Suggestions on making a DVD from AVCHD?

What would be the best way to get the best quality DVD from original Sony 1900x1080i AVCHD - M2ts files?
Is it better to:-
Convert (or import) the initial files to AVI with another program and make the project with the AVI files in PE9 and share to DVD using PE9 (what other program?)
or
Edit the original AVCHD files PE9  then
         Share to DVD from the edited AVCHD using only PE9
         or
         Share to a HD format file and use another program to reduce and burn the DVD (what other format and program)
         or   
         Share to some other format file and burn the DVD with another program (what other format and program?)
         or
         Share to SD and use another program to burn the DVD (what other program?)
or some other better alternative?
I would be interested in hearing others experiences or nasties they might have encountered doing this.
I supppose it gets down to what does the best job of downsizing the original HD.
Some (but not all) of the copies of the DVD may be played on good quality Blue Ray players that upscale to full HD so I want the best possible DVD.
Also it's my grandaughters wedding so I HAVE to make it good! It is likely to be played many years in the future on probably super players on wall sized screens when unfortunately I won't be around to see them!.
In case you think I'm mad, I will also be making Blue Ray copies as well so I will have to use a second option anyway but I would be prepared to make the project again in low def if this would be better.

I am not worried about speed or ease of editing or work flow but rather ending up with the  highest picture quality DVD with minimum artifacts and compression.
Are you sayng I will get better video quality using PE9 to pre-convert the HD to SD before editing, then burning the DVD from that as opposed to making the edit in original AVCHD and converting the final edited HD to SD and then burning the DVD?
I also wondered if another program that specialised in converting would be better to use rather than using PE9 which is primarily an editing program.
As an example PE9 does a bad job of resizing any AVCHD. Just a slight increase in size noticably degrades the resolution.

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