I have a new iMac desktop (10.6.4) that I got for Christmas. I have a canon HD camcorder that records in .mts mode. I have spent hours upon hours to figure out the following:

a) iMovie 11 will not transport .mts files
b) The .mts files must be converted in order to be used on the mac

With that said, which .mts file converter are you guys using? Everyone I found costs $35.00, and I don't mind paying the fee, but is there one that is better than the others? For instance, I have found iorgsoft, moyea mts, MTS converter (which I have downloaded and seems to work ok, but it's a trial version and you can only see the first minute of the video).

Which one is the best? Is there a free option that will suffice?

I want to transfer the files to .mp4 or whatever so I can upload into iMovie '11 and burn them to a DVD. Thanks everyone!