iFrame vs 1080/60p, Conversion, Cameras, etc.
Hey all:
I'm geeky in a lot of ways, but I'm totally honest about the fact that I'm kinda ignorant about the latest video specs and tech. I've had my Macbook for about a year now and I'm now way in bed with iMovie and iPhoto. I've just bought a Panasonic HCV700K camera and I've shot some footage of the kids in iFrame format and also in AVCHD 1920x1080/60p. I can see the difference and it'd be nice to get the increased quality of the AVCHD. However, my understanding is that iMovie does not work with AVCHD without a conversion process.
So my question is this..... What is the future of editing in iMovie and how does it affect me? 95% of what I shoot is just silly stuff of my kids around the house. Occasionally, there will be some "serious" stuff like a school program or a church thing or something like that. When it comes to video, I'm not really a cork sniffer type that always has to have the highest quality. In fact, I'm really kind of thrifty when it comes to hard drive space.
Also, I still tend to like to burn DVD's. My kids are still little and they love to watch home movies of themselves acting silly or playing sports or whatever. So the ability to just toss in a disc and have them enthralled has some value even if it means that the video quality needs to be reduced get to DVD standards.
With all that being said, what should I be doing?
I really like the simplicity of shooting in iFrame and dragging and dropping into iMovie. But if most of my footage is going to get converted to DVD, is it worth shooting in AVCHD and messing with conversion and all that stuff? Or trying to pick and choose the destination in advance? Am I wrong in my understanding that standard DVD quality is a lower res than iFrame anyway?
Thoughts and/or suggestions?
Thanks
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)