What is best 1080/50p (Panasonic) converter for Mac?

I have an Imac 2.66 intel core duo running 10.5.8 and Imovie 09. My problem is, having recently bought a Panasonic HDC-SD900 video camera which records at 1080/50p AVCHD, that the Mac can’t deal with the files. Am working with “Handbrake” at the moment to convert the files losslessly to something Mac can handle. Therefore am looking for the best converter and ways to handle the problem.

The problem is there are so many conversion systems which are listed below and I would be very grateful to know which is the best - please help if you can as am new to this.

HANDBRAKE, am using at the moment but conversion takes ages.

AUNSOFT FINAL MATE FOR MAC, - but will this work on what I have?

VIDEO CONVERTER FOR MAC,

WONDERSHARE VIDEO CONVERTER FOR MAC,

AVCHD CONVERTER FOR MAC, (ULTIMATE, ?)

WONDERSHARE MOVIE CONVERTER for MAC

PANASONIC VIDEO CONVERTER FOR MAC

I am at sea with the many possibilities! Please advise me and help - any other ideas also welcome. Many thanks.

Handbrake is the best for sure, but it does take time, quality always does.
The next 5 there are terrible, and should be avoided. They are basically the same software repackaged, and do an awful job. There are kind of "spam" software if you like. (iskysoft is another).
I don't know, and can't find anything about the last one there.

Now, in what way can your Mac not deal with the files? Not play them back, or not edit them?

Thanks very much indeed for your help, Kevriano.

I should like to edit my videos and get Apple TV to play them back - I guess through Itunes, but they are not being recognised by Itunes. The final and most important thing is to burn them to DVD or later to Blu-ray. Any ideas? Again, thanks very much for your help. All the best

Ok. How big are the source files?
Handbrake will indeed convert them for Apple TV, as it has a preset for it (which I assume you are using), however to burn into a playable format on a DVD will require another conversion, as Handbrake does not support MPEG2.
For Blu Ray I think you could burn the source file and it will work. You would need Toast to do so though.

Hi Kevriano, Many thanks again for your help. I'm trying to get the Handbrake converted files to appear in Itunes under Movies but they are not appearing. Any ideas?

Sorry about delay, but have been offline.

All the best, applecbj

After you convert them, open iTunes and drag your file into it.

Or just open Finder, drag and drop the file onto the iTunes icon in the Dock.

If you're letting iTunes manage and copy into it's library, you can then delete the original converted file - after you've verified it's there.