Authoring standard Blue Ray video from AVCHD - Need general guindance

[rodrigonh]

Hello there,
First, sorry about any bad grammar, English is not my native language.
I have been using videohelp.com from years now, it's the best video site in my opinion but this is the first time using the forums here. I tried searching on internet or other forum posts in here to get a conclusion about the subject but im still not sure where should I look for starting with blue ray authoring. Sorry if my questions are very obvious or something Im just trying to start at the right direction.

I have a HDR-XR100 camcorder that records in AVCHD format. Until now I was very happy using the camcorder in SD settings and authoring my videos to DVD. Now I finally bought a blue ray writer and im wondering about start recording in AVCHD to author the final blue ray discs.

1- After reading about AVCHD format and general stand alone players compatibility I really want to produce standard blue ray video discs and not AVCHD. I will need to transcode the original h.264 video to some other h.264 video to accomplish this? I really hope it doesn't need to be done this way, you know, information losses also big processing times. There are practical ways to convert AVCHD to standard blue ray format without transcoding? If I will really need transcoding, any suggestions on good (preferable free), programs to accomplish this stage ?

2- For SD format i just use a program called MPEG Video Wizard DVD to cut parts of the original clips and "clue" the resulting clips into a new solid stream _without_ transconding. Now for AVCHD or blue ray video there are programs I can use for this ? Suggestions?

3- To author the disk from SD format Im using the program "DVD lab pro", its really a great one, simple to use (yet powerful if you need it), and not a PC resource hog. With this one i create menus, chapters, insert background images and music, create video flows etc. What are the nice, user friendly programs for this final step of authoring? Suggestions ? I checked and unfortunately this program I use doesn't support blue ray yet.

At this point my main concern is about discovering if I will need to transcode the video files. Using the files "out of the box" from the camcorder, not losing quality, is really a great deal. I hope I will be able to do the same now with blue rays.

Sorry about the quite extensive text. Also im not expecting very detailed responses but general clues to head me into the right direction.

Many thanks,
Rodrigo

[budwzr]

AVCHD is "BluRay". BluRay is "AVCHD". It's a much different infrastructure in BD. The easiest way to go is to find a good authoring software. No you do not need to recode anything.