Avchd is a Bootleg format

[RabidDog]

and a bootleg format -- called AVCHD

from the Wall street Journal
Pretty pils poor reporting...saying that HD movies are being re-encoded @ 720p and put on DVD disks
by Chinese Pirates. Avchd is a valid playback format isn't it?.
from wiki

Other manufacturers do not provide reliable AVCHD support in their products. For example, Samsung removed support for both "BDMV on DVD" and "AVCHD on DVD" in a recent firmware release 2.3 for the BD-P1200 player

Are they trying to plug this loophole quickly before it spreads into the mainstream?

[Noahtuck]

Links ??

[zoobie]

read the below link...interesting...fools them perfectly

[redwudz]

Link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122688367525432273.html But you need to be a subscriber to read the rest of it. The 'Comments' are interesting also.

[PuzZLeR]

From what I perceive, AVCHD was borne out of two needs, which may not be applicable any more.

1) A "lesser" format of the blu-ray specification so smaller CPUs, like those in cameras, can process it.

2) A strategic maneuver by Sony, and partner(s), to design a format to create distinction in the HD marketplace, independent of blu-ray. The objective was to create a "standard" that would play anywhere among HD devices - even on HD-DvD (but "for the moment, exclusively on blu-ray"). This was also an attempt by Sony to ensure presence in the HD marketplace in the even that they had lost the format war to HD-DvD.

Cameras will get better and better. And now that the format war is over, I see no reason for AVCHD's future. It's no risk now for Sony to call it, and encode it as, "blu-ray format" from now on.

... and I'm not surprised AVCHD is headed towards pirate-ware before its demise.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Here is another article:
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/16038.cfm

I bet Sony and to a lesser extent Panasonic are sorry for creating AVCHD,they will probably remove the codec from their players and camcorders and go back to MPEG-2.

[SCDVD]

... and I'm not surprised AVCHD is headed towards pirate-ware before its demise.

The odd man out on this is Panasonic. They are putting a lot of energy into introducing "Pro" camcorders with AVCHD at higher bitrates. Seems strange to me.

[jagabo]

Of course, AVCHD is not a bootleg format any more than a Fed Ex flatpack is a bootleg format because you can use them to ship photocopies of copyrighted material.

But if you want a BD licence you have to bow to Sony's demands. If Sony says remove AVCHD support you have to comply. Or stop selling BD players.

[jman98]

Here is another article:
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/16038.cfm

I bet Sony and to a lesser extent Panasonic are sorry for creating AVCHD,they will probably remove the codec from their players and camcorders and go back to MPEG-2.

Why on earth would you conclude that? As far as I know, AVCHD supports all BluRay and HD DVD codecs, which are MPEG-2, VC-1 (a Microsoft product, which has NOTHING to do with Sony and Panasonic) and H.264, which also has nothing to do with Sony and Panasonic.

I think the high def enthusiasts would flip out, to put it politely, at Sony backtracking to MPEG-2 only. They were ripped a new hole on their original decision to make the first BluRay discs as only MPEG-2 encoded discs, so I don't see how going back to MPEG-2 can be considered anything but a loss. Besides, you can still encode high def video with MPEG-2 for DVD-9. I have authored a few HD DVD discs on DVD-9 using BluRay rips as a source. I encoded with MPEG-2 and it works fine, so if your idea is somehow that being forced to use MPEG-2 will stop this, it won't.

[edDV]

... and I'm not surprised AVCHD is headed towards pirate-ware before its demise.

The odd man out on this is Panasonic. They are putting a lot of energy into introducing "Pro" camcorders with AVCHD at higher bitrates. Seems strange to me.

Panasonic's "pro" camcorders are headed for AVC-Intra, a frame by frame h.264 format @ 50/100 Mb/s. 14-25Mb/s AVCHD is still considered a consumer-prosumer format.

Sony is staying with intraframe MPeg2 for HDV/XDCAM @ 25-35Mb/s in their prosumer/ENG/EFP models. Its not clear yet whether Sony will go for AVC-Intra at the top end to replace HDCAM.

[deadrats]

and a bootleg format -- called AVCHD

from the Wall street Journal
Pretty pils poor reporting...saying that HD movies are being re-encoded @ 720p and put on DVD disks
by Chinese Pirates. Avchd is a valid playback format isn't it?.
from wiki

Other manufacturers do not provide reliable AVCHD support in their products. For example, Samsung removed support for both "BDMV on DVD" and "AVCHD on DVD" in a recent firmware release 2.3 for the BD-P1200 player

Are they trying to plug this loophole quickly before it spreads into the mainstream?

i just had to laugh when i read this. AVCHD a "bootleg" format?

of course it's a valid format, it's used by more than a few camcorders and has been around since before the blu-ray standard was finalized.

the problem is that the movie studios, not to mention the recording studios and major sports associations, all have a very draconian view of copyright while the chinese have a very lax view of copyright, almost bordering on the non-existent, where a more balanced view is fairer to everyone.

let's assume that all blu-ray manufactures remove support for avchd from the blu-ray players they sell, what's to stop pirates from simply creating exact copies of the blu-ray on blu-ray disks, much like the pirated copies of dvds that are exact replicas of legit dvds? or simply releasing the pirated content in the divx format playable on players that support divx?

the movie studios can't seem to get it through their thick skulls: no amount of legislation, technology, "education", nothing is going to stop "piracy" for one very fundamental reason: once the content they create is released to the general public, the public feels that said content is now in the public domain. furthermore it's hard to convince someone (i don't believe the line of shit either) that "pirating" a blu-ray is "stealing" because there is no physical theft of anything, the supposed theft is a type of abstract theft that requires mental gymnastics to buy the argument.

[edDV]

Here is another article:
http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/16038.cfm

I bet Sony and to a lesser extent Panasonic are sorry for creating AVCHD,they will probably remove the codec from their players and camcorders and go back to MPEG-2.

Why on earth would you conclude that? As far as I know, AVCHD supports all BluRay and HD DVD codecs, which are MPEG-2, VC-1 (a Microsoft product, which has NOTHING to do with Sony and Panasonic) and H.264, which also has nothing to do with Sony and Panasonic.

You are confusing AVCHD with Blu-Ray. AVCHD is a proprietary intraframe encoded H.264 camcorder format. Since it isn't fully standardized, it is still evolving with 8-14 Mb/s and 8-25 Mb/s versions out there.

It is true that some Blu-Ray players and the PS3 will play Sony's version of AVCHD.

[MOVIEGEEK]

let's assume that all blu-ray manufactures remove support for avchd from the blu-ray players they sell, what's to stop pirates from simply creating exact copies of the blu-ray on blu-ray disks, much like the pirated copies of dvds that are exact replicas of legit dvds? or simply releasing the pirated content in the divx format playable on players that support divx?

Right now cost is preventing pirates from making a 1:1 copy but once the price of blanks drops there will be perfect bootlegs.
Sony is now selling Blu Ray movies in China to help stem piracy but at $30USD I doubt it will have an impact:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15222-Sony-to-launch-Blu-ray-in-China.html

[DereX888]

AFAIR just few years ago MP3 was called a "pirate format" by major RIAA ******* - N.R.I.P (not rest in peace) Jack Valenti.

The news schmucks write what they are told to write, there is no real "press" anymore for quite long time, so who cares...

[RabidDog]

Blu-ray blanks and Blu-ray processing plants (I suspect) will kept under much closer watch this time around. Also If they delete avchd support from players, it will leave an awful lot of angry punters with camcorders. I would specifically get a blu-ray player with this capability, simply becoz its cheaper to burn on DVD than blu-ray, for the foreseeable future. I mean home produced stuff, of course.

[satviewer2000]

Other than Sony camcorders (and a couple of others), AVCHD is already an obsolete format among the hacker world. The codec of choice presently is "x264", which is open source, updated frequently, compatible with a large number of networked media players (eg. PCH), and provides excellent compression and quality.

[poisondeathray]

Other than Sony camcorders (and a couple of others), AVCHD is already an obsolete format among the hacker world. The codec of choice presently is "x264", which is open source, updated frequently, compatible with a large number of networked media players (eg. PCH), and provides excellent compression and quality.

Not quite: x264 is an encoder, not a format or codec. It's an open source encoder that implements the h.264 standard.