just got my first vidcam; a Panasonic HDC HS9 and after info on MPEG2 TS

[topcatstudios]

HI all
Just got my first vidcam (although i am OK on photography but never been into video), and shooting some stuff on it. In the Panasonic download mode it saves as MPEG 2 TS and then asks if i want to save as MPEG 2, which i can then put through Windows Movie Maker . But if i look at file size for instance the original MPEG 2 TS may be say 100mb, then the MPEG 2 saved version may be 70MB and the MWV may be 30MB. I know i can adjust the WMV quality and raise the bit rate, definition etc to raise the MB file size, but when i save the MPEG 2 from the AVCHD program it is lower than the stored file as a TS version. Is this because the TS looses the packets info and synch clock info for straight MPEG 2 and in reality i still have the same hi standard clip. Or should i be saving my files in some sort of raw state that i do not know about. The problem is that if i drop to WMV, then want to re-clip the files, each time i re-do i lose info and the clips start to get jagged edges and lose resolution. What should i keep the raw files as, and what editing software should i be using. I do shoot in the highest format on the vidcam.
Thanks all.

[minidv2dvd]

i'd just skip the panasonic software and transfer the files using windows. a straight file transfer will copy the files from the cam to the computer hard drive. the cam only records in avchd which is mpeg-4, so i don't know why it's claiming to save as mpeg-2 ts which would require a long re-encoding time and loss of quality. something's not right.