Panasonic and and Sony jointly said Thursday they have developed the "AVCHD" technology, which allows the recording of the high definition (HD) images onto conventional DVDs. In Japan, BS digital HD broadcasting and digital terrestrial broadcasting are expanding widely. Coupled with the emerging growth of HD broadcasting across the world, penetration of HD-capable TV sets is gaining momentum. This sets the stage for enjoying HD images more easily at home. Panasonic and Sony said that they will promote this format throughout the industry as the new HD digital video camera recorder format best suited for the HD era.

The "AVCHD" is an HD digital video camera format for recording 1080i and 720p signals onto 8cm DVD media by using efficient codec technologies. The format employs MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 codec for video compression, and Dolby Digital (AC-3) or Linear PCM for audio codec. This makes it possible to develop HD video camera recorders which achieve compact size as well as high-quality video and audio.

The MPEG-4/H.264 codec is a promising technology which is over two times more efficient than MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 codec technologies. By adopting this technology, an "AVCHD" video camera recorder can record high quality HD video images onto 8cm DVD media.

The two home electronics appliance manufacturers want other makers to adopt the technology as the industry's common basic specification for video cameras, according to the companies.

The basic specifications of the new format are will be announced tomorrow, according to the companies.





Matsushita also said it will embark on a project to develop technology for recording Digital high definition images to SD memory cards. This new HD video recording technology for SD Memory Cards will conform to the AVCHD standard.