From AVCHD to... HTML

[mataviek]

Hi,
I have just bought the Canon HG20 and am producing very nice hd videos. I would like to share some of them (no more than 1 or 2 mn long) with my family over the internet (pseudo streaming). Canon software allows to export AVCHD to MPEG2 but the files are, of course, still too big for my internet site.

So, my questions are:
- what is the best way to compress an avchd or mpeg2 while preserving a decent quality? What's the best format? I achieved best results so far with swf but the streaming is very slow, and I achieved very bad quality with wmf. Any recommendation?
- what is the best freeware tool for that? I tried Internet Video Converter with the results above.
- what is the best commercial tool within a buget of 100 bucks?

Thanks in advance for your help

[RenaultSport]

Mpeg4 with a .mp4 extension is your best bet. Sony Vegas and i think the cheaper movie studio version lets you re-encode to this.

Your best bet might be the video sharing site Vimeo, Video Sharing For You if you just want to share a few short clips. There are a few posts here on the best way to encode for this.