It looks like Sony is starting early with development, they are to show off a new camcorder that records AVCHD

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13679

"Sony plans to take the wraps off its first high-definition camcorder compatible with the new AVCHD format next Wednesday.

AVCHD has been developed by Sony and Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic) as a way to allow high-definition video to be stored on 8-centimeter DVDs. Conventional DVDs don’t support high-definition video, but the new HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc optical disc formats are not yet mature enough for use in camcorders."

And it looks like licensing has just begun,

http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=22966

"Licensing of version 1.0 of the format has just begun, and the format has attracted support from several rival camcorder makers including Canon, Pioneer, Samsung Electronics and Sharp."

"AVCHD, which was formally rolled out on May 11th, is a high definition format using the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 compression system. At that time, it was originally limited to 8 cm DVDs, the size that fit into most consumer camcorders. The format has now been expanded to include SD Memory Cards, MemorySticks (a proprietary Sony card format), and hard disk drives."

I think HDV is now about to get a run for their money. I currently have a JVC HD100 so I can't wait til comparison charts start popping up in video mags, if they do pop up, I'll make sure I'll show you the articles after Japanese-English translations.

Wow, AVCHD camcorders already? That's pretty cool! Thanks for sharing this with us, Jemore. Just wanted to point out that the second link you gave: http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=22966 is the original copy of the article. The author is Martyn Williams of the IDG News Service.

Now that unknown 10-year-old girl from Ohio that Francis Coppola said would be the next great filmmaker, will finally get her HD cam because her parents can afford to buy this one.

I'm sure alot of people are looking forward to seeing what Sony can come up with, I think HDV and AVCHD are going to compliment each other, HDV being Tape based and AVCHD being Disc, Hard Disk and memory based formats, it's strange that JVC have not applied for the license, maybe because they are big backers of the HDV format, but it would be great to use their hard disk everio series cameras for the AVCHD format.

That is interesting about JVC, kind of odd considering that they tend to pioneer new formats and experiment a bit more than the other camcorder manufacturers do. After all, JVC was HDV before HDV was HDV. Maybe they've got something else cookin'

At the Apple/Sony seminar there was mention about the new AVCHD format. Sony said it is 'strictly a consumer format'. I took that to mean that you won't be seeing any higher end cameras using AVCHD.

Not sure why they see it as a consumer format. Realtime encoding of H.264 would be the cat's meow in my thinking. It gives incredible results for the filesizes it produces.

Time will tell...

-gb-

The fact that JVC is releasing 2 professional HDV camcorders by the end of this year is a good indication that they plan to stick with HDV. Unless AVCHD goes to tape as well, I don’t think JVC would ever adopt it, as some have already indicated.
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Hooray, at last, this is about the time period I was expecting, I have been hanging around the board waiting.

I'm sure alot of people are looking forward to seeing what Sony can come up with, I think HDV and AVCHD are going to compliment each other, HDV being Tape based and AVCHD being Disc, Hard Disk and memory based formats, it's strange that JVC have not applied for the license, maybe because they are big backers of the HDV format, but it would be great to use their hard disk everio series cameras for the AVCHD format.

:) I remember reading that JVC had another codec planned for their high end Altasens camera that was delayed. Panasonic is also going for higher end H264, and I suspect that Sony is too, or reserving the Mpeg2 35mb/s+ format. AVCHD Inter, is the true consumer format, but a good one for their prosumer line.

Incidentally, the competition has just announced a rival advanced codec format camera, the Sanyo HD1a. Looks similar to the old Mpeg4 camera, so the path is clear for AVCHD (unless you want stills etc).

Wayne Morellini,

Since AVCHD has gone up to 24MBPS from 18, It seams that Panasonic may in fact upgrade the PRO version to higher than 50MBPS.

Right now I’m praying that this camcorder is more like the HC1 rather than the HC3. Sony should realize that it’s morally wrong to strip this camcorder.

Well we all know it will be disk based but how pro or should I say what pro functions do you think this cam will have? the HC1 did pretty well with a focus wheel and that, BTW Chris are you goin to open up another Forum for the AVCHD cameras?

Since AVCHD has gone up to 24MBPS from 18, It seams that Panasonic may in fact upgrade the PRO version to higher than 50MBPS.I don't think Panasonic ever said they wouldn't support greater-than-50-Mbps data rates with AVC Intra -- the sidebar in this article (http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/news/2006.06.28-n_panasonic.shtml) seems to imply that they are at least considering higher rates.

In chasing the consumers wishes, I may be going way out here, but I think the HC3 will be replaced by the AVCHD device. Folks in that catagory just want to shoot and play. The HC1/HC3 requires some editing that for most consumers, is too much. Folks are willing to pay almost 2x the money to go directly to DVD vs. dealing with a miniDV cassette and editing.

With AVCHD, Sony and the likes can define or raise the bar on what's pro and what's consumer. That is, if you want to shoot and edit like a pro, your going have to pay a higher entry fee.

I think they are going to stick with the HC3 and release an AVCHD disk based camcorder, it's just like todays line-up, sony has mini-DV along with HDD and DVD camcorders, they are set to compliment each other.

"Sony plans to take the wraps off its first high-definition camcorder compatible with the new AVCHD format tomorrow here in Tokyo"

http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2006/07/sony_to_unveil_worlds_first_av.php

BTW Chris are you goin to open up another Forum for the AVCHD cameras?*ahem* stay tuned, y'all...

Wayne Morellini,

Since AVCHD has gone up to 24MBPS from 18, It seams that Panasonic may in fact upgrade the PRO version to higher than 50MBPS.

Right now I’m praying that this camcorder is more like the HC1 rather than the HC3. Sony should realize that it’s morally wrong to strip this camcorder.

New camera discussion has already started, in case anybody has missed it:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=71738

Paulo Teixeira,

In another thread somewhere it is noted that Panasonic has already stated that it will have twice the quality at DVCPROHD data rates. Anywhere they have said that it was going to have twice the quality as DVCPROHD, it should be read, at 100Mb/s. This is still probably half the data rate of a level suitable for good cinema, but, to me, I think that it is still in the sweet spot.

What JVC will do is another thing, maybe they plan AVC Intra like Pana, maybe 36-50Mb/s AVC Inter, or 36mb/s-50mb/s Mpeg2 inter. As JVC drags it's feet, the rest of the industry rushes forwards, I hoped JVC would have advanced their cameras more than they have.