stechiche:

1) Is it possible to convert the AVCHD files to high quality MPEG-2 indentical in resolution (1920x1080) and identical in quality to the original and have a slow computer handle them? AVS can't make 1920x1080 MPEG-2 beyond 15mb/s (vs AVCHD at 17mb/s) and I can edit in studio with those files. But the quality is far (very far) from the original. Has anyone done that? and what tool should I use to make these? 

Please see this thread.

I know nothing about AVS products, except that a file conversion program I bought in 2007 did not handle AVCHD well at all, resulted in poor quality conversions, and (by pure coincidence?) ceased to function almost exactly one year after purchase.  Perhaps it was because I failed to respond to emails or pop-ups that enticed me to buy upgrades.  In any case, its failure was a main reason I bought a 2.4 ghz core 2 duo with an NVIDIA 8400 card and BD burner, which at the time was advanced fast for a small notebook.  Ah, but times change.

Even on a 3 ghz mono core P4, it is possible to drag AVCHD files to a Studio timeline and export them as a gross batch to an HDV MPEG2 file, which can then be imported to a new timeline and edited.  The proviso is that you cannot try to edit or preview the native AVCHD mts / m2ts files.  Competing programs use "proxy files" to allow one to edit AVCHD with relatively lenient PC specs, but a slow CPU and lack of a dedicated graphics card still makes it a slow process to edit and burn an HD disc image.  Export to a semi-HD MP4 or WMV file is also a slow business.

Anyone with an L/T commitment to AVCHD, especially if it is 1920x1080, should probably track the prices for a fast quad core system with an advanced graphics card.  $800 for an upgrade is a triffle compared to perhaps 100s or 1,000s of additional hours needed for transcoding, recoding, or rendering with a slow PC.

Marc,

That Loilo package topic came up on HV20.com and no one had heard of it.  I followed the link and looked at the specs, they are calling for a fairly fast dual core and graphics card with CUDA capability.

 I'm pretty much afraid a too slow PC is really too slow.  I have HF100's and you can believe Pinnacle when they state a quad core at 2.66Ghz minimum is required to edit 1920x1080.  I missed this and purchased a Dell with Q6600 (quad core running at 2.4Ghz) and that would just barely "choke along" with the cam set for 1440x1080.  A graphics card upgrade from 256MB to an Nvidia 8800GT with 512MB did allow me to edit 1920x1080 as long as I didn't get too fancy with video added to the 2nd track.  

 But even then editing 1920x1080 was not a real nice experience.  Current machine is Core i7 based and things go MUCH better.

Actually, I upgraded to Studio 11 when it was first offered.  I had an AMD Athlon 64x 2 Dual Core +4200 and was editing HDV.  When I ordered the first HF100 I ordered a Dell with Q6600 quad core 2.4Ghz without paying attention to what Pinnacle advised.

The Core i7 is a bit faster in some ways but Pinnacle Studio is such a "hungry beast" that even with 8 virtual cores at work rendering still goes slow.  Oh it's faster, all right, if I remember watching the Q6600 literally grind to a halt on some things.  I learned to leave and go do something else for 15 minutes or so then come back.

What goes slow is background rendering effects, if you do color correction on a clip, then another processing effect, each one takes time.  One short had several clips where I did 3 effects on them and I just had to walk away and watch TV for an hour or two, even on the Q6600.  It does go a bit faster on the Core i7.

One thing I learned on the Q6600 machine is that the grapics card can make a BIG difference.  It came with an ATI Radeon HD 2400 with 256MB on board.  With that card it would barely handle the HF100 files if the cam was set at 1440x1080 12Mbps, one notch down from max.  The other NLE I use would not even display video on the timeline in the edit window from 1920x1080.

When I replaced the ATI with an Nvidia 8800GT with 512MB things changed.  Pinnacle Studio would now edit 1920x1080 17Mbps if I went at it very patiently  and put up with an agonizingly slow pace.  And the other NLE also worked.

The Core i7 machine is showing a few signs I may be real wise to upgrade it's video card down the road.  It has an ATI with 512MB but I suspect we are really going to be better off with 1GB there.

The other NLE I try to use literally "flies" on this machine, but there are a few things I really can't live with that Studio does a lot better...

...So that's my story and I'm sticking to it.