Video Editing Software

You might want to try converting your videos to DVD or some other medium first and then import into your computer.

Good VE equipment is $$$-imovie is perfect for your needs so I'd investigate how to make that work rather then invest in expensive VE. Another option might be to spend the money on a camera that is compatible with your Mac.

1 mom found this helpful

I've been using Ulead VideoStudio, and it's been great. I just finished with my mom's old home movies dating back to the 50s, through the 70s and 80s. I got them onto DVD, but they were all mixed up chronologically--pieces here and there that needed to be reordered...
Anyhow, the program let me clip and reorder the scenes, add background music when I needed it, make menu screens, and more. I was able to present my mom (and the rest of the family) with a professional looking dvd of their old movies. It was awesome!

I would, go to an Apple store or call them, and ask them why your iMovie is not working with your video format.
It may just be something simple to tweak.

I have a Mac and well, we make movies on it all the time.

As the other poster said: I would, get another Camcorder, that CAN be used with iMovie.
Many Camcorders are cheap.
Even the "Flip" camcorder etc. Or using an iPhone for example.

Getting video editing software for the Windows PC, versus getting a different camcorder, will be a big price difference.

And, (my husband used to do movies/editing on a PC ), it is a real pain in the butt doing it on a PC. Doing it via iMovie on a MAC is MUCH MUCH easier and not at all time consuming.

iMovie is SO easy.
It is worth it, it is already on your Mac, and if you just get a different camcorder that is compatible with iMovie, for a good price, it will all be worth it in terms of time/effort/ease/results and enjoyment.

Type "converting .m2ts to .avi" into google search. You'll get a lot of hits. Replace .avi with any other format you want, e.g. .mp4.