Do most BluRay players play AVCHD disks?

[Larry Horwitz]

I'm wondering how common AVCHD playback is on current BluRay players. I assume it is not a requirement of the BluRay standard, and thus not found on all BluRay players.

My concern is that AVCHD disks which I author now will be unplayable on many if not most players in the future. Not a great way to save important family memories for future viewing.....

Anybody know if the AVCHD format support is either required or even commonly found on today's and tomorrow's BluRay players?

Thanks for any feedback.

Larry

[Khoi Pham]

Well yeah, all Blu-ray player can play AVC codec, that is the spec, AVC, MPEG2 and VC-1

[Larry Horwitz]

This is where my confusion arises. Even though all BluRay players have an AVC codec, the disk structure of an AVCHD is another different format, BDMV rather than BDAV. In addition, my disks are red laser 4.7 GB disks, whereas the normal BluRay players demand blue laser content to play BDAV.

Therefore, the AVCHD disks I am making can only play in some BluRay players but not others, even though all BluRay players know how to play AVC/h.264 encoded files. I am wondering if most BluRay players can do this, or only a few. I know my Playstation 3 plays them properly, but I have no access to other BluRay players to try out my disks.

Thanks for any opinions.

Larry

[Robert Young]

I have no personal experience with this topic, but what I've read has given me the impression that BD players with older firmware are the ones that may not play AVCHD on DVD-R, whereas with current firmware, no problem.

[Steve Mullen]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

I have no personal experience with this topic, but what I've read has given me the impression that BD players with older firmware are the ones that may not play AVCHD on DVD-R, whereas with current firmware, no problem.

Exactly. By the time you get to level 1.1 you are OK.

[Larry Horwitz]

Thanks Bob. Your reply is really very encouraging. Mahalo and Alohaaaaaa!!Larry

[Saif Faris]

Any updates?

I wondering the same before I buy a DVD player.

I have an Sr12E.

[Robert Young]

I have a new Sony BD300 player that will play BR mpeg2 and BR h.264 burned onto DVD-R. The displayed HD video is excellent, but I have had problems with stutter and audio dropout if I encode higher than 18 mbs VBR (with max set at 23mbs).
VBR 18/23 mbs is flawless, VBR 20/25 mbs is where I see the problems. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my workflow, a limitation of the player, or a limitation of DVD-R.

[Dave Rosky]

Originally Posted by Robert Young

I have a new Sony BD300 player that will play BR mpeg2 and BR h.264 burned onto DVD-R. The displayed HD video is excellent, but I have had problems with stutter and audio dropout if I encode higher than 18 mbs VBR (with max set at 23mbs).
VBR 18/23 mbs is flawless, VBR 20/25 mbs is where I see the problems. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my workflow, a limitation of the player, or a limitation of DVD-R.

The spec for Blu-ray is 40Mb/s total bitrate, but for DVD, the spec is 9.8Mb/s (1x speed). To meet the specs, a player would have to guarantee handling 9.8Mb/s from a DVD-R and 40Mb/s from a Blu-ray disc, but how the player handles bitrates between 9.8 and 40 on a DVD-R may be up to the player and may be player-dependent.

[Larry Horwitz]

This raises some doubt, particularly if the newest AVCHD cameras like the Canon HF11 encode at 23 MB/sec. The resulting AVCHD disks may play with all sorts of stutter and other artifacts if the red laser DVD-R can't deliver the neccesary bitrate when used for AVCHD disks.

Larry

[Bob Diaz]

Originally Posted by Dave Rosky

The spec for Blu-ray is 40Mb/s total bitrate, but for DVD, the spec is 9.8Mb/s (1x speed). To meet the specs, a player would have to guarantee handling 9.8Mb/s from a DVD-R and 40Mb/s from a Blu-ray disc, but how the player handles bitrates between 9.8 and 40 on a DVD-R may be up to the player and may be player-dependent.

I can't find the link to verify it, but as I recall, any DVD recorded with Blu-ray material would play at up to 3x the DVD speed in a Blu-ray player. Thus, up to about 30Mb/second would be possible.

Bob Diaz

[Robert M Wright]

I think that 3X thing had to do with HD-DVD players.

[Bob Diaz]

I found the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray...5_Blu-ray_Disc

BD9/BD5 Blu-ray Disc

BD9 and BD5 are lower capacity variants of the Blu-ray Disc that contain Blu-ray compatible video and audio streams contained on a conventional DVD (650 nm wavelength / red laser) optical disc. Such discs offer the use of the same advanced compression technologies available to Blu-ray discs (including MPEG-4-AVC/H.264, SMPTE-421M/VC-1 and MPEG-2) while utilizing lower cost legacy media. BD9 utilizes a standard 8152MB DVD9 dual-layer disc while BD5 utilizes a standard 4489MB DVD5 single-layer disc.[77]

Given that Blu-ray Discs are assumed to have a minimum transfer rate of 30.25 Mbit/s, BD9/BD5 discs must be spun at high speed, equivalent to a 3× DVD drive speed or greater.

BD9 and BD5 discs can be authored using home computers for private showing using standard DVD±R recorders. AACS digital rights management is optional.[78]

The BD9 format was originally proposed by Warner Home Video, as a cost-effective alternative to regular Blu-ray Discs.[79] It was adopted as part of the BD-ROM basic format, file system and AV specifications. BD5 and BD9 are similar to 3× DVD.

Yes, HD DVD had 3x DVD, but Blu-ray also had the same thing.


Bob Diaz