Convert AVCHD

[mkrve]

Ok... i have been reading a lot of postings in this forum the last couple of days, so i know this topic is discussed a lot, but for now, i have had no setisfying results.

I shoot my videos in HD quality 1920x1080, see screenshot below



But most of my family dont have a HD screen or bluray, so i would like to edit most video in normal DVD resolutions.
As i am in Holland, the standard over here is 720x576 25fps

I would realy like to convert the HD movies to DVD resolution before editing. This ofcourse realy improves editing speed.
I tried several encoder, converters, etc... some don't work, some work, but give poor quality, some are realy cumbersom with alot of steps to take...

So my question is... If quality is more important then speed or easy of use, what is the best method to do this?

i hope somebody out there can help me

[fitch.j]

This method is going to lose you quality. By converting before editing, and then re-encoding again after editing you've already gone through 2 encodes therefore losing quality. My suggestion would just be to edit in the raw format, and then export directly to your DvD format from your editing software (assuming it has these capabilities, you didnt state what you edit on) This does make more demands on your system and slower rendering times etc, but this is what you have to accept if you dont wish to lose quality.

[mkrve]

@fitch.j

Guess you are right ofcourse that editing in original format is always best.
Currently i use Magix Video deluxe 15
(this specific product of magix is in german and dutch, dont know if they also have it in english)

It can edit the AVCHD .TS files verry good. But indeed its a big load on my system. its not realy state of the art anymore
Thats why i was homping there was a good (almost lossless) way of sizing down the resolution on the .TS files.

[Baldrick]

You can't convert HD to SD DVD resolution lossless....or maybe you just mean that you want very good SD quality.

What methods have you tried?

Xvid4psp might work if you have installed ffdshow and I would probably convert the avchd to PAL dv-avi.

[mkrve]

@Baldrick

I ofcourse know you can not do it lossless when you decrease the resolution from HD to SD
if i calculated correct HD 1920x1080 has 5 times more pixels then SD 720x576

I do not knwo exactely which methods i already tried.
I tried quite a few, dit a few tests, and removed them again since the quality was just to poor.
The last i tried was SUPER, bad quality, and the DGAVCdec method.

I'm now going to try Xvid4PSP, i just looked at it, and i didn't try it yet.
I'll let you know how it turns out

thnx

[mkrve]

Well... i tried Xvid4PSP , and it works pretty nice.

i tried converting to PAL dv-avi but if i'm going to use it for creating a DVD, isn't it better to choose to convert it to MPEG2 PAL.
Then technically speaking, (if i do not add effects etc) it doesn't have to be recoded again to create the DVD, am i right?

It takes a loooooong time to convert the HD MTS files to SD MPEG2 PAL (Intell Core2 2.13Ghz, 2GB memory) but the quality of the rendered file is realy nice. The only thing i miss is a easy batch function. You can make a conversion que, but still have to open the files 1 by 1, set the settings and add them to the que.

Thnx for pointing out this program.

[glenpinn]

if all your going to do is convert to mpeg2 without editing your original footage, yes, convert straight to dvd compliant mpeg2 at whatever bitrate you choose.

as baldrick said tho, if your going to do any kind of editing above just cutting stuff out, then output to dv-avi first, do your editing, then convert that to the mpeg2 format, ready for authoring/burning to dvd.

you realize most dvd players, and most hdd media players these days actually play mpeg2 files burnt as data files to a dvd, so you dont always need to author, unless you want the menu screen.

i have 170 mpeg2 files (which is 165gb worth of family videos) of various length (10mins up to 80mins) and they are numbered 001 up to 170 followed by the year it was filmed followed by the video title, and i used to burn these to dvd-r discs (from 1 up to several files per dvd) and they played via the dvd players menu screen on every dvd player i tried them on.

these days i use my noontek HDD media playes which can also play mpeg2 files, but i now converted those to Xvid at very good quality for playing on tv, and the mpeg2 files are stored away for safe keeping.

have you considered Xvid as an SD format, most dvd players now support divX/Xvid as well.

[pepegot1]

I don't know why people bother with these AVCHD camcorders when conditions for their use is so limited. Blue Ray discs are expensive-where are the good Blue Ray recorders? The world is still SDVD. You must convert to it, or most people will not be able to view your product, unless you belong to the esoteric few. You need a super fast computer to encode. This is fine for the ad vanguard, and trail blazers, but not the average user. You have problems because the technology is not fully developed or even near it. As for me, I will stay with SDVD until such time a change is more practical, though I can also understand the adventure's point of view.
That's why some poor slobs buy one of these things and quickly find themselves knee deep in quicksand, unlike the knowledgeable users of this web site.

[lordsmurf]

I don't know why people bother with these AVCHD camcorders when conditions for their use is so limited. Blue Ray discs are expensive-where are the good Blue Ray recorders? The world is still SDVD. You must convert to it, or most people will not be able to view your product, unless you belong to the esoteric few. You need a super fast computer to encode. This is fine for the ad vanguard, and trail blazers, but not the average user. You have problems because the technology is not fully developed or even near it. As for me, I will stay with SDVD until such time a change is more practical, though I can also understand the adventure's point of view.
That's why some poor slobs buy one of these things and quickly find themselves knee deep in quicksand, unlike the knowledgeable users of this web site.

I have to explain this at least once a week or more.

People love to ask me "what camera should I buy" and they always get this frowny face when I say to not buy an HD camera, stick to DV. It's a situation where if you have to ask, you're not knowledgeable enough to mess with it.

Then they ask the obvious question, and I have to explain AVCHD is a can of worms, and they'll need to buy a new quad-core computer, some new expensive software, a Blu-ray burner to make HD discs (and explain that no, your DVD burner won't work), and a Blu-ray player to watch it (again, no your DVD player won't work) -- and spend a lot of time learning video -- and I usually never get a chance to finish that sentence before they get this confused look in their face. I don't even get around to the HD vs SD, HD downsampling, etc. They cut me off or start to drool (meaning to stop before I make their head explode).

Half of them probably don't believe me, buy the camera anyway expecting to make DVDs in Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, and they learn the hard way.

The other half thank me for helping them avoid an expensive ****-up, and keeping things both easy and affordable for them.

What gets me even more is when somebody asks "what camera should I buy so I can take pictures that look like yours". I try to help them, and nicely, but it gets me that people think the toys do the work. It's almost entirely the operator. A camera can't "take a photo" (or video) any more than a hammer can "build a house".

[pippas]

I don't know why people bother with these AVCHD camcorders when conditions for their use is so limited. Blue Ray discs are expensive-where are the good Blue Ray recorders?

I use my AVCHD camcorder because the images are simply so much better than my standard def DV camcorder.

I agree that getting the footage onto Blu ray is a bit of a pain -which is why I don't bother!

I just transfer the footage onto the computer for storage, and then simply plug my external HDD into my WDHDTV media player, to playback in full quality onto my HDTV set -or even my computer monitor, if I wish. No discs, no messing about with 'burning' Blu ray discs - simple!

If you want to go onto the next stage, and do a bit more editing than just cutting bits out, then AVCHD can get abit more difficult. It needs a pretty powerful machine to work effectively with.

Unless you do as do - transcode the AVCHD using an intermediate format like Canopus HQ or Cineform, which then gives files that even a good old fachioned P4 can deal with.
Edit as you please, and then re encode as AVC using the x.264 codec, and replay the HD files straight from the HDD, using a media player.
OK, that's bit more fussing about, but it's not difficult -if it was I couldn't do it! - and the final HD output can be so much better than standard DVD.

I do have some family members that don't have any HD kit yet, so I sometimes downconvert and make a standard DVD for them -but I keep the original HD footage intact anyway, in case I want it in the future.

[edDV]

I don't know why people bother with these AVCHD camcorders when conditions for their use is so limited. Blue Ray discs are expensive-where are the good Blue Ray recorders? The world is still SDVD. You must convert to it, or most people will not be able to view your product, unless you belong to the esoteric few. You need a super fast computer to encode. This is fine for the ad vanguard, and trail blazers, but not the average user. You have problems because the technology is not fully developed or even near it. As for me, I will stay with SDVD until such time a change is more practical, though I can also understand the adventure's point of view.
That's why some poor slobs buy one of these things and quickly find themselves knee deep in quicksand, unlike the knowledgeable users of this web site.

I have to explain this at least once a week or more.

People love to ask me "what camera should I buy" and they always get this frowny face when I say to not buy an HD camera, stick to DV. It's a situation where if you have to ask, you're not knowledgeable enough to mess with it.

Then they ask the obvious question, and I have to explain AVCHD is a can of worms, and they'll need to buy a new quad-core computer, some new expensive software, a Blu-ray burner to make HD discs (and explain that no, your DVD burner won't work), and a Blu-ray player to watch it (again, no your DVD player won't work) -- and spend a lot of time learning video -- and I usually never get a chance to finish that sentence before they get this confused look in their face. I don't even get around to the HD vs SD, HD downsampling, etc. They cut me off or start to drool (meaning to stop before I make their head explode).

Half of them probably don't believe me, buy the camera anyway expecting to make DVDs in Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, and they learn the hard way.

The other half thank me for helping them avoid an expensive ****-up, and keeping things both easy and affordable for them.

What gets me even more is when somebody asks "what camera should I buy so I can take pictures that look like yours". I try to help them, and nicely, but it gets me that people think the toys do the work. It's almost entirely the operator. A camera can't "take a photo" (or video) any more than a hammer can "build a house".

Amen bro. I'd add advice to use HDV format goes equally unheard or rejected. HDV has two well proven and economical work flows to DVD release (with HD master for future use). People don't want to hear of it because HDV uses tapes.

[glenpinn]

Amen bro. I'd add advice to use HDV format goes equally unheard or rejected. HDV has two well proven and economical work flows to DVD release (with HD master for future use). People don't want to hear of it because HDV uses tapes.

ok well im in the market for a new HD cam (probably a panny HDC-HS300) and been using mini DV for 5 years, and as much as i like HDV im not going to use it because of the tape format.

i am sick of buying tapes and having to carry several with me on trips, and having to keep them stored in the right environment, as well as only getting 1 hour footage on each tape b4 changing over.

i decided i want a big inbuilt HDD (shoots 15 hrs) and sd/sdhd card option (16gb shoots 90min and 32gb shoots 180min) so AVCHD is the option for me, given that although i will have a (large hdd capacity) dedicated storage facility to keep all my original footage for later use, most of my stuff for the next year or 2 will be output to a more consumer friendy format, formats that most people can play, ranging from SD dvd (mpeg2) to Xvid (both supported in nearly every home via dvd players) and its the quality of the AVCHD footage i want for output to those formats, giving me the best of both worlds (keep original footage and output great quality footage in other formats)

i wont be doing any pro editing, just some cutting/trimming of my footage before storing the final clips on my new storage facility (no point keeping everything i film, its a waste of storage space)

all i need is a program that allows me to get footage from the cams hdd to my pc and to do the basic chopping up and joining back together without outputting to another format first, then i keep that footage, and output to other formats as required.

i dont know if its too late now for HDV to be developed so it uses other media types to film on (i dont know much about its history) but i can see other peoples arguments about not wanting HDV because of the tape issue, and im one of them m8, its a pain in the butt.

i have to say tho, making the final decision has been hard as to what format, and cam to buy, its a total nightmare out there, least with SD dvd format it was simple for most to grasp, even tho the primary format was filmed onto mini dv tape, as we had no choice unless we wanted to shoot to mpeg2 direct to an internal hdd on the cam, and for me that was never an option.

cheers

[SatStorm]

It's all about memory cards vs tapes if you think about it.
Memory cards wins.

Regarding what you can do with the material you shoot, well... Burn them on DVD-Rs as is and watch them on TV using something "nmt" like (popcorn hour, westerndigital TV, eGrate, etc).
It's a solution.

[glenpinn]

It's all about memory cards vs tapes if you think about it.
Memory cards wins.

Regarding what you can do with the material you shoot, well... Burn them on DVD-Rs as is and watch them on TV using something "nmt" like (popcorn hour, westerndigital TV, eGrate, etc).
It's a solution.

of coarse memory cards win out anyone could work this one out, purely from the fact you can take the card from the camera, slide it into a card reader on the pc (int or ext) and simply transfer the footage over to the hdd.

mini dv tape must be transferred via firewire in real time from the cam, and for many this just isnt practical as many computers (and pc users) dont have (and refuse to use) firewire thinking its old and outdated and not needed in todays pc world.

sadly not everyone has a supported player or device for anything other than dvd format, and many still use SD tv so they cant play HD content anyway.

its a shame to have a full HD cam shooting AVCHD and then have to re-convert back to SD dvd format for these reasons, but least the source files are great quality to use for down sizing, but hopefully one will never get rid of the original footage, and thats why i want to go the AVCHD path.

[minidv2dvd]

i've thought about it quite a lot and cards bite. tape wins. at $3 a pop for 13GB of storage it eats class 6 memory cards for breakfast. don't even mention the p2 card unless you're speilberg. that and tapes never, ever just "lose" all the files and become "unrecoverable". i don't even want to think of all the cards i've tossed in the last couple years. oh, and they are re-usable up to around a hundred times if you think $3 is too expensive to store an hours video on.

glennpinn - what is the average lifespan of a hard drive? it's about a tenth as long as a tape will survive. there are no "tape issues" it's a proven workable format, but i will admit maybe too hard for "consumers" to use. the open cassette door, remove tape, insert tape, close door is kind of complicated.

[glenpinn]

i've thought about it quite a lot and cards bite. tape wins. at $3 a pop for 13GB of storage it eats class 6 memory cards for breakfast. don't even mention the p2 card unless you're speilberg. that and tapes never, ever just "lose" all the files and become "unrecoverable". i don't even want to think of all the cards i've tossed in the last couple years. oh, and they are re-usable up to around a hundred times if you think $3 is too expensive to store an hours video on.

glennpinn - what is the average lifespan of a hard drive? it's about a tenth as long as a tape will survive. there are no "tape issues" it's a proven workable format, but i will admit maybe too hard for "consumers" to use. the open cassette door, remove tape, insert tape, close door is kind of complicated.

you asked me how long an average hdd lasts for, but i can ask you the same question about a mini dv tape as well cant i ???

you say a tape lasts 10 times longer than a hdd, but how do you know they will, have you tested a batch of used tapes in real life to prove they last as long as they "claim" they will.

i have had 6 years out of several ide drives, and out of 25 sata drives i currently have, none has yet failed me mechanically (mine vary between 6 mths and 4 years old at the moment) and with the cheapness of drives now, i think a hdd offers a far better $ for $ storage facility than keeping my mini dv tapes and having to buy new ones all the time to film on

as far as i see it, a dv tape is $5au ($3us) for 1 hour of footage (regardless of its size or format) and a 1TB hdd is $120au ($90us) which can hold about 125 hours of high quality 17Mbps AVCHD recording from an HS300 cam, so that equates to about $1au per hour of footage compared to your tape at $5 per hour (or $2au per hour if you have 2 backup drives offering 1 copy of each file on each drive like i do)

you also say you can use a mini dv tape 100 times, but who in their right mind would do this if they are sane or have any respect for the footage they are shooting ???
i actually know people who have used their tapes 20+ times and they start getting problems with the playback, its common.

anyway, we should not be talking about how many times a dv tape or sd card can be used to film onto because your saying a dv tape is better than using a hdd to store the original footage on, and if your going to keep your original dv tapes as your archived (original) footage then your not going to use that tape again anyway.

oddly enough, if you do re-use your dv tape again, then youre going to need another storage medium to store your output files onto anyway (a hdd rings a bell as just 1 medium in this case) and then you have to use another $5 tape to take its place.

if i shoot onto an sd/sdhd card for example, im not going to store my footage on that card then buy another one to shoot on, thats not what they were designed for, and i wouldnt keep my footage stored on the cams internal hdd either if it has one.

on another note, as time goes by, we may well see the dv tape, or playback formats for dv tape become obsolete, so its likely that those who have kept their dv tapes will need to move that footage to a newer medium anyway, but the hdd medium i think is leaving a much easier path (more convenient at least) for relocating these files in the future (from existing hdd to a newer hdd using the pc)

i have 2x 1TB storage facilities ready to go for when i do make the move to HD format (1 drive per copy, 2 copies of everything) which cost me $240au.

cheers

oh and btw
- have you seen someone lose an hours footage because the tape drive became faulty and stuffed up the video on the tape ???
- have you ever seen a tape pulled out of the tape drive and its stuck and cant be retrieved without totally destroying the tape ???
- have you seen a tape that was stored in a warm humid storage facility and was totally destroyed by fungus ???

i have, and thats my argument about dv tapes, they must be stored in the right environment to have any chance at surviving even half the time they claim they can last.

[zoobie]

I think it's the memory card vs the DV tape costs being debated...not the storage.
Any video should be backed up twice anyway, anyhow.
Heard those memory cards were quite expensive...

PS - I'll bet it's a drag trying to explain modern techniques over and over...perhaps you should make a video

[paulw]

I'm also in the market for a new camcorder and want to go HD. I most likely will go HDV with a Canon HV30 as it way easier to edit compared to AVCHD. The last thing I want to do is have to upgrade the PC as well..

[glenpinn]

I think it's the memory card vs the DV tape costs being debated...not the storage.
Any video should be backed up twice anyway, anyhow.
Heard those memory cards were quite expensive...

PS - I'll bet it's a drag trying to explain modern techniques over and over...perhaps you should make a video

well im debating storage mediums and storage costs, not price differences between cards and tapes, and i havent seen anything mentioned about the cost of memory cards in here because one would never store their archived footage to an sd/sdhd card anyway, and these things cost a fortune to buy anyway ($45au for 16gb and $70au plus for 32gb)

if you shoot to dv tape and use the tape as your storage medium, you buy another tape to film on, yet you have to put the footage onto the pc to process it, and if its on tape, you run the risk of losing your only copy of the footage, unless you also have another copy stored on hdd, or backed up onto yet another tape.

we are not debating the best format to shoot in (HDV vs AVCHD) at the moment its irrelevant, im just saying that for me to store 2 copies of AVCHD footage, it is far cheaper and convenient to keep the footage on hdd, i think its clear by a mile (under $2au per hour to store 2 copies compared to $5au per hour to keep my tapes, and that only gives me 1 copy of my footage.

i have 3 dv tapes in my wardrobe that are 5 years old, one is my wedding that was filmed on betacam by a tv station i worked for at the time (1990) and was converted to digital format 5 years ago, then converted to mpeg2 by myself from the dv tape (i still have the original betacam tape from the camera as well)

the other 2 dv tapes (and the betacam tapes) contain my 2 kids births and baptisms, and nothing will make me toss those out, but the DV files plus the mpeg2 files for all 3 events are also stored on my 2 storage systems as well, they are my most prized possessions and deserve looking after.

anyway, no matter if its standard def or high def footage filmed in whatever format and onto onto whatever medium, a hdd is for me, the most cost effective, most convenient, and more reliable form of storage on offer for my files.

cheers

[glenpinn]

I'm also in the market for a new camcorder and want to go HD. I most likely will go HDV with a Canon HV30 as it way easier to edit compared to AVCHD. The last thing I want to do is have to upgrade the PC as well..

and you just hit the nail on the head.

the format we choose also comes down to the pc we have, and whether or not we are going to do any kind of advanced type editing on the footage we film.

like i have said many times, im not interested in advanced editing, i just need to get my footage to my pc, cut bits out and join it back up to original format for storage, then be able to get that footage out when i need to play it on whatever device i have (hdd media players in my case) where i wont need to re-encode to other formats because ill be playing from the hdd media player that supports the format i shoot in.

i can also then re-convert to other formats if someone else needs a different format. i will have a brilliant source file to work with, and i wont be doing any editing to re-convert the source file anyway.

for me, AVCHD onto int hdd or sd card is a better all round option than having to use tape, although i have nothing against HDV itself, i think its great personally.

just working out the best cam to buy is the biggest issue at the moment.

cheers

[pepegot1]

For those who make movies of their endeavors, AVCHD is not the way to go. I use my Panny 3CCD and the excellent software availabe to make good travel logs etc. I would not even think of AVCHD in this case. If your needs are simple, then the other alternative can work to some degree.

[pippas]

It really isn't that difficult to deal with AVCHD, and the quality of the images can far exceed those available from standard definition cameras - at least at consumer (hobby) level.

If you do have a computer that can handle AVCHD, then the software that comes with most of the newer AVCHD cameras will allow you to do simple editing - and that's all that many folk want to do!

For those who don't have a powerful enough computer at present to deal with the 'raw' footage, then simply turn it into something that your computer can deal with - like Canopus HQ or Cineform. Keeps the quality as 'HD' but is much less demanding of CPU power.


For those determined to stick with 'spinning discs', then yes, the whole Blu ray writing experience is still quite expensive, and a bit complex.

For those of us moving on, and using HDD or solid state storage, and media players rather than disc players, then there are all sorts of final delivery HD formats, many of them free!

Once you have seen AVCHD footage at it's best, there really is no contest with standard def footage.(IMHO, of course!)

[glenpinn]

For those who make movies of their endeavors, AVCHD is not the way to go. I use my Panny 3CCD and the excellent software availabe to make good travel logs etc. I would not even think of AVCHD in this case. If your needs are simple, then the other alternative can work to some degree.

so you rather stick to filming in standard def dvd quality ???

i decided that if im going to move up to full HD tv then i might as well take my videography up to the same level as well and finally move on from dv format.

i cant do much more with all my 170 16x9 SD mpeg2 files now, they are what they are, and for SD tv they are great, but in future ill be watching them upscaled onto a new 42" or 52" HD tv and will have to make do with them, but im not suggesting they wont be any good, but i just need to move on from that format.

[minidv2dvd]

for me, AVCHD onto int hdd or sd card is a better all round option than having to use tape, although i have nothing against HDV itself, i think its great personally.

just working out the best cam to buy is the biggest issue at the moment

i was having a bit of fun. maybe i was a bit toooo far on the other side of the issue, but i do work with tapes everyday for work. and sometimes after i deliver a project i shot on HDV i do reuse the tapes. the only issue i run across is when i have to capture different brands of tape sent to me for customers. the different types of lube can gum up the heads if not cleaned off after every change. jvc seems to be the worst tape for messing up my equipment.

if canon cams interest you the new hf s10 / s100 with the large sensor about the size of the hv20/30/40's look pretty good.

[edDV]

Just understand the issues. If you intend to buy an AVCHD cam, get all your ducks in line and test the workflow first.

Tape may be a pain for some but it works. Tape also creates an automatic backup.

[Braindrain]

edDV, your advice about knowing what you're getting into is good.

I've been working with DV tapes for about 9 years and it seems glennpin isn't too far behind that.

Considering the advances in technology and how easy it is to encode to a lossless intermediate codec, I'd say DV is on its last legs (except for professional crews).

I'd say the main problem right now is that the average person doesn't know how to deal with AVCHD footage. Once this knowledge becomes more mainstream, you'll see fewer noob Q's.

[edDV]

edDV, your advice about knowing what you're getting into is good.

I've been working with DV tapes for about 9 years and it seems glennpin isn't too far behind that.

Considering the advances in technology and how easy it is to encode to a lossless intermediate codec, I'd say DV is on its last legs (except for professional crews).

I'd say the main problem right now is that the average person doesn't know how to deal with AVCHD footage. Once this knowledge becomes more mainstream, you'll see fewer noob Q's.

I agree on the digital intermediate point. Apple forces AVCHD into digital intermediates and even forces quarter size 960x540p for iMovie. Consumer PC editing apps usually recode to MPeg2.

As for DV, the HD derivative is the Panasonic DVCProHD pro line. That in the future will be replaced by AVC-Intra which like DV records all full frames but with AVC for intraframe compression.

HDV is a form of Sony's pro XDCAM HD/EX (MPeg2) format that is adapted to the DV camcorder 25Mb/s tape + IEEE-1394 mechanism. A nice bonus feature for HDV, the camcorder is fully compatible with SD DV as well.

The growth path for HDV is clearly XDCAM-EX which works with any storage media including flash ram.

So at the consumer/prosumer end of the scale, it comes down to lower compressed MPeg2 vs. h.264. MPeg2 can be edited directly without recode. Other than for cuts only, AVCHD needs an intermediate conversion. Maybe this will change with 8, 16 or 32 cores.

[glenpinn]

edDV, your advice about knowing what you're getting into is good.

I've been working with DV tapes for about 9 years and it seems glennpin isn't too far behind that.

I'd say the main problem right now is that the average person doesn't know how to deal with AVCHD footage. Once this knowledge becomes more mainstream, you'll see fewer noob Q's.

actually i started my dv life using a panny MX-500 and a GS-70 then onto a GS-400 then a GS-500, and because i wanted to eventually do wedding videography i bought an AG-DVX100A, but sold it after 12 months because it never eventuated the way i planned it.

very good point made here about about AVCHD as well, and im in the same boat, searching for information on AVCHD because for me and what i want to do, it seems i will have a very good source file to work with when/if i need to re-convert to other formats.

[Tazlord]

I think this thread has officially been hijacked...

To the O.P.
If you want to edit in SD DVD quality without having to first transcode your video source, I would suggesting using AviSynth and VirtualDub to do the trick. It will not require tons of CPU power and you can see the final result in real-time. Only when you are satisfied with the result do you have to start the transcoding, which you can you do overnight while you sleep.

[edDV]

I think this thread has officially been hijacked...

To the O.P.
If you want to edit in SD DVD quality without having to first transcode your video source, I would suggesting using AviSynth and VirtualDub to do the trick. It will not require tons of CPU power and you can see the final result in real-time. Only when you are satisfied with the result do you have to start the transcoding, which you can you do overnight while you sleep.

Add a little more detail for your suggested workflow. The OP has an AVCHD (1440x1080i h.264) camera master file. How do you suggest he edit that in Virtualdub+AVISynth without transcode?