So far the best way to playback my AVCHD videos (from DS1) has been showing them directly through the camcorder in my projector Panasonic PT-AE300 (960*540) with component video cable. It looks that "half/half" resolution is a very good compromise. I have tried viewing through Ulead11 and by connecting the camcorder directly to 1600*1200 lcd monitor, but they looked considerably inferior. Also I found out that it is also the best way to view still fotos with my projector. None of the resolutions I have tried with my laptop and vga cable have been as good.

However I am not sure if it's possible to export the videos/stills from SD1 to capture SW for editing and then import them back to SD1 and still be able to playback with the camcorder. It looks like that the AVCHD video consists of several sub-files (STREAM, PLAYLIST, CLIPINF, AVCHDTN and maybe INDEX and MOVIEOBJ files are needed too), which, I suppose, must "match". Do you have any experience on this?

Do you know what "AVCHD compatibility" means in the new Panasonic DMP-BD10A Blu-Ray player? Does it have a SDHC card reader which could be used for playback, or does it mean that AVCHD videos files burned to Blu-Ray disc can be played directly with the player without need for re-formatting AVCHD files?

I recently bought Nero 7 Premium Reloaded. It looks that my computer is not powerful enough to play AVCHD videos with it?? The video runs about 2 seconds and stops and then continues a few seconds, etc. With Ulead 11 demo I did not have problems. I have a 3 year old laptop with AMD 3000+, ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 and 2GB of 333MHz main memory. Files are on external 250Gb USB2 HDD.

It's going to be awfully expensive to view AVCHD's with optimal picture quality: 550 Euros for the Blu-Ray burner, 900 Euros for the Blu-Ray player and 3000 Euros for the full HD projector.

An AMD 3000+ isn't close to being good enough for AVCHD playback.

I have an Intel 6600 Core2Duo (2.4 GHz) and I think I may upgrade to the 6850 (3 GHz) given the recent price drop to $300. I still have trouble with Nero Showtime on some clips.

Future proof it may be, cheap it is not presently....

I have the most recent Core 2 Duo iMac, and even this machine is sometimes having trouble playing 17Mbps AVCHD. If you reduce the bitrate to, say, 12Mbps (or 7, or 5), you may have better luck.

As for Blu-Ray burner, this may not be necessary. I have Canon HF-100. It records AVCHD at 17MBps, which translates to about 8GB per hour. If I record under one hour, I can burn the entire 'PRIVATE' folder on a dual-layer DVD-R and stick that into a Blu-Ray player. Here, in the US, BR players can be had for as little as $250 (some £120), and many (specifically, Sony) are capable of playing back AVCHD files in a proper blu-ray directory structure. This usually comes directly from the camcorder (at least it does from Canon). So, all you need to find is a full-HD (1080p) projector and a cheap Sony BD player and you're all set.

I've recently discovered that HD Writer (came with my SD5) writes back an edited movie on a Bluray DVD to the SD card such that the edited movie can be played back through the camcorder to a TV or Projector. The Bluray DVDs are made on a standard DVD burner on -R or -R Dual Layer with either Pinnacle 11 Plus or Nero 8 (with the HD-DVD/Bluray plug in). HD Writer manages to write the clip info and thumbnails needed by the SD5. The limitation is that Pinnacle produces a single video file and the maximum allowed by the FAT32 file format on the SD card is 4Gb. The Bluray DVD produced by Nero Vision is simply the video files without menus and transitions (or stills), so is not very useful.
My PC is a quad core with 4 Gb RAM and Vista and still preview with Pinnacle is not smooth. I don't have a Bluray player but have tested them in a Sony BDP-S300 and a Panasonic DMP-BD30 in shops and they worked fine - I'm waiting for the prices to come down.

I too have played clips directly from my camcorder via HDMI into an HDTV set. That should always be fine. I have also sucessfully played clips copied onto my desktop PC with PowerDVD 8 Ultra. Depending on how you open the clip in PowerDVD 8, it wants to see the Blu-ray like structure that it was originally recorded in. My desktop machine is a quad-core with an nVidia 8800 and I have the nVidia decoder. It has no trouble at all. My HTPC is more modest with a 3.2GHz P4 and an nVidia 8500, along with the nVidia decoder. It too will play AVCHD raw structures with PowerDVD 8 Ultra. Even my notebook does well with its 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo and an nVidia 8600M - the nVidia decoder again.

So, modern PC hardware with the right software does well playing AVCHD. My older notebook at 2GHz (Pentium M) with an nVidia 6200 struggles bravely and sputters out with the same task.

Bye.

PS. I do not hold it against you that my ex-wife is of Finnish decent.