AVCHD and Blu ray burner

[John Callahan]

Hello,

I have a Sony AVCHD camera, I know hardware makes the big difference for these MT2 files. What's new out there in AVCHD software? I'm confused after reading so many reviews.
I have PE7 wanting newer software and a Blu ray burner.

Thanks
John

[Ron]

Deserves a bump!

[Bobby]

Sorry John, I don't think we were ignoring you; it was just the general nature of the question and of course people are busy during the holiday season.

I haven't take the step to BD and may never. People have begun to realize that streaming media (either from the Internet or from your home server) can replace BD or DVD just as iPods are replacing CDs. You can get some nice streaming devices that let you put HD content on your TV directly from your PC or using an external USB hard drive.

The biggest issue with BD for me is the buy-in cost. I would have to buy two new players for me, a player for each of my two kids, and the PC writer. Adding to the problem is the fact that BD blank discs are terribly expensive - they are just coming down from $10 EACH now.

So, check out the alternatives.

As far as software goes, there doesn't seem to be any advantage in AVCHD editing in PRE8 over PRE7. Someone with more experience will I am sure chime in here.

[Paul LS]

I have heard good things about Cyberlink PowerDirector... it handles AVCHD files very well. I downloaded and played with the software and was impressed with the playback of AVCHD even on a low powered machine. There is also a users site where you can download hundreds of DVD templates, backgrounds, tutorials, frames, motion pbjects etec... etc... Take a look at some of them: http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/holidays/effects/

[RJ Johnston]

PowerDirector 8 will also smart render AVCHD, but some AVCHD camcorders produce video that PowerDirector won't smart render. Cyberlink added a new option that you can try in case you have one of the lucky camcorders that produces video that PD has trouble smart rendering, however, that version isn't available for download. After you become a "valued customer" you can contact tech support and ask for the build 2220c or whatever is the latest build. The new option for "SVRT" is on the preferences performace tab. The version that you download for trial, build 2013, doesn't have that option.

Even with build 2220c there's a small bug in that you may need to make transitions greater than 1 second, otherwise at the end of a transition there might be a burp.