How do I get HD videos off of my camera?

Sony hardrive HD camera problems!!!!! Help!!!!!! please?

• I have this new HD camera thats 1080i. The problem is that when i try to import the video from the camera to the computer, it won't play because the videos are all in HD. I don't have the power or time to go back into the past and record what I recorded form HD to SD. How can i convert all the videos from HD to SD so I can import them to DVD'S and not have anymore problems. Help please. I connect it to the computer and it shows it's connected but it'll only let me look at the HD videos a a program that does just that. The other programs for making DVDS won't do the HD quality type of video. HELP!!!!!! i'm going crazy. I need this now. 1st best answer will get 10 free points

• Answer:

  ALL Sony consumer hard drive based camcorders that capture high definition store the video in "AVCHD" format. This is a highly compressed and relatively new file type. Many older versions of video editors cannot deal with MTS (or MT2S) file formats. The NEW version of Microsoft MovieMaker cannot deal with AVCHD files. The easiest/cheapest thing will be to buy a current version of Sony Vegas that include AVCHD importing capabilities. Once the video file is in the editor, you can export it to whatever you want - including to a format that standard definition DVD authoring tools (like WinDVD) can understand for burning a DVD that will play in regular DVD players.