Which HD Camcorder to buy to use w/ iMovie 11?

Question

I have done hours of research to figure out what type of HD Camcorder to buy to work with iMovie (without using a conversion software utility). The world of HD video is VERY confusing to me. The best summary of all this I've seen is at Camcorderinfo.com.
http://www.camcorderinfo.com/d/Reviews&level_b=Camcorder&level_c=HD.htm#
However I am still confused with all this. Seems like there are several key things to factor:
I Type of HD:
     1. Resolution
     a. "Full" HD
     b. HD
     c. HD "Light"
     d. SD
     2. Scan rate:
     a. i (interlaced)
     b. p (progressive)
    3. Frame rate:
     a. 24
     b. 30
     c. 60
     x. native or not
II. Compression (Codec):
     a. ACVHD
     b. mpeg4
     c. mpeg2
     d. HDV (old, so probably not recommended)
So the question are:
A. which of the above combination of types works well with iMovie 11?
B. which camcorder meets these types the best (preferably a newer model, and preferably a Sony, Canon, or Panasonic)
Any help would be EXTREMELY APPRECIATED
Thanks!

Answer 1

a. "Full" HD
This is a marketing term. It usually means 1920x1080, but there is nothing inherently better in 1920x1080 or 1440x1080 or 1280x720. The sensor makes the difference not the format. Cheap little sensor that gives Full HD is worse than large sensor that shoots 720.
b. HD
Anything that isn't standard definition. In the US technically anything larger than 720x486 is HD.
c. HD "Light"
Another meaningless marketing term. I guess it means 1280x720. In the US CBS and NBC shoot in 1080i, while ABC and Fox shoot in 720p60, progressive frame, high frame rate, which is great for sports.
     d. SD
In the US that's 720x480 for DV and 720x486 for uncompressed.
  a. i (interlaced)
Media in the US is recorded and broadcast at 29.97fps, basically one frame every 30th of a second. In an interlaced recording half of the resolution is recorded in 1/60th of a second. During this recording the image is written as a series of lines from top to bottom, the first set of lines in the first field in the first 60th of a second might be the even lines, line 0 (actually half a line), line 2, line 4, line 6, and so on. In the second 60th of a second the other half of the image resolution, the odd lines are written, line 1, line 3, line 5, and so on. If there's motion in the image the two halves of the image, the two interlaced fields, are not identical.
b. p (progressive)
This can be even more confusing. Theoretically it means that one complete image is taken 29.97 times a second. In most cameras this is not the case. What they actually shoot is called PsF or progressive segmented frames. This lets a camera shoot both interlaced or progressive. It shoots half the resolution, the single field of interlaced video, and then the second field. The difference here is that each field is the same. As there is no difference in the fields no interlacing appears on the motion.
a. 24
Only film cameras and very few video cameras shoot true 24fps. Video cameras shoot 23.976fps, sometimes referred to 23.98 and sometimes simply called 24, which it isn't. To confuse things further many cameras claim to shoot 24fps but don't. They capture 23.976fps but record at 29.97 with what is called pulldown added to make up the difference of frames between 23.976 and 29.97. It uses a complicated method alternating interlaced and progressive frames in a 2:3:2:3 cadence. (There is also an advanced pulldown cadence that's 2:3:3:2, which can have the pulldown removed and be restored to 23.976 for editing.) Pulldown is the way movies are shown on television. The 24fps film is played back at 23.976, pulldown is added, and the result is broadcast at the standard 29.97 frame rate. This adds flickering to the image which we're used to watching. Those who come from Europe and watch US television often find the pulldown flicker quite noticeable. When an iMovie project refers to 24, it means something shot at true 23.976, not something shot 24 with pulldown added and recorded at 29.97.
b. 30
No such thing, except maybe in computer animation. The correct frame rate is 29.97. iMovie calls it 30. It's not. An iMovie project is 30 when it's shot at the standard North American (and Japanese and Korean) frame rate of 29.97.
c. 60
Again, no such thing. The frame rate is 59.94. Some cameras shoot this, quite a few professional cameras do. iMovie does not support it.
x. native or not
No idea what that is, unless it's the frame rate they use in Borneo.
a. ACVHD
Codec stands for compression-decompression algorithm. It's the mathematical formula that's used to calculate how the video is compressed. AVCHD (Advanced Video Compressor HD) is a format based on the H.264 codec using MPEG-4, which is another format.
b. mpeg4
This is a format that can be used for acquisition or delivery. It's not a codec. MPEG-4 is used in AVCHD. It can also use other codecs.
c. mpeg2
This is another, older format. It can be either HD or SD. It's most common usages are as the format for DVD disc encoding, and as the basis for HDV.
All of these formats, MPEG-2, MEPG-4, AVCHD, use what are called GOP structures or interframe compression. What that means is that a single frame is encoded, the I-frame, and the next (usually 15 frames) are made up of comparing the previous frames and also the next frame, the B and P frames. These long GOP structures are great for encoding, easy to compress, and widely used for acquisition in cameras, and delivery on the web and disc; they're horrible for production, because there are no individual frames. When you specify a frame you want to edit on, the computer has to do a whole lot of work to calculate and generate a complete actual frame where none really exists in the GOP structure, unless it happens to be that one in 15 frames at the start of the GOP. This is why most professional systems, especially high end systems, convert these interframe compression formats to intraframe compression formats. Here each frame is individually encoded and compressed. The files are larger but it's much easier for the computer and the application to calculate what you want to do.
d. HDV (old, so probably not recommended)
An MPEG-2 based HD format that's 1440x1080 or 1280x720. It's never 1920x1080.
A. which of the above combination of types works well with iMovie 11?
B. which camcorder meets these types the best (preferably a newer model, and preferably a Sony, Canon, or Panasonic)
No good answers to these. HDV tape and AVCHD work well with iMovie. All three manufacturers make cameras of these types. Though you can throw pretty much anything you want into iMovie (it's remarkably resilient), it prefers, like most editing systems, to work with I-frame based media. Both HDV and AVCHD get transcoded on ingest to the Apple Intermediate Codec. This is a high data rate codec used by QuickTime. It's pretty good quality by prosumer standards and easy for the computer to work with, but these are much larger files than the original media.
Check here
http://help.apple.com/imovie/cameras/en/index.html?lang=en_US
to see if the camera you're interested in works with iMovie.
I hope I have you thoroughly confused by now. Oh and by the way, it's changing every day. This answer will be obsolete probably by the time I finish writing it.