What is the best digital format from VHS to iMove?

Hello - I am getting some VHS tapes converted to digital files to edit on iMovie 11. They will be edited on a Macbook Pro 13" and it would be convenient if they could also work in FCE later on. My plan was to ask the company doing the conversion to put the files/movies on a portable hard drive, rather than DVD. And then import them or edit on iMovie. But is mpeg 4 the best end format or something else?
Thanks.
Simon

$500 -- ouch!!
Along with the new deck, I bought another brand new Sony Handycam MiniDV camcorder, because our Canon broke this summer too as well which served us very well for 10 years. It started eating tape, but we feed it new tapes every time we record; probably why it lasted so long?!? This camcorder set me back around $200. Yes, they are hard to find, but I work in the digital photo/video business, so sometimes dealers may have new old stock where you can bargain down. I was extremely lucky to had bought a new old stock from a dealer that had it but couldn't sell it. Perfect.
You're right -- tape to tape transfers is not ideal as degradation in S/N will impede on image quality. But I'm assuming the OP is simply using consumer grade VHS camcorders, so the analog to DV transfer is ok if done once. Then DV tape through Firewire is an analog to digital transfer. Once the OP has the digital copy inside the computer, it will never degrade if you make multiple copies on the hard drive.
Another solution the OP can look into is that some shops (getting rare these days) may have a Canon GL-2 on their rental pool and the OP can just use its built-in Analog to Digital (Firewire) pass through to transfer VHS analog footage directly into iMovie or FCE!
Wow, it's good to hear another person here still using DV!

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