I'm looking at new HD video cameras, and I'm really taken by Sony's HDR-SR1. It's a High-Def video camera using Sony's new CMOS sensor that's an improvement over the standard CCDs found in most consumer cameras. But the best part about this camera is that it records 1080i HD video direct to a hard disk. No tapes, no DVDs. I haven't done a hands-on with one yet (curiously, the Sony Style store here in San Francisco doesn't stock them) but I've been reading the reviews and, compared to the competition, I'm smitten.
I have an all-Mac household, and my obvious choice for editing digital video is to use the suite that came installed on my computer when I bought it. iLife includes iMovie HD 6, Apple's latest and greatest consumer editing software with support for 1080i HD video.
So here's the rub: iMovie HD doesn't support AVCHD, the newest and best HD video file format standard that my new favorite camera happens to use to record High-Def content. Final Cut Pro/Express can't edit it either. I've been digging around on the web, and, as far as I can tell, there's no Mac software that supports AVCHD editing.
AVCHD is a digital video codec based on MPEG-4 (H.264) that was jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic for use on DVD, SD and direct-to-hard-disk cameras. It's one of the main reasons the net is buzzing about the death of MiniDV. And face it: tape is so last year. I'd even argue that the 3-inch DVD is going to die quickly as well. Direct to HDD video recording means no removable media, and that's the ultimate in convenience. That's what consumers want.
It probably won't be long until consumer-level software like iMovie HD and Final Cut Express can edit AVCHD files. I'm not a codec expert or anything, but considering that the iPod plays MPEG-4 videos natively, we should expect Apple support sooner rather than later.
Luckily, these cameras using the new codec can usually also record in MPEG-2. Many options for editing lower-quality MPEG-2 files exist. But then I'm sacrificing video quality just to shoot a product that I can edit on my Mac. There has to be a better option.
