BDtoAVCHD Editor's Review

Burn HD video discs and play them back on both set top boxes and your Windows PC with this cool utility.

My optical drive has been getting quite a workout lately. It’s a good thing, too. I've got well over 500 movies in both standard and HD formats. That's great for when I feel like watching a movie on my PC or on my iPad or with my AppleTV. However, sometimes, it would just be nice to be able to pop a disc in a set top box and watch it because the TV that the AppleTV is connected to is busy, or I don't want to watch on my Mac or iPad. This is where BCtoAVCHD comes in. It’s a cool Windows utility that can burn HD video discs that can be played on your computer or on your set top box.

BDtoAVCHD creates AVCHD discs from Blu-Ray or HD MKV files. As output we get the folder structure ready to burn to a DVD5 or DVD9. The software compresses the video to achieve the desired overall size of 4.7 GB or 8.5 GB with the highest possible quality.

The AVCHD format allows playback of the same type of content that a Blu-Ray drive or player does while maintaining HD (up to 1080p) but on DVD5 or DVD9 media. It is ideal for backing up Blu-Ray discs to a much a smaller disc while maintaining high quality. Media is converted only when necessary; and you don't need any special codecs or media splitters installed. The best part – your discs can be played on almost any desktop Blu-ray player or PS3.

App Pro’s: self contained, converts HD video and shrinks it, discs play on set top Blu-ray players and PS3's, Free

App Con’s: Wont use standard video files like WMP, or MP4,

Conclusion: BDtoAVCHD would be a really cool program if I could get the app to work with some of the video files I have on my Mac. Unfortunately, it wants to use M2TS or MKV files, and that's it. Unfortunately, I have none. While the app will work with Blu-ray discs directly, you have to have a Blu-ray drive to read a disc, and unfortunately, mine is on the fritz.

The fact that this app won't use industry standard video files like MPG's or WMV's or other HD compatible file is somewhat upsetting, and greatly reduces the value and usefulness of the app in my eyes.