Help Please - on a VC that works out of the box with MAC before I sellup

Question

I have to declare that I’m somewhat frustrated at the moment and I could do with some good advise please bare with me while I explain.
I have recently converted from all types of PC systems and MS OS to Apple. The conversion was based on a few drivers.
1, My wife finally has decided to “learn” how to do her own web work instead of asking me to look up this or that for her. So as she was starting from scratch I thought MAC.
2, At the same time I had a play with Vista at work and disliked it. I was using XP & W2K at the time.
3, I wanted to update my home hardware, which was 3 years old.
4, The accountant said I hadn’t spent enough on IT last year.
5, New project work in the planning that required video/audio work to upload onto the web and everyone said MAC was the best.
So having looked around and done what I thought was enough research I started investing. To date I’ve invested £4500 plus.
Started by buying
iMAC 24” 2.8 Gz Intel with 4GB ram (for the home office)
MacBook Pro 2.4 with 4GB ram (for out and about working)
iPHONE 16GB (which is great)
VMware Fusion was installed for those things that I couldn’t live without until I found a suitable replacement like MS Money, Paint Shop Pro, MS Office etc. Installed XP.
Tried Open Office found it to clunky and hard work working off files for MS Office that others sent/required. Ended up buying Office 2008 only to find VB macros don’t work in Excel and all my company spreadsheets still need PC MS Excel to run so back into XP via Fusion.
Then to MAIL which is great on the iPHONE as I can easily monitor my 5 email accounts, what a result. But now I come to attach JPG files as I would in outlook and they open into the content of text in the mail and will not stay closed but disrupt the message. Wholly unacceptable to my way of working with no cure.
Scanning next, so I down loaded GIMP to replace PSP which I find useless so back to PSP I go again via XP & Fusion.
Next and finally the VC project, Now please bare in mind that all I want to do is shoot film, upload it to edit it and then mount it on the web page. I have no desire to become any form of expert in the field just get the job done.
So reviewed iMovie to understand the spec. Realise it has limitation and reviewed FCE which seems to plug the gaps and boarders on being more professional.
At this point I must say I’m not totally new to this subject as I have used Studio8 and a JVC GR-DVL166EK video cam a couple of years ago and got on ok without any issues simple plug and play with great results.
Having reviewed the standards that the software is reported to work too without any publicly declared exclusions or exceptions by Apple I went shopping for the VC. (I didn’t know of the forum at the time and to the best of my knowledge Apple don’t advise of its existence in any product information on anything I have bought.)
I buy a Panasonic HDC-HS9 for £700 which doesn’t flaming work despite the fact that it should based on all the standards quoted by both manufactures and there are no disclaimers from either party that it won’t work.
I have reviewed the compatibility list on the support page (now I know its there) and find that the Panasonic HDC-SD5 does work. I reviewed the comprehensive detailed model spec on the Panasonic web site and there is no differences between the to models at all accept the HDD.
So why don’t it work?
*At the end of the day can anyone please recommend a VC that will produce high quality results without the need of a 3rd party software to connect and upload files convert and muck about instead of getting on with the job.*
And if all the publicised specs don’t allow you to conclude compatibility how can you protect your investment? Where do we legally stand and where is the accountability to the consumer.
<edited by host>
I am that fed up with the last 3 months of mucking about Bill Gat*es may just get me back.
Thanking anyone in anticipation for some meaning advise and help.
Regards
Alan

Answer 1

Hi, and thanks for you interest. The problems is that whether I'm using iMovie or FCE I get to a stage where the thumbnail image is present but if you try to play, import or any other action in either app it closes down and a message comes up " The Application Final Cut Express/iMovie quit unexpectedly - Mac OS X and other application are not affected" then asks if I wish to relaunch. I then hit the report to Apple button and afterwards relaunch. I was recommended to use Voltaic which I have tried, it worked but is to much mucking about for something that should work out of the box.
This problem happens on both the iMAC and the MacBook so quite sure it's not a OS software issue. All software update are up to date also.
Any ideas?