More AVCHD Details and Company Support Announced

The AVCHD high def format for camcorders was announced a couple of months back, but the Panasonic and Sony (the companies behind it) have just announced more details of the technical specifications and the companies who may be producing camcorders in this format. The list includes some big names: apart from Sony and Panasonic, Canon, Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp have signed up, plus Ulead, Nero, Cyberlink and Nero on the software side.

 

On the technical side, the specifications reveal that the camcorders will record video at up to 1080i resolutions (there’s no support for 1080p) compressed using the MPEG-4/H.264 standard, with sound being recorded in Dolby Digital AC-3 format. The total bandwidth is around 24Mbps. The video can be recorded to several different types of media, including 8cm DVD, SD cards, MemoryStick and hard drive. Interestingly, there is no mention of the new SDHC format.

 

I wrote about this new format before, and I’m still not convinced that it will take off. That is an impressive list of companies supporting it, but their inclusion is no guarantee that they will produce products using the new standard. It doesn’t look like existing high def DVD players will be able to play the footage from AVCHD camcorders – at the very least, they will need a firmware update to be able to work with the AVCHD footage on DVD media. What will be critical is if the companies start adding AVCHD compatibility to their existing players and devices right now: if they don’t, you’re going to have to buy another player to watch the video, or use some software to convert it to another high def format.

 

It still feels to me like a stop-gap measure until high def camcorders that can record directly to Blu-ray or HD-DVD discs are here. It squeezes high def footage onto existing media by compressing it heavily, but you still aren’t going to be able to fit much onto a disc, and it adds another format to an already confused marketplace.