I'm with Stuart, before i upgraded to a new laptop my 4 year old 1.8gz single core intel laptop 2g ram played AVCHD from my Hf100 no problem with Coreavc codec and classic media player configured to use only this codec. I think the codec cost $30 so well wotth trying.

Cheers Rambo

According to the CoreAVC website it's on sale for $9.95 through January 17th.
Now anyone care to give a few pointers on how best to configure it quickly?

Simon,

What kind of Graphics card are you using? How much onboard memory does it have?

And finally, when was the last time you reformatted your hard drive?

It might do the computer some good if you freed up the processor from tasks performed by unwanted programs at startup.

Applications like Java, Messenger, Skype, Quicktime, Adobe Reader etc. tend to startup by default when you turn on a PC.

Sony Vegas and AVCHD
 

I use Sony Vegas 9.0c which added AVCHD to its list of codecs to support. It works very well on my dual-core 3.0GHz 8GB system. There is a little jerkiness if viewing it in Vegas at the Best setting, but otherwise it is smooth, and it plays equally well in Windows Media Player.

why no one talked about converting the avc files into quicktime or an other video format ?

your computer will be able to play that if it doesn't need to process like a mule at each frame. You will need more space because the files will be bigger but you gain your playback.
what's the most expensif, a new laptop or an extra hard disk ?

Wow
 

Lots of bad information/advices here :( We are talking about playback of these files. AVCHD requires minimum quad core? Folks, please don't spread misinformation.

I can play the MTS files (unedited, untouched, as they come from camera) even on a system la viliv s5 (a friggin' UMPC/MID)
Viliv S5 reviews, specifications and community links.

Your laptop should definitely handle these just fine.

So, you need to check your codecs (the ones used to decode AVC) and players. I can recommend CoreAVC (like Stuart already pointed out). Even the libavcodec from ffdshow (free) should work just fine. Another thing to look into, if you are trying to do a playback straight from the SDHC, make sure your transfer rate is worthy of USB2.0. Else, copy the file onto your laptop and continue testing from there.

All the above can be proven if necessary.

It might be helpful to think of AVCHD as an acquisition format for consumers. (Until you upgrade your computer anyway!) I transcoded AVCHD files in FCP to ProRes and it's a super easy process. For Avid you can use TMPGEnc 4 to transcode and for Premiere CS3 you can use Cineform. No need to go buy a new PC for AVCHD!

The only disadvantage I have found with using a laptop 2.2Ghz dual core is the time it takes to render, about 12x real time, but for playback I have found the free Zoom Player with de-interlace selected does a good job, you used to get zoom player with the free ffdshow codec but now have to download it separately, I have also found for simple editing Corel Video Studio Pro X3 handles AVCHD well and has a good "Smart Proxy" editing system, that allows slow computers to edit with ease, you just have to be patient while it renders out the final video.

Bryan

Word.

I have a core 2 duo laptop, as well as an Intel i7 860 desktop build and a Canon Vixia HF200. Its true AVCHD is taxing and needs muscle, but you shouldnt experience too much trouble with playback of your files as long as you computer is running efficiently. The fact that VLC player is only playing a sound track tells me your missing something on your computer, such as the Codec. I use VLC for playback for nearly all of my recordings and movies on my computer.

I cant beleive no one has mentioned Cineform Neoscene, as well as the included pixela software being crap. Neoscene is software used for transcoding, which is changing the format of the file, and Neoscene changes it to an .avi. This will allow for much smoother editing on slower systems. There is also a free version that is comparable to Neoscene called Mpeg Streamclip. I normally just edit the native footage from my camera in my editor of choice on my i7 machine as its got enough power to do so (and pretty fast render times as well!).

ImageMixer3 SE Ver5 seems to work reasonably well for me but it's not perfectly smooth. I find that QuickTime for PC is awful - stutters constantly. Sony's Player for AVCHD works pretty well if you can get it to recognise your files. Otherwise - convert your footage to high bit-rate MPEG2 format and you should have far fewer problems.

MOYEA MTS converter has worked great for me to move the .mts to .avi and then load to photobucket or youtube or whatever.