I have a Sony NEX-VG10, edit with Prem Pro and am having serious capturing issues.

Question

I recently purchased the Sony NEX-VG10 and am really excited about it.  I have run into some serious problems capturing the footage, though.  I have a 2010 iMac, am running OSX 10.8.2  Mountain Lion and use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 to edit.  I've discovered that the files on the camera are .MTS, a file format with which I am unfamiliar (not surprising, I'm not exactly a newb, but the past few months is the first time I've started editing seriously - I am more a writer/director/producer and could do basic stuff with FC7 and Prem Pro - now I own my own production company and am getting down to the nitty gritty). 
But I have found that
1. I can't capture using bridge, it doesn't recognize the file format.
2. When I plug the camera into the computer and go straight to the files, I don't even get individual files.  All the information is contained in what looks like a Quicktime movie, but isn't recognized by Quicktime or any other program as anything.
3.  When I go into the camera files using the import function in Premiere Pro, I find the individual .MTS files - which say they are Unix Executable files (no idea what that means), I can import them into PP, but the quality is atrocious.  Grainy and pixely.  Even when viewing them in full res playback mode.
4. I bought Bigasoft Total Video converter (wicked cool program).  I import the files using PP, then go find them in this program, and convert them into .mov files - the quality is still atrocious (not surprised, as the .mts files look cruddy, what could I expect when I converted them - but was worth a try).
I need to capture these files in full quality (oh - the file information says they are in 1920 x 1080 (1.0), so it's not like I filmed in a low res. 
The software that came with the camera is for PCs, I've searched for answers to these problems, and although I've found similar, I can't find anything that actually helps me.  Can anyone out there tell me exactly what to do?!?  I would be most appreciative.  My new company's success depends on it!

Answer 1

If you'll type mts into the search field for these communities, you will see a plethora of threads on the subject - I was going to link to one, but there are so many, it'd be best for you to read through several. In any case, of note is the fact that you might be able to import into iMovie directly as long as you do not shoot in 50/60 fps - in order to be able to read it, it has to be either 30fps for NTSC or 24 for PAL.
Not sure if the frames per second problem has anything to do with your lousy quality problem, but it might. The other concern is that Sony has not and does not really play nice with anything Apple - that was one of the reasons I chose a Canon.