For HD delivery on disc*, burning to Blu-Ray BD-R/RE and HD DVD-R/RW media could be expensive, not considering the cost of authoring software, burner.
It is possible to save HD-DVD content to DVD-R like since Pinnacle Studio 10.7 (plus $25 addon). (AVCHD also in 11?) With uncertainty over that format's future, an alternative is to put AVCHD on DVD-R.
Nero 8 with the Blu-ray/HD DVD Video Plug-in (cost extra) can do that also. Vegas 8 Pro should be able to do it too, but at a higher price than the cheaper consumer orientated software.
You can do that with some Sony AVCHD camcorders (HDR-UX1/5/7) and DVD burner (like VRD-MC5) on 8cm disc, which won't work in slot loading drive like in the Playstation 3, which only use 12cm media. (You can also use Sony Motion Picture Browser to do it too, not sure anyone actually use it for editing ;)**)
One way is to use Ulead (owned by Intervideo for a while? Nnow part of Corel) DVD MovieFactory Plus 6 if you pay extra $19.99 :( for the HD Power Pack plugin.
However, if you already have Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus, you can get its Power Pack for free.
1. You probably want one long HDV MPEG to start with. There seems to be a bug in the final AVCHD if you use more than one clip, it loops a few seconds at the transition (GOP problem?).
Go to Share, Create Disc, AVCHD
2.Add media screen should already pulled in your VSP project.
3. Add some chapter points if you haven't done so. (it will save back to your project automatically)
4. Pick a menu (only gives you 6 in the freebie), fix up the titles, chapters
5. Some additional options in Edit tab (some dropdown menu buttons also. At least none of the just button in this page like on burn menu. VideoStudio's user interface can be confusing)
6. Burn menu. The first time you launch it, the size estimate may be wrong, the next time you load the project, it may be smaller. It needs some extra space to convert the new m2t, so make sure you get 2-3x more than whatever it said.
There is no option to save the finished file sytem or ISO to hard drive first, so you have to burn straight to DVD-R.
7. More options in various buttons. Good luck figuring out what some are. X-disc means XDVD, XVCD, XSVCD? Not sure there are hidden advanced options like in DVD Workshop (no longer developed?) that can enable with adding extra lines to .ini file. Anti-flicker filter?
8. Be very patient. In this example, 24min 54 seconds 2 hr. 46 min 17 seconds. Still faster than converting to WMV HD 1440x1080, which takes about 5 hours.
9. You will then get the complicated layout AVCHD you can play in your Playstation 3 (works on other BD players too?)
\---BDMV
| index.bdmv
| MovieObject.bdmv
|
+---PLAYLIST
| 00000.mpls
| 01200.mpls
| ...
| 01213.mpls
|
+---CLIPINF
| 00000.clpi
| 00001.clpi
| ...
| 00014.clpi
|
+---AUXDATA
+---BACKUP
| | index.bdmv
| | MovieObject.bdmv
| |
| +---CLIPINF
| | 00000.clpi
| | ...
| | 00014.clpi
| |
| +---PLAYLIST
| | 00000.mpls
| | 01200.mpls
| | ...
| | 01213.mpls
| |
| +---BDJO
| \---JAR
+---BDJO
+---JAR
+---META
\---STREAM
00000.m2ts
00001.m2ts
...
00014.m2ts
10. Quality
You do lose some details going from 25Mbps HDV to 15Mbps AVCHD M2TS, even both are 1440x1080 anamorphic. There is also some field issue. But there is much easier to send a disc than to send a HDV tape and have to hook up camcorder/deck to HDTV.
* if you don't need the menu and use in set top player, you can just use any of the HD file format directly like with Adobe "Moviestar" H.264 .flv, WMV HD, QuickTime H.264 .mov, DivX 6.x , Real 10 .rmvb.
**
If you try with Sony AVCHD player, it will give this error
