AVCHD vs BD5/BD9?

[Randm]

im confused, i used to think they were the same thing, but i'm hearing different from some people, especially regarding bitrate...i searched the forums, but most articles focus on one or the other & it still isn't clear...so is there a difference, somebody please clear this up for me?

[jman98]

There is a difference, but I don't remember exactly what it is. I remember that it's a difference in one or more directories. Hopefully someone else will remember the exact details.

[poisondeathray]

BD5/9 usually just refers to the physical media, with h.264 content in .m2ts transport stream container (although you can have MPEG2, but it's rarely used because of it's poor compression, especially in light of the low capacity DVD5/9. You usually need BD50 for full blu-ray movies for it to look adequate if you choose MPEG2)

However there is a difference between "blu-ray spec" video and "avchd spec" video. So you could have either avchd spec or blu-ray spec video on a "BD5" or "BD9"

Blu-ray is a higher spec which allows for larger bitrates and larger VBV buffer. The higher bitrates are a problem for such small capacity on BD5/9 as your duration will become miniscule, so unless you have a short project, it's not really feasible for a feature length movie. The spec also allows for better HD audio (DTS-MA, THD, etc..), while AVCHD only allows for LPCM and AC3.

So due to space considerations, you usually use AVCHD spec video on DVD5/9 media which then gets the label "BD5/9" because of the content to distinguish it from regular DVD-Video

[Randm]

BD5/9 usually just refers to the physical media, with h.264 content in .m2ts transport stream container (although you can have MPEG2, but it's rarely used because of it's poor compression, especially in light of the low capacity DVD5/9. You usually need BD50 for full blu-ray movies for it to look adequate)

However there is a difference between "blu-ray spec" video and "avchd spec" video. So you could have either avchd spec or blu-ray spec video on a "BD5" or "BD9"

Blu-ray is a higher spec which allows for larger bitrates and larger VBV buffer. The higher bitrates are a problem for such small capacity on BD5/9 as your duration will become miniscule, so unless you have a short project, it's not really feasible for a feature length movie. The spec also allows for better HD audio (DTS-MA, THD, etc..), while AVCHD only allows for LPCM and AC3.

So due to space considerations, you usually use AVCHD spec video on DVD5/9 media which then gets the label "BD5/9" because of the content to distinguish it from regular DVD-Video

hmmm, like how much runtime are we talking for bd5/bd9...does anyone have the actual specs for each format anywhere so we can all make an informed comparison...i'd like to figure out all my options & i'm sure many others would as well...hmmm, maybe i'll run BD5/BD9 for short movies and AVCHD for longer runtimes...

[poisondeathray]

filesize=bitrate X running time

But add about 5-8% for the .m2ts container overhead (compared to .mkv or .mp4)

There are many bitrate calculators you can use for this to have an approximation

The actual specs are listed on the blu-ray site and avchd site.
http://www.blu-ray.com/faq/
http://www.avchd-info.org/format/index.html

But the white papers and official specs doesn't tell you if it will work with your specific player. These don't necessarily "work" because many players are "finicky". There are dozens of pages discussing specific models, firmware versions, workarounds on Doom9. You need to have knowlege of what compliant video settings to use (in terms of ref frames, bframes, bpyramids, avc level, vbv buffer etc....). Most GUI's will have a preset, but some need to be tweaked for specific models. Again Doom9 is a great resource

Cheers

[Randm]

thanx for the info bud...i should be able to figure out the compliant settings sooner or later since i will mostly just be encoding for ps3...so BD5/BD9 is just a higher quality format...for a bit i thought BD5/BD9 was generally full bluray specs more like uncompressed video, just with smaller runtime due to filesize...while AVCHD is more of a compression like xvid...anyways, thanks again for clearing up all that confusion, now i gotta learn about MP4 hehe...peace...

[Randm]

-what is the difference in overhead to convert .MKV to either AVCHD or BD5/BD9.ISO? both roughly 200-300mb?
-or should i expect 400mb to be on the safe side...
-anybody with experience burning both to DVD5/DVD9, feel free to suggest exact sizes to compensate for possible overhead during conversion...
-roughly 4GB for DVD5 and 7.5GB for DVD9?

[edDV]

...so BD5/BD9 is just a higher quality format...for a bit i thought BD5/BD9 was generally full bluray specs more like uncompressed video, just with smaller runtime due to filesize...while AVCHD is more of a compression like xvid...anyways, thanks again for clearing up all that confusion, now i gotta learn about MP4 hehe...peace...

A little more context:

BD5/BD9 refers to the media

Blu-Ray authoring can be MPeg2, h.264 or VC-1 with wide specs on bit rate but even the max 36 or 48 Mb/s (on BD media) is still far from uncompressed (~1,200Mb/s). When DVDR media is used, min and max bit rates vary by playback device so experiment.

AVCHD format is h.264 intended for camcorder capture playback. In camcorder emulation normal expected bit rates range from 8Mb/s to 24Mb/s for HD and ~5-8Mb/s for SD. You can experiment outside this range. Good HD would range ~9-15 Mb/s which would be ~1 hr on a DVD5 and or ~2hr on a DVD9 at the lower end of the range. You can experiment with lower bit rates but test each on the target player.

[Randm]

final edit: yea im slowly figuring it all out hehe, so they are both in .M2TS? just my basic plans...
-h.264
-only 720p cuz my sh*tty tv only reaches 1080i
-roughly 4Mbps-8Mbps bitrate with 5.1
-like u said, 1 hour for DVD5 & 2 for DVD9/2xDVD5
-level 4.1 or higher
-my bud got a bunch of crap on the specifics for bframes and subme, etc.

though i may change my plans with audio to 2.0 once i learn more about MP4 for PS3/360...or just go real big with USB...my main concern is possible overhead with conversions & incorrect AR causing green bars, etc...with the rips i'm doing, i'm guessing to undersize for overhead by about 400mb...maybe even 500mb...anyways, thanx for the info! hopefully i won't be a noob for long...

[Randm]

ok, AVCHD vs AVCREC? whats the difference? let me know if i'm wrong...

-AVCHD is HD content that can be used with DVD/USB/memory cards for PS3/certain Blurays
-AVCREC is AVCHD content RECorded on DVD for PS3/certain Blurays

EDIT: nvm, AVCREC doesn't seem to have full specs yet, but its quite similiar to AVCHD...wikipedia seems to have gotten the basic comparison now...