Nero sent out a press release earlier today, announcing that Nero 7 is the first multimedia suite to be certified for both authoring and playback of AVCHD.
Nero, leaders in digital media technology, announced today that Nero 7 is the first multimedia suite to be certified for both authoring and playback of the Advanced Video Codec High Definition (AVCHD) standard. Now users can create and enjoy their AVCHD content with one solution. AVCHD is a new recording format introduced by Sony and Panasonic that uses an MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video codec to allow for greater compression efficiency as well as higher quality audio and video capturing.

In achieving certification for authoring and playback of AVCHD, Nero 7 has successfully passed the stringent quality standards and guidelines as outlined by Sony and Panasonic to ensure the best user experience for AVCHD. AVCHD playback features ensure that users can enjoy High Definition AVCHD video directly on a PC with Nero ShowTime 3. AVCHD authoring in Nero 7 empowers users to take their own HD content from AVCHD camcorders or other sources, and add menus, create chapters, edit, and encode into AVCHD. Nero 7's certified authoring capability ensures that content can be played on consumer devices such as PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray Disc players.
Support for certified AVCHD authoring and playback will be included in the next update of Nero 7, which, if things go as planned, should be available in the next week or so. If you'd like to read more, Nero's entire press release can be found here.