The H.264/AVC(HD) standard defines a number of compression profiles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Profiles

Does anyone have any input as to what the Canon camcorders use? I'm guessing HiP, but I'm not sure.

Unfortunately, I can't comment on your original question. But I can say that, based on memory, the directory structure of the HG10's HDD is remarkably similar to that of a blu ray disc, for whatever that's worth.

Moved from the Canon HV20 forum (which is HDV) to our AVCHD forum.

I'm pretty sure that the Canon AVCHD camcorders are using High Profile (HiP).