Blu-Ray Player that plays AVCHD

Using mkv2vob to create AVCHD folders, and burning to dvd using ImgBurn, I have successfully played back AVCHD on DVD using a Panasonic BD50.

It's probably safe to say that any recent Sony (including the PS3) or Panasonic unit will be able to playback AVCHD. Also, any PC with the right software will (PowerDVD with the HD feature for example).

I don't know about the others (Sharp, LG, Philips, Samsung, etc).

It works on the BDP-S350 and PS3. I think it should work on most, as AVC is a Blu-ray standard, and it's the same codec as AVCHD, just with some minor specification variables. One thing is, the red laser on the DVD can't read the data fast enough for more than 18-20mbs. I will just keep on freezing. So I would go a maximum of 18mbs AVCHD on a regular DVD.

I'm not aware of any BD player that can't play AVCHD.

I think all players do avchd disks today.... some of them not too dependable though.

By FAR the most reliable (and flexible) is the PS3. I would not recommend anything other than that..... and I WAS one of those people that was DEAD set on NOT buying one of those "silly" game consoles..... best buy I ever made.

I have the Panny BD30 and it does just fine playing my AVCHD DVDs.
Mike

Not much more expensive than other machines.... but does a lot more. It can do picture slide shows from stick or disk..... comes with a hard drive so you can keep your pics right in it. It can read raw M2TS, M2T files COPIED to disk..... no editor needed at all.... just COPY your files from the cam directly to a disk. It can handle streaming from your computer.... it's not really a player as much as it is a full multi media machine. If you're into video and cameras.... etc then the PS3 is about the only one that truly makes sense.

The Panasonic BD35, which I have, will play AVCHD DVD disks authored via Ulead VS 11.5 or more, Cyberlink PowerDirector Ultra, or Pinnacle Studio Ultimate. It will not play AVCHD DVD disks produced by using Sony Mediastudio Platinum 9c using the built in BD burn function. These need patching using a procedure defined here:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/what-happ...s-you-can.html

or, closer to home!:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...postcount=1662

Plays perfectly on my Panasonic BD55 machine.

I have personally seen AVCHD authored DVD-R's play in my PS3. I took the disc over to a couple of friends and a couple of relatives houses to test them. The machines that did NOT play them were the Philips BDP-7200, the Samsung 1400 and 1500 and the first Sharp player............Ones that it did play in were the Panasonic BD-30 and the Pioneer 05FD. I hope that helps. So I think it is fair to say that the discs will play in Sony, Panasonic and Pioneer players and they won't play in any Samsung, Sharp or the Funai manufactured units. It actually really stinks that it won't play in all BD players.

I play without problem AVCHD (BR) files that I burn to DVD-R discs using my Samsung BD-P1500.

I think there may be some confusion about the term "AVCHD files". If you simply mean *.mts or *.m2ts files burned to a DVD-R disc, then they may not play on all BR players. If you mean AVCHD files in the correct Blu-ray (BDMV) file structure, then it is a different story and they should play without problem.

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I agree that the Sony Play Station 3 was a very good deal and offers many features. Ordinary BR players are much cheaper now though and if someone just wants to play DVD/BR discs, this is probably a better choice.

The disc was video captured with a Canon Vixia HF100 HD camcorder. The files were burned on a DVD-R using the Pixel Imagemixer software.

Yes, I have made many AVCHD on DVD-R and AVCHD on BD-R, both tyes do play on Panny BD35 and Sony S350 players.

Note 1 - keep your data rate below 16Mb/s for DVD media, and
Note 2 - The Sony player was happier if I burnt @ 1x

Scoob, you were right and I am going to have to take back my claim above.

I just installed the 2.3 firmware upgrade for my Samsung BD P1500 and now it won't play my BR compatible discs (burned to DVD-R). This issue has been documented elsewhere (including on other threads of this forum), along with other problems of Samsung's firmware upgrade. I should have looked before I leaped.

I have no desire to try to revert to a previous firmware version so I'm inclined simply to return my Samsung BR player (I have a valid store warranty) and change it for the Sony S550 or a PS3 or a Panasonic. Among its advantages, the PS3 will play raw *.m2ts/*.mts files. I don't know if the S550 or Panasonic

One of the main reasons that I have a BR player is to watch my HD home videos and I have no patience with a firm that releases firmware updates removing features.

The PS3 is by far the way to go even if you don't play games. You can easily upgrade the hard drive and store all of your media on it including photos and mps's. It also has noise reduction options and will upconvert even your sd video to 1080p. It is easily firmware upgradable and who knows you may even enjoy playing one of the games every now and then. It is a bargain for what it does.

That is a real bummer...........I'm sorry to hear that. You would think that all of the players could and should be able to play them.

Hi WCoast,

I've had my Sony BDP-S350 since September, but I've only started getting into AVCHD for the past couple of weeks. Mind you, I've been watching AVCHD material that has been encoded from BD movies, whereas it appears you're looking for experiences with material made from camcorders. Despite that, I think you'll still find at least some of my info useful. The S350 is really good with AVCHD playback, given the proper conditions. Before I get into this, I should explain that I'm currently using firmware version 10, but I just heard they're up to v19 now so I'll have to give that a try tonight. Anyway, here are my findings thus far:

Pros
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• Can play 1920x1080 or 1280x720 material in smooth, true 24 fps (assuming the original video was encoded at 23.976fps).
  
• Can play Dolby Digital and DTS audio (I haven't tried the high-def formats yet). Note: If you skip chapters or scan around while watching a DTS movie, the audio will take at least a few seconds to kick back in.
  

Cons
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• Will not properly play resolutions that are outside of the ATSC standard, such as custom resolutions from video cameras (eg. 1440x1088), or many mkv-encoded movies from the internet where the black borders were cropped in order to improve compression efficiency (eg. 1920x816). If you try to play these types of files, you'll see double/overlapping images, green bars, etc. These files would have to be rencoded in order to add the black borders or resize them to an official resolution like 1920x1080 or 1280x720.
  
• Will not play AVCHD discs that have a menu. The player will correctly read the disc, but when it starts to play, the screen will remain blank and the counter will remain at 0:00:00. If you're downloading AVCHD movies, you can check for a menu before burning by looking in the \\BDMV\\STREAM folder on the image. If you see more than one .m2ts file, (and the other files are relatively small), it most likely means there is a menu on the disc. You would have to remove the menu by remuxing it using a program like TSMuxer.
  
• Will not properly play movies if they are encoded at 24.000fps (as opposed to 23.976fps). I tried Adywan's famous colour-corrected Star Wars IV AVCHD, but the sound was cutting out, and the picture was skipping. Apparently, other brands (eg. Samsung... well, at least before the 2.3 firmware upgrade ) are apparently able to play movies 24.000fps without issues.
  
• Chapter skipping and visual scanning are very slow. Okay, so it's the same story with playing DVDs and BDs on this unit, but AVCHDs are even slooower. At least Scene Search is relatively quick.

That's what I've got for now. I plan to come back and update this post as time goes on and I watch more AVCHD movies on the player.

Meanwhile, I just wanted to throw in my 2 cents regarding the PS3. I considered picking one up last year, but the main thing that turned me off was the relatively noisy fan. My friend has one, and it gets noisy after maybe 10-15 minutes into watching a movie (especially when upconverting a DVD). I'm not sure if newer models have improved on this issue. That said, I believe the PS3 can properly play back files in non-standard resolutions, which would be a big plus depending on where you're getting your AVCHD material from. I'm sure the PS3 owners can shed some light on this.

Hope this helps,
Visor

It depends on your room temp and the ventilation around the machine.

The PS3 has 3 auto fan speeds. It usually runs at low rpm mode which is very quiet. But when it gets warm it can kick into high gear... quite loud.

I've found that keeping it out in the open and not running a hot room will keep it in low gear for many hours.... but do the opposite and it will go high.

It's really all about finding the right temperature balance in the room and around the player to keep it from making too much noise.

sony did the same thing with their playstation, taking away features.

the PS3 is your best option

its also the best console...the argument ''it has no games'' its from 2007

you can also save your videos on the HDD

I don't think it's enthusiasm as much as it is just plain logic.

If you want to watch Blu Ray movies then just about any one of the players out there will do that for you... and do it well. But if you're looking for a general purpose media player there is simply nothing better than the PS3. It'll do things that the others can't do. Playback raw m2t files, avc files, boots up and plays at lightening speeds as compared to the other players, stream from your computer.... blah... blah.... on and on.

Xbox is a nice game machine (we have one too)... but it's nowhere near as nice a media player as the PS3 is. The xbox as a media player has simply missed the target... and I'll tell you right now... our Xbox has GOT to be at least twice as loud as our PS3 is at it's WORST time.

I own all 3 consoles and the only time my 360 gets used is when my wife and daughter want to play Rockband. Unfortunately I have an original 360 from launch, it is loud as all hell even without a CD in it & I consider myself lucky to have never gotten the red ring of death. PS3 imho is a better system but lacks the gaming software the 360 has but regardless because of the noise I cannot enjoy anything on the 360 except like I mentioned Rockband where the volume is so high it drowns out the 360 vacuum like sounds. I've found the extra money for the PS3 is well worth it for a few reasons.

1). I can upgrade the HDD with ease & cheaper than Microsoft which means buying the cheaper Ps3 and tossing in a 500GB hard drive.
2). Blu-Ray Player is phenomenal, better than many stand alone Blu-Ray players.
3). USB allows for a wider range of third party products.
4). Memory stick slots which means easier uploading of videos to my system.
5). Most importantly I don't have a vacuum sitting in my entertainment center & I don't have to worry about sending the system back due to red ring of light errors, I have been extremely lucky with mine but no exaggeration here I have not a single friend who has not had to send back at the very least 2 systems before they got a working system for more than 8 months or either gave up and got a full refund.

Don't mistake this post, I am by no means a fan of any system I am just a consumer who wants the smarter bang for my buck. I like more than just gaming from my system & yes I know PC's do that better than PS3 but I want the console for my other finicky needs. Bottom line is in my house & due to my peeves & needs my PS3 gets more attention from me, make no mistake about it the 360 is a very good system when it works but I am not shelling out money for a new 360 and risking getting a system that dies just to curb some of the noise in the newer models.

I have made stacks of AVCHD on DVD discs and all have played perfectly on my Panny BD35 and nearly all have played perfectly on my friend's Sony S350.

I use TXMUXER (free) to create the file structure, then burn with IMGBURN (also free).

IMGBURN is the only free burning software (that I am aware of) that will burn in the necessary UDF2.5 file format.

The Sony would not play a 1440x1088 disc, but the Panny had no problem.

Tip 1 - burn at slow speeds (eg 2x) for more reliable playback on the Sony S350.

Tip 2 - ensure your data rate does not exceed the DVD Redbook standard of 16Mb/s as your player cannot spin the disc any faster, and may stutter, or fail to play at all.

A few quick updates on the Sony BDP-S350:

• The unit will sometimes not recognize a disc as True 24 fps (ie. the blue light won't come on.) The problem can be fixed by simply stopping and starting the disc.
• The DTS audio delay issue seems to be limited to one disc at one chapter stop at this time. In other tests, the audio comes in about as fast as the AC3 audo.
• I should clarify that the S350 had an issue with readings discs with menus that were created by AVCHD Coder. I haven't yet tried discs authored by MultiAVCHD.

I think if I had discovered the world of AVCHD and Usenet back last September, I probably would've considered up a PS3. That said, I'm finding the issues that come along with Usenet (ie. invested time, broken files, forced subtitles missing, etc.) make the venture almost not worth it, even if I'm saving up to $35 CDN for each real BD.


Me too.


I've heard this tip for more than a decade. It almost sounds like some sort of 'snake oil' sales pitch, claiming to solve all sorts of CD/DVD/BD problems. In my experience, this tip has never worked; and all it does is frustrate me more when I end up generating a coaster that took 45 minutes to burn instead of 6 minutes. I'm not knocking you Pepster; if you have luck with slow burns, then by all means more power to you. I just never venture down that road anymore .

Visor