AVCHD:

High definition magic

By The Vann's Editorial Team

One of the woefully undersung wonders built into Sony's high definition camcorders slips so surreptitiously into the specs list that all but the wonkiest videophile might miss its existence altogether. Consider yourself witness to the quiet dawn of the AVCHD era. AVCHD . . . AVCHD? . . . Undersung, you ask? Okay, most people have never heard of it . . . but they will.

AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) is a new high definition-recording format pioneered by Sony and Panasonic, compatible with 3" DVD discs, hard disk drives, and SD and Memory Stick Pro memory cards. If you are a serious techie, you might surmise from the name, AVCHD employs MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video compression format instead of the aging compression formats used in most HDV camcorders, offering both reduced storage requirements and better video quality. While saying the difference between those older formats and MPEG-4 AVC is the difference between stone tablet and microchip would be resorting to hyperbole, it wouldn't exactly be wrong. With AVCHD, you'll be able to store more video footage of higher quality while using up less of your media capacity. With those other formats? You can't. You'll also be able to use true random-access, since time-based seeking on AVCHD does not involve a fast-forward/rewind operation as it would on tape-based formats such as miniDV.

The downside of being the vanguard is having to wait for everyone else to catch up. When AVCHD first hit the market, there weren't a lot of video editing programs that could support it. Software manufacturers scrambled to correct that shortfall and now Nero, Pinnacle, Ulead, and other systems are striving for their slice of the market share.

So, whether you have an eye on recording and editing your family adventures for future viewing or pushing the envelope in developing new avenues of video production in your business life, adopt AVCHD now and you'll be able to say you were there, in the beginning. You'll be able to say "Oh yeah, I knew about AVCHD all along."