What is BDMV, BDAV, AVCHD, AVCREC, M2TS, MTS and How to Play Them

“What is BDAV?”

“What is an M2TS file and How to Open it?”

“What file format does Blu-ray use?”

These questions are commonly asked by users who would like to record video to media, play the Blu-ray file or edit the Blu-ray file. Blu-ray folder – BDMV, BDAV, recording format – AVCHD, AVCREC, Blu-ray media container – M2TS, MTS, these conceptions have close contact, which is suit for compare in one article. You might obtain a brief understanding of Blu-ray files after reading.

Contents

1. Two Kinds of Blu-ray File
2. AVCHD vs AVCREC
3. Blu-ray Disc vs AVCHD Disc
4. Are .MTS and .m2ts Files the Exact Same Thing?
5. One Player to Play BDMV, BDAV, AVCHD, AVCREC, MTS, M2TS on PC

Two Kinds of Blu-ray File

Blu-ray file can simply be divided into two types.

• The first one is a professional that released by film distributors. After loading the Blu-ray movie disc that you have purchased into your computer and open the Blu-ray drive symbol, you can see its file structure. The BDMV folder resides in a root directory. STREAM directory contains MPEG-2 transport stream files (M2TS files).

• The other is consumer-oriented. They come from the high-definition digital video cameras. So for example, on a DVD-based camcorder, the BDMV directory is placed at the root level:

BDMV

– STREAM

– .MTS

On the HDD-based Canon HG10 camcorder, the BDMV directory is located in the AVCHD directory (placed at the root level). Solid-state Panasonic and Canon camcorders nest the AVCHD directory inside the PRIVATE directory:

PRIVATE

– AVCHD

– BDMV

– STREAM

– .MTS

The video that recorded by Japanese-only AVCREC recorder such as Panasonic DMR-BS850, the file structure would be like this:

BDAV

– STREAM

– .MTS

AVCHD vs AVCREC

AVCHD (Advanced Video Coding High Definition) and AVCREC are both formats for recording and playback of high definition video. They have a set of standards.

	AVCHD	AVCREC
Recording	DVD media, Secure Digital memory cards, Memory Stick cards, and hard disk drives	Primarily uses DVD media, though BD-R/BD-RE media and hard disk drives are used in some devices as well
Directory	BDMV	BDAV
Capacity	Mini DVD: 1.4GB, 5.2GB DVD media: 4.7GB, 8.5GB	DVD media: 4.7GB, 8.5GB Blu-ray media: 25GB, 50GB, 100/200/300GB
Container	MTS/M2TS	MTS/M2TS
Video Codec	H.264/MPEG-4 AVC	H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Audio Codec	AC3	AAC, AC3, Linear PCM
Region	Worldwide	Japanese-only

For now, BDAV is a Japanese-only thing. One can record UHD TV broadcast to Blu-ray media. The resulting disc is UHD BDAV with AACS 2 protection. This shows that homemade Blu-ray files are not necessarily copyright-free. The normal media player on the computer cannot play the BDMV/BDAV disc with AACS protection because they lack the package to decrypt it. To play these kinds of Blu-ray files on PC, you will need some other Blu-ray player software. We will talk about it later.

Blu-ray Disc vs AVCHD Disc

Both Blu-ray disc and AVCHD disc can only be played in a Blu-ray player (not DVD player) because AVCHD disc using the recording structure of a Blu-ray disc. In most cases, private home videos won’t last hours, AVCHD discs are the better choice. It gives you Full High Definition quality on a standard DVD disc.

	Blu-ray Disc	AVCHD Disc
Media	Blu-ray media	DVD media
Capacity	Normal Blu-ray movie disc: 25GB, 50GB 4K Blu-ray movie disc: 50GB, 66GB, 100GB Recordable Blu-ray disc: up to 300GB	Mini DVD: 1.4GB, 5.2GB DVD media: 4.7GB, 8.5GB
Directory	BDMV	BDMV
Video Codec	H.262/MPEG-2 Part 2 H.264/MPEG-4 AVC VC-1 H.265	H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
Audio Codec	AC3, DTS, Linear PCM	AC3

Are .MTS and .m2ts Files the Exact Same Thing?

There is no functional difference between MTS and M2TS files. An M2TS file extension can be renamed to an MTS file extension and vice versa. We use a Sony camcorder as an example. An AVCHD video is normally copied from a camera to a computer using the drag-and-drop method has an MTS file extension. Whereas, AVCHD video imported with PlayMemories Home™ or other software is typically assigned the M2TS file extension.

Then why are there two ways of expressing it? I referred to Wiki and found a reasonable explanation, “At the file system level, the structure of AVCHD is derived from the Blu-ray Disc specification, but is not identical to it. In particular, it uses legacy “8.3” file naming convention, while Blu-ray Discs utilize long filenames (this may be caused by the fact that FAT implementations utilizing long file names are patented by Microsoft and are licensed on a per unit sold basis)”.

One Player to Play BDMV, BDAV, AVCHD, AVCREC, MTS, M2TS on PC

If the Blu-ray files that you want to play have protection such as AACS (Advanced Access Content System), you will need a professional Blu-ray media player to bypass it. BlurayVid Blu-ray Player now supports the disc or folder of UHD BDAV, AVCHD, BDMV, and M2TS/MTS files. * From 2008, it receives certification for both AVCREC and AVCHD playback support.

Free Download

This Blu-ray player software can not only play the BDMV and BDAV folder coming from camcorder but also play commercial 4K UHD Blu-ray disc/folder/ISO, DVD, CD, and almost all the media files. This is the most powerful player that combines a Blu-ray player and media player.

Step 1. Launch the program and find your Blu-ray file under “My Computer” tab.

Step 2. Start to play the Blu-ray file on your computer. It is very easy to change titles, change scenes, add external subtitles, change audio tracks and so on.