Just bought Canon HF200 video camera. And I am very lost on how to save the AVCHD data files used by the camera to computer so it can preserve the quality and I can play it back easily (on a Mac).

My goal is to take the recorded footage from the camera, edit it so I can remove any unwanted junk, and then save it at the highest quality forever for future on hard drive and be able to play it on computer and HDTV.

Some sites I visited and found useful:
Wikipedia Article: Introduces AVCHD: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AVCHD
MacRumors Forum: AVCHD on Mac, WAY better on Windows7 !

Some software:

Roxio's Toast 10 (for video conversions and burning to DVD/Blue-Ray)
iSkySoft: Video Converter for Mac, iMedia Converter for Mac (DVD ripper + video converter)

So my questions --

1. If I want to save my original recordings, what is the best way to do it? Can I just copy the .mts files and file them away?
2. If I want to remove certain portions from original recordings, but not lose any quality, how do I do it. Can I edit original .mts file, remove portions of the clips I don't want, and then save it so there is no loss in quality?
3. How do I play .mts files on computer at recorded quality (and without it being choppy)
4. How do I play .mts file on HDTV so it shows in the recorded quality (and not being choppy) from the computer (not from Camcorder)
   

Some observations:

1. AIC format expand your AVCHD files 3-7x (bad)
2. Mac (I have unibody MacBook Pro, Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, the latest available from Apple) doesn't provide me with native solutions
   

A suggestion from one of the forums if you want to convert to DVD (which I don't want, I want to save on Hard Drive forever but be able to play conveniently with original quality):

1. import 1080i with iMovie
2. Edit away!
3. export with "share" -> "Export using Quicktime" settings: HDV 1080i, AIC
4. Burn to Blu-ray via Toast.