AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) is a new high definition recording format introduced by Sony and Panasonic. It can use various storage media, including 8 cm (3") recordable DVD discs, as well as hard disk, and SD and Memory Stick Pro memory cards, and is being positioned to compete with handheld video camera recording formats like HDV and MiniDV. As its name implies, AVCHD uses the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video codec. From wikipedia.