Newbie - General HD Questions - Plus Sony & Panasonic

Question

I've been a standard definition guy for years, and am thinking of moving to a HD camcorder. I'm a relative newcomer to the Mac, and am using IMovie 09.
IMovie 09 is just the tool - it's the output that counts - and in my case, it's going to be the Apple TV for 80% of my movies, and standard definition DVDs (using IDVD) for the remaining 20% of my movies.
Neither of these things (Apple TV or DVDs) can display in 1080 resolution. Am I therefore still able to use a HD camcorder or not? Will IMovie keep the high-res 1080 footage on my hard disk, and then just convert to Apple TV and/or DVD format as appropriate? -- or am I stuck with 1080, with no easy option of using IDVD....?
Also, if I move into the world of HD, does the time taken to render to AppleTV and IDVD grow exponentially over using a standard def camera? And, is IMovie still a usable product, or does editing etc become painfully slow, using HD high bitrate films? Does the addition of Turbo264HD become a valuable or essential addition?
Also, I find it frustrating that the list of supported camcorders doesn't change very often.
For example, I wonder if the SONY HDR-XR105E, HDR-CX105ES, HDR-TG3E are compatible, in addtion to the HDR-CX11E which is on the list. I see no reason why not, but it's too much of a gamble.
Also, the Panasonic HDC-SD100 AVCHD Camcorder has good reviews, and I think does 1080p (the Sony only does 1080i as far as I know). Question - is 1080p the same as doing 25p? I notice an article on Apple's site about Panasonic's 26p, which says "If you plan on importing clips into iMovie '09, do not use Digital Cinema Mode settings when recording with your camcorder". However, it doesn't say anything about the PAL version (25p), but I'm assuming it'll have the same issue as the 26p. This obviously makes the advantage of the Panasonic over the Sony useless.
Thanks in advance for any input,
Brad

Answer 1

HD is the way to go -- even with appletv. I have AppleTV and now hardly ever burn any video! I'm working off a new macbook, but your imac is faster processor. I just did a 20 minute video last night-- a combination of DV and HDV with a theme-- I imported on Full and large for a test run. I didn't see much difference on the appleTV for either one. I suggest still importing on full to future proof. Then you just export to itunes select the setting for appletv. It took an hour. No biggie. Output was not as good as my camera, but I can't find anything yet that gives me equal to my HD camera plugged straight to the TV via an HDMI port.
The minute you bring footage into imovie it is second generation even if you output full footage to Western Digital Media Player that can handle 1080p. There is a compressing process the footage goes through...with that said....it's still pretty good! Much better in HD even outputting at any resolution!
Now for the camcorder, find Steve Mullen's posts. He has several on different issues with cameras and codec's. Bottom line: Its best to edit in progressive. However, 1080p 60 you need a mac pro!
1080p 30 is ok. I shoot 1080 60i. Its fine also, but some people are having issues with interlacing!
imovie can't handle 24p-- or something like that.....There are a bunch of threads on camcorders. Do a search on 1080p and see what pops up. Find Steve Mullens post. Click on his name and then you can see all his posts on this topic from various threads! He recommends actually 720 60p, but its very hard to find.