AVCHD - what is this format? Advanced Video Codec High Definition - Advanced High Definition Video Codec

Many fans of watching high-quality video and resolution quite often encounter the AVCHD format. What kind of format it is and how it differs from everything created before, will now be considered. In addition, special attention will be paid to the technology itself and to programs that allow working with the new AVCHD standard.

AVCHD: what is this format?

Although at the moment we are talking about video, the sound plays an important role here. The very interpretation of this reduction refers specifically to the advanced high-definition video codec (Advanced Video Codec High Definition).

This standard is relatively new and uses video compression technology based on MPEG4 AVC / H.264 compression.

Other video recording formats, for example, MPEG2, clearly lose to the new standard, since AVCHD provides better quality at the level of 720p, 1080p and 1080p, and also has reduced requirements for data storage.

History of occurrence and variety

If you look at the development history, the AVCHD recording format was originally created as an alternative to the HDV and DV standards, which until recently prevailed in consumer and professional video cameras.

For the first time, a new standard was developed back in 2006 by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd., which at that time actively collaborated with one of the leaders in the field of photo, video and audio - the world famous company Panasonic. Then the application of the new format was reduced exclusively to video cameras.

And only in 2008, together with Sony Corporation, the technology of solid-state recording was announced, which led to the appearance of the first professional camcorders.

The initial format itself underwent some changes over time (several versions of it appeared with different parameters and settings). To date, the following are distinguished:

• AVCHD Lite is a lightweight format with a resolution of only 720 lines and a frame rate of 24, 50 or 60 fps;
• AVCCAM - a format for professional video cameras based on a 3-matrix CCD-sensor that allows recording with a bitrate of 24 Mbps, connecting a microphone via XLR input and saving captured material to solid-state drives;
• NXCAM - “clean” format from Sony, which allows you to record video in 720p, 1080p and 1080i quality, but does not work with frame rates of 24, 25 and 30 fps;
• AVCHD 3D / Progressive - update of the 2011 format to version 2.0, supporting the shooting of stereoscopic video with parameters 1080p / 50-60fps).

Applicable Video Codecs

As for video, the used codecs and decoders are mostly based on MPEG-4 compression technologies, but they have slightly different parameters.

Install the same video codecs for XP is not difficult. To do this, you just need to find the latest version of the popular K-Lite package. But during the installation process, instead of the standard set offered by the "Installation Wizard", you need to select the advanced one and tick off all the items in the list.

In addition, the installed video codecs for XP or systems of a higher rank can be divided into two more categories - AVCHD-SD (standard resolution) and AVCHD-HD (high resolution). Based on this, we can cite the comparative characteristics of both standards.

Audio decoders

With audio, this is not so simple. The signal conversion is based on two main technologies - Linear PCM and Dolby Digital. However, with regard to sound, many users clearly do not understand the difference between the quality and distribution of the audio signal.

So, for some reason, some users call the sound recording format 5.1, 7.1, or even 8.1 as quality. Remember: this is not quality, but only the ability to distribute the signal in a panoramic manner.

You can give an analogy with devices called crossovers. They can separate the frequencies and direct them to the respective speakers. If anyone remembers, in Soviet times, Radiotehnika S-series speakers were produced with an open external panel, on which there was a low-frequency diffuser at the bottom, a mid-range speaker in the middle, and a high-frequency speaker at the top.

A crossover connected to the amplifier can redirect a certain frequency range to a speaker that matches the sound characteristics.

But in terms of the distribution of surround sound, it is the panoramic characteristic that is used. And the quality of the audio is determined by the bitrate and sampling rate. In our case, audio can be played with characteristics at the level of 320 kbps and 96 kHz (professional sound similar in parameters to the lossless format).

Application area

Now another aspect regarding the AVCHD standard. What kind of format this is is a little clear. Let's look at the most popular areas of its application.

Not to mention the possibility of using this standard in relation to video recording or in terms of processing a video or audio signal, it can be noted that the main direction in its development, modification and use has become digital television, in particular, HDTV receivers of paid digital channels.

By the way, in the same Brazil this standard is used absolutely for all digital TV services. In South Korea, it is embedded in the Digital Multimedia Broadcast system, and the Japanese Fuji Television and NHK services associate this standard with the mobile market segment.

Carriers

As a rule, solid state drives are used to save information with this method of video compression and audio encoding. If at the dawn of the development of this standard only Blu-ray discs or special AVCHD media (8 cm) were used, today files of this format can easily be saved on a hard drive or removable Memory Stick Pro or SD memory cards.

The question is different: how to reproduce or edit such material? There are several tools for this.

AVCHD: how to open?

If we are talking about a software package in terms of playback, provided that there are installed codecs and decoders, any application in the form of a player or a program for video recognizes the format without difficulty.

In the most primitive version, you can use the same Windows Media Player or an equally interesting product called VLC Media Player. Such a common video program, by the way, has much greater capabilities compared to the standard Windows tool.

As for processing, there are some difficulties. First, the main problem is copying material from the same camera or AVCHD disc. The UDF 2.5 media file system is not supported. The easiest solution to fix the problem is to install the optional Nero InCD software package.

In addition, the captured files themselves on the camera can be located in the STREAM directory, which is hidden in the root directory of the device or subfolders.

And the discovery using professional utilities like Sony Vegas Pro or something else is not discussed at all.

Even a program such as audio processing applications such as Sony Sound Forge or Adobe Audition CS can import video of this format.

Convert AVCHD to another format

To convert AVCHD to other readable formats, as a rule, special converter programs are used, which you can find today as many as you like.

The general principle is only to select the objects to be converted and specify the final data type. In the settings, you can also specify the choice of the appropriate video and audio processing tool.

Instead of a total

That, in fact, is all about the AVCHD video standard. What kind of format it is and what its quality is is better to evaluate directly when viewing the material on the same TV panel. Compared to other existing formats, this one is the most high-quality, in addition, it is not so demanding on the resources of cameras, televisions, computers, or even mobile devices. By the way, the video compression technique packs the material so that it does not take up too much space on any storage medium , as it should have been. In general, there are some advantages.