PE7 - AVCHD user's first look

Question

I've been using a variety of AVCHD programs for nearly a year now to edit clips from a Panasonic SD5. I've also tried some trials without purchasing them. I've not tried the most costly, just those suitable for someone chiefly producing domestic-type projects.
Here's my take on Premiere Elements 7 totally from that standpoint, and based at least initially very much on first reactions. Oh, I should add that the most recent version of PE I have is version 2.
Installation - no obvious problem.
First reaction to the interface - not as "noddy" looking as some in this league.
I'm following my nose. Opening existing AVCHD clips stored on my hard drive. When I attempt to open them I get a message requiring activation. At once, a problem - this version isn't listed on the activation page. Well, I tell it I've got the previous version and it gives me an activation code. The program accepts it. I have to say that normally such activation procedures are completely automatic - this seems a bit crude.
Good, there's the six clips. They appear on the "organise" page in reverse time order. I think this is normally a Windows problem (XP Pro here on a quad core PC). I've now dragged them one by one into the sceneline.
I've now created a disc menu (just grabbed the first one) and click on "Share". Burn to DVD, select the AVCHD preset - er... there is no AVCHD preset. Well, looks like all else has failed and I'll have to read the manual.
That's odd - there's no reference to burning AVCHD onto DVDs. I can't believe this can't be done in PE7 - it's a standard feature in all other such programs and (after many months of interacting with others on sundry video forums) the most popular way of outputting AVCHD projects. Well, I guess I'm missing an obvious option here, so meanwhile I'll have to go about things another way.
In the "Share > PC" page I have now found an option to output to H.264 in the same format as the original footage. Set that running and the time to complete the 2.5 minute project with no effects or transitions is given as about 9 minutes. Well, that clearly shows that the clips are being transcoded unnecessarily, as in a non-transcoding AVCHD process (in other software) the task would take much less than a minute. Not good.
Once I've got the render done I guess I'll have to fire up another app to get it onto a DVD to check on my PS3/Bravia system. And as it's been transcoded I'll have to check it with deep suspicion.
I'm kind of hoping that someone is going to point out that I've gone at this much to hastily and that I'm missing some options, but at first glance Adobe, coming late into the AVCHD game, haven't taken the opportunity to leapfrog the others in the market by providing what the market is asking for, namely non-transcoding of unchanged clips together with a 'serious' editing environment. No, I've not even touched on the editing side because it's fallen at an earlier fence. And if, as it seems at first glance, you have to use a competitive app to actually get your AVCHD project onto an AVCHD DVD, then the editing side would have to be pretty damn good to get people to not simply handle the whole project in that other program. That editing side I will explore as soon as time allows - will it be so good as to make the user forgive the basic shortcomings (as I see them) I've identitified?

Answer 1

If you select PCM then you cannot have multiplexing "on", so you end up with a video file and an audio file. To be honest I haven't tried simply offering that to the PS3 and seeing whether it would treat them as a pair to play, but I'd doubt it.
Meanwhile however I have made some progress!
What I have now found to work well is a procedure based on advice in http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/convert_mkv_to_avchd_for_ps3_and_blu-ray.cfm - but there's one small thing you have to do in PE7 first.
The nice thing is that the two small programs used in the procedure are freeware or donationware,
and the output from PE7 is not rerendered. The downside is that you don't get menus this way. If you want full disc authoring, use a suitable not-free program.
Anyway, the crucial thing is to use "Share > Personal Computer > H.264 " (pick your size and frame rate) and then click on the "Adavanced" button, then the "Multiplexer" tab, then the "None" button - so that the video and audio will not be merged in one file but will end up in separate video and audio files.
These files (yourfilename.mv4 and yourfilename.ac3) should be added to the Input file list of the 'tsMuxeR' (you can drag them in) and then you can either click on the "M2TS muxing" button in its output section, or on the "Create Blu-ray disk" button. Then press "Start muxing" and within a very short time, your file or folders will be finished.
If you created an m2ts file, you can burn that to a DVD as data and the Playstation 3 should play it as a standalone file, or you could copy it onto the PS3 hard drive.
If you created Blu-ray folders, you can burn those to a normal DVD using ImgBurn as detailed in the second page of the tutorial whose link I gave above. The PS3 will then treat that as a Blu-ray disc and I suspect many other Blu-ray players will too.
In the next day or two I will set out these procedures in more detail and with better presentation in a form suitable for adding to the FAQs for PE7. When set out on the page it sounds like hard work, but actually it's very quick and easy. But no, Adobe, that doesn't get you off the hook of needing to add AVCHD DVD support natively to PE7!