Former PC Movie Maker User with iMovie importing questions

I hope someone will be willing to help. I've combed through several different forums trying to get the best advice possible before beginning a major project, and need to make a decision soon. I apologize for the lengthy post too...
My goal is to produce the best quality iMovies possible from .wmv and .avi files so they can be burned to DVD, shared with family, and most importantly viewed on a large screen TV with as little loss of picture quality as possible.
I have 60+ hours of video downloaded on my PC from a Sony 8mm HandyCam. Some of the original files were analog and some digital. Not having much experience with video files, or actually anything video, (in other words, not knowing better) I used Windows Movie Maker to capture the video from my HandyCam. As time went on, I found another capture program that would convert the files and download them in .avi, a format I liked better. So, I have .wmv, .avi, and some .mpg video files I'm trying to import into a iMovie.
Anyway, I understand to get these files into iMovie '09, they have to be converted to a accepted format. On my PC, I used Roxio Creator 2009 Copy and Convert DVD-Video (complete, purchased version) to convert the .wmv to .mpeg-4 (it took hours and hours and hours to convert 120 minutes of .wmv files)...I copied the .mpeg-4 file to a SanDisk 8gb flashdrive and then imported it into iMovie '09. I thought I had succeeded...Only to find that the video quality is not good at all. I watched both sets of videos (the .mpeg-4 and the .wmv) side by side on my MAC and PC and find the PC video is MUCH clearer. While I like the color enhancements in the MAC version, I prefer the clearer picture on the PC. I thought maybe the completed iMovie would look better than just viewing the .mpeg-4 file, but it didn't...
Because I wasn't happy with the .mpeg-4 generated by Roxio, I tried converting the .wmv file to .mpeg-4 with Movavi Video Converter 7. I prefer the Movavi conversion better as the video looks sharper. But, the quality is STILL not good when I go into viewing the video full screen. The .mpeg-4 files are soooo much smaller than the .wmv files---does that account for the quality loss in a higher resolution? Is there a way around this?
When all else failed, I tried to convert the .wmv to HD, but you can't really expect to get good apples out when you put rotten apples in, right? My failure could also be due to my ignorance...
Now, I know I have the choice of making my movies on the PC, but I purchased my brand new MAC because of iMovie and iPhoto and REALLY would like to transfer ALL my videos from my PC to my MAC.
Before I start this project, which will take weeks, does anyone have advice? I've read about the Flip4Mac convertor but saw where it is not yet iMovie '09 compatible. I have also read that many of you recommend MPEG Streamclip for Mac from Squared 5...
In your experience, can I expect the quality of the conversion with either Streamclip or Flip4Mac to be improved over what I've all ready seen with the Roxio Creator 2009 or Movavi Convertor? I'm willing to put up with SOME reduction in video quality...(actually, one of the many reasons I left PC's Movie Maker was that the quality of the production was not that great...the quality of the .avi video viewed in VLC was much better than the final Movie Maker product). But, before I start, I want to make sure I'm using the best possible converter/procedure/technique I can because these video files cover a lot of years and are very important to me. I'm sure all of you know what I mean.
Thanks in advance for any assistance you care to provide. *I just can't figure out why iMovie would require mpeg-4 files? I think that's what I converted all my videos to so I could download them on my iPod, isn't it? The iPod vids look fantastic, but that screen is really small and my TV is really big, and I want to watch the videos of my kids growing up on my TV, not my iPod. (Sorry for the rant.)

How do you copy the entire folder structure? I normally go to my computer (on a PC, my mac's not arrived yet) and the camera appears as a drive. If I open this up I find a folder with all my images/movie clips in. I just lterally drag and drop these files from the camera 'drive' onto my hard drive. Obviously I'm just dragging a whole heap of individual files though, not an entire folder structure.
I do still find it strange though that my old PC running old software can do this simple task ot reading/using mts, yet a brand new all singing all dancing mac with new software can't. Why is it that PC doesn't need these metadata files and the Mac does? Or I should really ask, why doesn't the Mac have the capability of reading/using files without this data when an old PC can?

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