final cut pro x and avchd

So it seems that final cut pro x can work with avchd files natively without having to convert them unlike iMovie '11 to Apple's preferred format (Please correct me if I'm wrong) but I also noticed on Apple's website that you can then burn your videos to an ext blu-ray recorder. I'm not sure if the previous version of Final Cut Pro was able to do this but I was wondering if anybody has used an ext blu-ray recorder with success?

I found this blu-ray recorder from Sony and it seems that it's something that might be worth looking into as it can work directly with the camcorder and also be used as an ext blu-ray recorder. Blu-ray Disc DVD Burner | VBD-MA1 | Sony USA

I'm looking at getting a camcorder soon but really have some reservations about the whole process of getting the video onto my iMac and then editing it and then sharing it. It seems that iMovie '11 can import the video but it has to convert it to Apple's editable format (I forgot what the format was called) and I'm worried that this will downconvert the image quality from HD to something less than HD. After all, I want to buy a HD camcorder to record and view the footage in HD.

It seems that once you allow iMovie '11 to convert it Apple's editbale format, editing the footage doesn't seem like a problem but when you're done, it seems that you can't share by burning a blu-ray disc with iMovie '11. I guess you'd use iDVD to make a disc but this is where I'm confused on the quality of the footage. When you render a disk through iDVD, is it maxed out at regular dvd quality 480p or is it able to somehow, maintain the HD quality? I believe if you share the footage through other means such as ipad, you may be able to maintain the HD quality but I want to be able to put it on a "disk", whether it's a dvd or blu-ray, I prefer to have a physical disk to share with my parents.

Any help is much appreciated!

I'm not sure about iMovie since I never use it, but FCP has included Blu-Ray support as of version 7. But I've never tried it with an external Blu-Ray player myself.

iMovie can read AVCHD (proof).

Like it was mentioned before...AVCHD is a container...I read ( on another forum ) a member who uses AVCHD format but FCP X would not read his .MTS files...don't know any other particulars...iMovie 09/11 does read my AVCHD .MTS files...plus you can import projects and events into FCP X from iMovie....FWIW

Final Cut X does not support .mts files from Sony AVCHD cams. I was simply amazed that Apple has not included this! This is something ALL other NLE's have been able to do for years!? They are shooting themselves in the foot by only supporting there own quicktime format!