What equipment/software to use for HD movies

Question

So, I am a bit interested in switching over to creating High-Definition movies. I guess the first thing to do is to buy an HD camera. I am assuming that iMovie 6 allows for capturing HD video since it has "HD" in the software title. Now, once I have created it, can it be exported to iDVD and I can make a high-definition DVD? Do I need a different piece of software? And, I am guessing a normal DVD burner that comes with my Mac does not create HD DVDs?

Answer 1

< aside: Congratulations, four-blob Karsten! >
"..Looks like the HD function is pretty useless at the moment since you can only send it back to an HD camera. Who wants to do that?.."
That's pretty useful if the HD camcorder has a hi-quality 'component' output - most do - and your HD TV has a 'component' input: you get to show your edited HD movie in very high quality on any suitably-equipped HD TV ..gorgeous! You can carry the camcorder to anyone's house and show your HD movie there on their HD TV. No need to worry whether they've got an HD-DVD player (..they probably haven't).
Having edited your HD movie in iMovie HD, if you had Apple's "DVD Studio Pro" program, you could burn an HD DVD (..yup, even with an ordinary non-HD 'SuperDrive' built into almost any current Mac..) using an ordinary non-HD DVD, and you can play that normal disc on almost any other Mac (..which has suitably up-to-date QuickTime on it). Those hi-def ordinary DVDs will NOT play, however, on a normal, household, standalone DVD player. But they do play at hi-def in the "DVD Player" program on a Mac.
So all that's missing to create a 'proper' hi-def DVD (..which will play on any standalone HD or Blu-Ray hi-def player - pretty much none of which are in the shops yet, anyway..) is a tweak to iDVD, and an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray burner - pretty much none of which are in the shops yet, either!
So with iMovie HD you're way ahead of the crowd: you can edit an HD movie, ready for when you buy a hi-def burner (..Christmas?..) and when iDVD is tweaked (..January?..) to burn hi-def discs.
You can already edit and copy back to tape an HD movie - using iMHD - to take your edited movie anywhere and to show it on any 'component'-equipped HD TV.
And if you've got access to a copy of DVD SP, you can already burn hi-def movies, but they'll play only on Macs.
iDVD doesn't, at present, make a good job of converting HD movies down to standard definition (in my opinion), so to shoot movies for others - e.g; weddings - I'd presently stick with standard def if you want to distribute the movie on a current, standard-def, DVD.
Don't forget that you can also use iMovie HD for creating HD projects from other material such as photos ..so you can create a stunning HD photo slideshow with music, dissolves, etc, from multi-megapixel photos - in far higher definition than normal standard-def TV allows.. and then copy that to HD tape, and then show the tape on an HDTV.
..Just a few thoughts about iMovie HD..