1080p System Requirements

I just want to edit it together, cropped and fades at the highest possible quality. Yes I accept that I can only watch this on the computer - Even Apple TV will currently only stream 720p30.

But once I have this high quality edit, I can burn whatever user format I want - Apple TV, Standard Def DVD, maybe Blu Ray or more realistically right now, an AVCHD Blu Ray. My high quality edit will still be there, stored as an archive for when consumer formats will accept it.

To be honest, I ideally want to work in 720p50 which gives me pretty much everything I want.

Yes, I am aware of the limitations of Blu Ray (and don't even have a burner right now) but I understand the spec does include 720p50. As I say above, this is fine for me, I've always found the whole resolution factor a bit of a waste of time once you are sitting 8ft from the TV. But if I can save my edited footage as 1080p50, then I should be future proofed for later tech.

Steve, I'm not actually converting to 1080p - As I think you are aware, my camcorder records in 1080p50. Whilst the Mac will accept H.264, my experience is that it would even look at the files direct of the camcorder, I have to jump through a hoop first just to repackage the mts files with a new name that the Mac will recognise. No conversion necessary, just a 'rebranding excercise' ! iMovie 11 will accept these m4v files at 1080p50 but my old mac just runs them too slowly, hence I convert to AIC at 720p50.

My question remains .............. Just how hot a Mac do I need to play and edit 1080p50 smoothly, and more importantly, how low a spec can I get away with ?? Standard i5 maybe ??

And the answer is .............

Followed AppleMan's advice, having found myself in an Apple Store just the other day without a file I could test annoyingly. Made a special trip in today with 2 files - First a native 1080p50 mts file straight from the camcorder, and second a m4v repackaging of the same file.

On my computer (an old Core Duo) the mts file isn't recognised by anything other than Movist, which gives it a good go, but the frame rate is quite stuttering. The m4v file again produces the same result but at least it can be imported into iMovie 06 or 11 where it is converted to an AIC file which plays fine.

In the Apple Store, tried the files on a MacBook Pro i5 and was pleasantly surprised that both files played very fluidly. No problems. So, trying my luck, stepped next door to an iMac i3 and again the files played with maybe a hint of dropped frames. Still very watchable, and with Movist, looking at the achieved frame rate, I was getting 48 - 50fps average for the 50fps footage, so it was easy to work with and difficult to understand why the camcorder box suggests a Quad Core i7 processor.

At present I am transcoding everything into AIC as my computer just can't cope with the high compression with 1080p50, but if my tests are to be believed, I could by an i5 iMac and with a simple repackaging to m4v, I should be able to work with the basic files in iMovie at full quality.

I did find that the m4v files had no sound, and I assume this is to do with the need for Perian when using Alan's Rewrap2m4v script. I thought this was just for the conversion, but obviously it needs Perian for the audio play back