Frustrated Sony HDR-SR12 Owner

[jehill]

Last November I purchased a fully loaded Dell XPS420 PC that includes a Blu-Ray drive. In March I purchased a Sony HDR-SR12 HandyCam with the expectation that I could save movies to Blu-Ray discs. I purchased a couple of Sony BD-RE discs and formatted them with Windows Vista Ultimate. I now have two UDF 2.5 formatted BD-RE discs that I can drag and drop files and folders to. I copied the AVCHD folder on the HandyCam to one of the discs. None of the following Sony software features work with the BD-RE disc with the files:

1. One Touch Disc Burn - Formats a blank DVD and writes AVCHD files directly from camera to DVD

2. Handycam Utility - Transfers AVCHD files from camera to PC HDD and registers files with Picture Motion Browser (PMB)

3. Player for AVCHD - Plays AVCHD files found on camera or compatible media

4. AVCHD Creation - AVCHD Creation - PMB feature that formats a blank DVD and writes AVCHD files to DVD from PMB files

What all of these features have in common is that they utilize the Picture Motion Browser (PMB) Media Check Tool, which recognizes the FAT32 formatted HDD in the camera, but does not recognize the UDF 2.5 formatted BD-RE media. Sony Help advised that the above features only work with DVD media, which makes no sense at all to me. Could it be that the BD-RE discs need to be formatted in a different format? Any ideas?

I have since purchased DVD-RW media and determined that all of the above features work fine with that media. Here are my observations using DVD-RW media:

1. One Touch Disc Burn - Clips that have already been written to a DVD cannot be written again. Only new clips can be written. The destination disc is erased or re-formatted each time the feature is used; thus, you cannot add files to a disc that already has files on it. BD-RE media is not recognized.

2. Handycam Utility - Only works with camera or camera formatted memory stick.

3. Player for AVCHD - Will play AVCHD files written to a DVD. BD-RE discs are not recognized.

4. AVCHD Creation - The destination disc is erased or re-formatted each time the feature is used; thus, you cannot add files to a disc that already has files on it. Previous files must be written again if they are desired. BD-RE media is not recognized.