AVCHD
Developed jointly by Sony and Panasonic, the format was introduced in 2006 primarily for use in high definition consumer camcorders.
Aside from recorded audio and video, AVCHD includes many user-friendly features to improve media presentation: menu navigation, simple slide shows and subtitles.
The menu navigation system is similar to DVD-video, allowing access to individual videos from a common intro screen.
Usually, memory cards and HDDs use the FAT file system, while optical discs employ UDF or ISO 9660.
Compared to HDV, AVCHD requires 2-4 times the processing power for realtime playback, placing a greater burden on the computer's CPU and graphics card.
Improvements in multi-core computing and graphics processor acceleration bring AVCHD playback to mainstream desktops and laptops.
Material recorded for interlaced presentation may exhibit combing or ghosting when it is rescaled, filmed out or watched on a computer or another progressive-scan device without proper deinterlacing.
Some AVCHD 1080i camcorders can capture progressive video and record it within interlaced stream borrowing techniques from television industry.
In particular, Progressive segmented frame (PsF) is utilized in some Panasonic (25p Digital Cinema), Canon (PF25, PF30) and Sony camcorders.
The 2:3 pulldown technique is used in some 60 Hz versions of Canon (PF24) and Panasonic (24p Digital Cinema) camcorders for recording 24-frame/s progressive video.
Most editing tools treat progressive video recorded within an interlaced stream as interlaced, though some editing systems and most standalone Blu-ray Disc players are capable of recognizing the pulldown pattern to recover the original frames using the process known as inverse telecine.
Many of the digital compact cameras made by Panasonic, such as the DMC-ZS3/DMC-TZ7, DMC-FT1, DMC-FZ35/DMC-FZ38, and DMC-ZS-7/TZ-10 offer 720p video recording with effective frame rate of 25 or 30 frames/s in a format called AVCHD Lite (see below).
In 2010, Panasonic introduced a new lineup of consumer AVCHD camcorders with 1080-line 50p/60p progressive-scan mode (frame rate depending on region).
[citation needed] To reduce camcorder size, manufacturers opted for an 8 cm disc, sometimes called miniDVD.
Pros: Cons: As the capacity of memory cards grew and their price dropped, DVDs use for recordable media declined.
A hard disk drive was added as an optional recording medium to AVCHD specification shortly after the new video standard had been announced.
Solid-state memory cards offer rewritable storage in a compact form factor with no moving parts.
Panasonic and Sony chose removable flash memory as the sole type of recording media in their professional AVCHD lineups, specifically AVCCAM and NXCAM.
Pros: Cons: Panasonic and Sony developed several brand names for their professional as well as simplified versions of AVCHD.
Some of these professional features listed in early Panasonic advertising materials included 1/3-inch progressive 3CCD sensor, XLR microphone input, solid-state media and capability of recording at the maximum AVCHD bitrate – 24 Mbit/s.
Moreover, some of these features like CCD sensor technology have been dropped by Panasonic, while 24 Mbit/s recording rate is widely available from rival manufacturers even on consumer models.
Panasonic uses "AVCHD Pro" moniker to describe camcorders like the HDC-MDH1, which combines consumer internal parts and controls with shoulder-mount type body.
Panasonic touts that the camcorder is "shaped for Pro-Style shooting in Full-HD" with shoulder-mount type body being "preferred by professionals".
AVCHD content can also be recorded on SDHC cards and played by many television sets, Blu-ray Disc players and media consoles.
[56] Released in March 2011, the Sony NEX-FS100 is the first professional NXCAM camcorder capable of 1080p50/p60 recording;[57] consumer-grade HandyCam NEX-VG20 followed in August 2011.
