, absolutely no one knows why my extra RAM doesn't work correctly, or even if it should (trying Googling RAM slots for new iMacs, you will not believe the half truths, the bass-ackward answers and other nonsense in the forums).
Many of us seem willing to pay big bucks (like for my i7 iMac) for nice stuff, so if you are listening, Apple, can you at least tell us how to get something done? Your suggested list of camcorder compatibility is a joke, as it tells nearly nothing, except that we'll be buying camcorders with features you will not support… my camcorder works great until you realize that the best recording mode they have I can't export to iMovie… guess I should just use the "standard definiton", huh, after shelling out a grand for the camera with flash GB's and batteries… (I can send it all back, so no need to send me a check, Apple/Canon… heck, I could even send back the iMac, if it wasn't so GORGEOUS).
Last week, I added RAM to my i7, and at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3918, it states:
"i5 and i7 Quad Core iMac computers come with both top memory slots populated. These computers will not start up if only a single DIMM is installed in any bottom slot; these computers should operate normally with a single DIMM installed in any top slot. Core Duo iMac computers should operate normally with a single DIMM installed in any slot, top or bottom. ("Top" and "bottom" slots refer to the orientation of the slots in the pictures below. "Top" refers to the slots closest to the display; "bottom" refers to the slots closest to the stand)."
Well, first, what if I had DIMMs in both "bottom" slots, but none in the top slots, would it work? NO ANSWER, right? And you got the "top and bottom" slots mixed up… please, you are upside down on even the most basic thing… typos are one thing, but… *do you see what I mean?*
Well, since the camera people don't know what their camera does, and I don't know what the iMac, FCE and FCP can do, again I ask you good people out there who are trying hard to make all this stuff work: just what camera or software will work with this top of the line computer to make simple HD movies? I will be forever indebted to anyone who can help in any way…
27" iMac Intel Core i7/2.93GHz/8GB RAM/1TB HD/ATI Radeon HD 5750/Model iMac11,3/OS X v10.6.6

Answer 1

Karsten, Ian & stuckfootage, thanks for responding.
You replied to so many items I wouldn't know where to start. Some of the replies, regarding USB connections, vids on the net, for example, I still must respectfully disagree with you.
You did, however, address many of my rants very well, and I thank you. I was going off the deep end and I don't know why I would expect answers to such a rambling post, most of which wasn't even a question. But you all did a good job of calming me down, so expect my future posts to be more to the point, at least. In a professional and confident manner, you told me what I needed to hear to get real help. I'll see my shrink tomorrow, then maybe you could help with these few things first:
*3. stuckfootage, you said, "I think your frustration is a result of the sales and support people you encounter." Absolutely right. I am usually very independent and never consider asking salespeople for advice, except maybe "where's the restroom?". I worked in that world, so I know better. Still, the advertising and imagery gets to ya, doesn't it?*
*I suppose buying the new 27" i7 2.93 iMac, then memory, plus camcorder, SD cards and batteries, just got me kinda thinking I was all set. So I think I'll just take a step back, take a breath, and get it figured out. I know Apple must have some real geniuses to produce what they do, but ultimately, it's people like all of you on the boards that take it to the next level of understanding, long after Apple has boxed it, shipped it, and charged our credit cards.*
*There was no need for obscenities, though... in saying some HD cameras support Firewire, then using the Panasonic HVX200 ($5000) as an example, now THAT"S OBSCENE... $5000??? LOL (I mean, yeah, I did just buy a super Mac and all, but that just means I'm broke, not rich...)*
*BTW, the article you pointed me to, http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2424451&tstart=0 by Jeremy Hansen was simply outstanding! Informative, accurate, concise, right on point. Thanx...*
Message was edited by: fromthegetgo