I am considering purchasing either a Sony HDR-SR11/SR12 or a Canon HF-10 and would like to know if anyone has sample AVChd (MPEG4) files that these recorders produce. I want to be able to watch the HD Video on my HD television, but I am also interested in editing the videos and creating standard definition DVD to share with others. I'm not sure if the AVCHD format is best for me, and I am wondering if to create standard definition DVD's for sharing with others, if I would be better off with a standard definition Hard Drive or SD camera. Thank you in advance for any information.

IF you intend making family type videos then the Sony SR11 like I have is great. The Sony Browser software that comes with the camera will allow you to do simple cuts type editing and make either an AVCHD on normal DVD to play in Blu-Ray player like PS3 or will also make an SD DVD of the same thing for you with simple menus. You don't need anything else to start and you will have a high definition video for the future. You can backup to hard drives on the PC or to standard DVD recorded in AVCHD format and can show friends your video from the camera over HDMI. Very convenient.

Ron Evans

Shooting and editing in HD will produce the best looking SD DVDs, plus give you all of the options- present and future- for viewing in HD. I suspect that you will regret it if you purchase a new SD camera. If you want to see an SD Flash (320x570 pix) comparison among AVCHD (shot with Sony SR12), HDV (Sony V1), and XDCam EX HD HQ (Sony EX1), you can look here:
http://www.irondocvideo.com/Refuge%20Flash%20Frameset.html
The top video is AVCHD, middle is HDV, and bottom is XDCam EX.
It's only Flash, but viewing the same shorts in big screen HD gives a similar comparison: the winner- EX1 (duh...), but the interesting thing to me is that the little SR12 AVCHD holds it's own against the much bigger 3 chip Sony V1 HDV very, very well.
There's lots of posts in this forum on these topics and cameras; just do a search.

I uploaded a HF10 file here if anyone wants it.
The link expires on 25th July.
https://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=RXNoMFhucHY1bmcwTVE9PQ