There is a lot of discussion regarding which is the best format for digital video cameras. The HDV tape format remains a popular choice, mostly because of low cost and long record times. In the future however, AVCHD will be the format of choice for consumers and eventually small independent film makers.

A lot of HD camera users that were pro HD-DVD made a big deal that you could burn HD material onto a standard DVD and it would play on an HD-DVD player. This was absolutely true, problem is that you can’t get HD-DVD players anymore or HD-DVD’s for that matter. Blu-ray owners need not feel left out, because you can burn AVCHD video to a standard DVD using Nero and play it in most Blu-ray players. The easiest route for compatibility would be using the old trusted Playstation 3 (PS3) which has a built in AVCHD player. The PS3 is, firmware upgradeable, and is currently thought of as the best Blu-ray player on the market considering you’re getting a blu-ray player and gaming console for the price of either of the two. To burn your AVCHD movie to a standard DVD open (version 5 and up), Click “Make DVD”, and then choose AVCHD DVD. Select your AVCHD video files, and Nero will do the rest. Depending on material, you can expect a maximum of 25 minutes on standard DVD. Because of the fact that the AVCHD movies need to be rendered by Nero, the process is time consuming but yields good results.

So, if you’re a passionate HDV camcorder user who was waiting for enough time to pass to switch over to AVCHD, now is the time. Although the AVCHD format is still relatively new there aremore than enough Free AVCHD player, AVCHD editor and AVCHD software to get you going.

It is possible to play AVCHD video in Windows Media Player and Windows Media Center. However, neither WMP nor WMC supports AVCHD natively and needs additional codec’s installed to be able to handle AVCHD video.

Luckily it’s not difficult to Add AVCHD/M2TS Support to Windows Media Player 11 and Windows Media Center. The good news is that Windows 7 will have native support for AVCHD/M2TS videos. In the meantime we’ve found a patch that will associate AVCHD/M2TS files with WMP and WMC. Please note that you use this patch entirely at your own risk and please don’t try using this without making a backup of your registry or if you’re a novice.

The registry patch ties M2TS files (AVCHD files) into either Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center allowing them to be associated with this file type. The registry edit will also permit streaming AVCHD files from Windows Media Player 11 to your Playstation 3 (PS3).

Be aware that M2TS files will only be playable in WMP/WMC with latest versions of ffdshow-tryouts and Haali media splitter. Alternatively you could also download the latest version of the K Lite Codec Pack (http://www.free-codecs.com/download/K_Lite_Codec_Pack.htm) (freeware) which allows for very smooth playback on even low spec PC’s  using players like WMP and VLC.

If everything goes according to plan, this is a simple 4 step process. Firstly you need to copy the registry patch and paste it into notepad. Then save as AVCHD.reg. Alternatively you can right click and save link as AVCHD.reg.

The second step is to run the AVCHD.reg file by double clicking on the file you have just created to edit your registry. (be sure to backup your registry first) This will will make the changes to add M2TS support to Windows media player or Windows media center.

The third step is to restart your computer so that the new registry is loaded.

The fourth step is to start WMP or WMC. If everything worked according to you should see all M2TS files that are in monitored folders appear in the video library. When you enable file sharing in WMP you should be able to stream the video to your Playstation 3 (PS3).

If you’re new to burning AVCHD content to DVD-R things might seem a little confusing at first. This is mainly due to the fact that AVCHD is a brand new format and things aren’t as standardized and straight forward as they’ll be in a years time. That said, don’t despair, you’ve made the right choice in purchasing a AVCHD camcorder to play AVCHD video with.

Question: Many people want to know if which, if any, Blue-ray players support blue-ray content on dvd-r. Unfortunately the answer is not as straight forward as you might have hoped it would be. Currently playing HD content on DVD through you blue-ray player depends on a variety of factors but…

Answer: Yes indeed you can burn AVCHD video to DVD by burning the MTS files (be sure you change the extension file as MPEG) using Nero or whatever burner software you have (just change to UDF 2.5) and you’ll be able to play DVD disc with HD content on a bluray player. This will not include menus or authoring for which you’ll need seperate software. 

The amount of AVCHD video stored on DVD-R depends on the bit rate. With a bit rate roughly around 11500 Kbps, you’ll be able to store 45 minutes of 1080i video on DVD-R in HD DVD format. If you use a bit rate of 30000 Kbps for your video, then you will be limited to about 15 minutes per disc.

If you’ve purchased a Sony AVCHD HD camcorder, it comes with Picture Motion Browser (PMB) software which includes a “AVCHD Creation” option giving you the option to burn AVCHD to DVD-R.

To close, it is possible to simply copy AVCHD files from a memory card without any changes to a regular dvd-r and your PlayStation 3 (PS3) will read and play them. However it will not automatically concatenate streams and each clip will need to be started and stopped from the folder based menu. You need to wait long enough for the PlayStation  3 (PS3) to display all of the clips in the home screen before playing them to ensure the clips will play without stutter.