I know this could be posted in either the V1U or HV20 forums, but I figure people here would know best, plus Cineform handles both of these in HDLink.

I know that Canon's other camcorders shoot 24F mode, which is incompatible with Sony HDV hardware, but the HV20 seems to add proper pulldown and record a standard 1080i30 stream when shooting 24p. The V1U also adds pulldown to its 24p and records a 1080i30 stream. Are these basically identical? Will they be handled the same if captured properly through HDLink? And lastly, can V1U 24p footage be captured from the HV20, using it as a deck? I believe the answer to all of these questions is yes, but I was hoping that someone could confirm that for me.

I am looking at buying an HV20 now since they are cheap, but if I find myself doing any serious work, I would upgrade to the V1U, and I want to make sure my HV20 investment would still be of some use.

Mike,
I'm certainly no expert here, but I purchased both of those cameras several months ago due to what I've read here and other forums. I shoot them both together during interviews. 1) Are they identical? Well, the 24p process is the same as far as workflow, and with some post production I can match them up fairly well, but obviously a $4k camera produces higher quality footage. Not to take anything away from the HV20, because it produces awesome footage, but when I put them side by side in a multicam editing situation, there's not a question as to which one is the V1U. 2) I process them the same with HDLink settings. But from what I understand, the HV20 doesn't add the flags for pulldown, so if you don't use a Cineform product, you have to move heaven and earth for a workaround process to get true 24p footage. 3) I asked the same question on this forum, and the answer is that you can use the HV20 as a deck to capture the V1U footage.

Good to know that they are very similar, and it is good to know that there is a difference in the way it is flagged. I believe the Matrox solution is keyed to those flags, so that is why they support the V1U 24p, and not the HV20. That is what gave me some idea that there was a difference. So basically, they are recorded slightly differently, but Cineform handles them the same way. That is what I was trying to find out. Thanks.