1080i viewing/editing issue

Sanyo's Xacti VPC-HD1000 being my number one candidate, I've cross-Googled it again and again to get as much elusive data about it as possible, finding out some rather disturbing facts along the way.

For example, it does not seem possible to view, let alone edit, Full-HD 1080i content taken with this camcorder on a Mac. At least not without some hacks and/or additional codecs (see: Steve's Digicams Sanyo forum or e.g. this Apple discussion forum).

I wrote Sanyo Germany an email asking them about this issue, but they just gave me a non-answer and forwarded me to Apple:

Sehr geehrter Herr, Wir danken für Ihre Anfrage und können Ihnen diesbezüglich folgendes mitteilen. Da die im Lieferumfang der Sanyo VPC-HD1000 Digitalfilm Kamera enthaltene Software, mit der Ausnahme von QuickTime, ausschliesslich für die Betriebssysteme von Microsoft ausgelegt sind, können wir Ihnen leider nicht die gewünschten Informationen bieten. Vielleicht kann Ihnen Apple, in dieser Sache, Näheres sagen.
Mit freundlichen Grüssen, Ihr Sanyo Support Team

Apple? Surely they must be kidding, Apple support basically consists of redirecting any problematic customers to its self-help group-therapy discussion forums.

On Sanyo's other Xacti VPC-HD1000 site, it does mention in small print that "1080i movie playback is not guaranteed" on the included QuickTime 7.1 movie player from Apple. So much for Sanyo Germany not knowing anything about this issue. (note that QuickTime is freeware and that the included version is not the latest)

So, I sure hope I can get my hands on a VPC-HD1000 soon, in order to take some sample material for further private investigation.

UPDATE: As mentioned in Steve's Digicams Sanyo forum, downloading and installing avc1decoder partially fixes this problem. That is, it enables viewing of 1080i clips with QuickTime and editing with iMovie '08, though the latter is not as smooth as with 720p clips.