Am I correct in understanding that when using ProspectHD I could specify that my HDV footage be captured at 1440x1080 8bit, and that the resulting file would be identical to one captured by AspectHD?

In other words ..... that ProspectHD can, if required, operate exactly the same as AspectHD?

Yes, they are the same, but not quite as you describe. From HDV the I/O is 8-bit (inherent to HDV), but CineForm compression is at least 10-bit for all our products. Prospect HD advantage is it supports I/O at 10-bit or greater, which is better for color correction, but Aspect and Prospect as much the same for the first conversion pass.

Interesting - thanks!