Sony and Panasonic introduce yet another format  For those of
you who just can't get enough new digital storage formats, Sony
…  Mainstream format wars are always fun and exciting—remember
VHS versus Beta?—but there are times when the introduction of a
new method of storing information is necessary. For example, the
debut of handheld digital video cameras demanded a format that
could hold large amounts of data but was small enough to fit in
a portable device, and so MiniDV was born.  Now Sony and
Panasonic have announced (translated from Japanese) a new format
for HD video, but it remains to be seen whether or not it is a
solution looking for a problem.  The new format, labeled AVCHD
(not exactly an acronym that rolls off the tongue, but it stands
for Advanced Video Coding High Definition) uses currently-
available 3.2-inch "mini-DVD" discs as its storage medium. Data
is compressed using a codec based on the MPEG-4 AVC/H.264
standard, which compresses video files to much smaller sizes
than the MPEG 2 codec use