[uglygeorge]

To reply again to Brian Chen & others who (somehow) CAN'T make tapeless HD work on a Mac, Ugly George once again repeats the famous Tag Line from the aspirin commercial "It Works For Me!". My new Panasonic AG-HMC70P camera makes FULL 1920 HD-video @ $2800(!) and I have no trouble whatsoever xferring it somewhat faster than real-time (about 7min for a 10min clip) to my 2-year old MacBookPro (2gHz, 2gb RAM, 256mb VRAM, NOT a dual-core duo). The following SHOULD be obvious: max out your NEWEST mac machine, DON'T even think of G4's or PPC's or 32mb VRAM. Use ONLY the newest software (iMovie originally was SLOWER than real-time xfer; now it's FASTER in the current version). Keep your Leopard 10.5.3 tweaked; get upgrades ASAP.
Also note the new writing speeds in the NEWEST SD~HC chips. Panasonic recommends 15mb/sec writing speed and calls them "Class4" chips. Don't use still-camera chips for the 1920 camcorders.; but note that different manufacturers are very creative when touting their own chips' writing speeds.
I great movie-quality videos when burning these files to DVD; but note that they are HUGE: about 660mb/min for 1920x1080 fullHD. I may have to save my pennies for a Blu-Ray burner soon...
Panasonic is currently promising something even BETTER than the 70P camera-the 150 will add full 24P emulation so you can feel like a "real" filmaker using "real film"!