Few people asked here, so I'm providing the report.

I'm connecting FX1 to G5 directly via firewire cable. Booted up Final Cut Pro HD, open the capture window, software recognize FX1 as video device no problem and capture in real time or with the in/out & clip function no problem. The footage is shot with HDV format. I will provide HDV/DV format comparison as soon as I can.

I will also test DV shooting with FX1 since that is one of the way I want to use this cam since I shoot downhill mountainbike races and riders go really fast!

Thank you!

This is great news.

As a lot of folks on this board say...downsampled/down rezzed HD is gonna look awesome since we are starting from a higher res source...

Anamorphic DVD's are going to be wonderful....

This is a great way for beginners/people to start using the camera--without having to worry about editing HDV just yet...

Thank you so much for finally answering this question.

Now, I just need an extra four thousand bucks....

John,

Good. I lost track with where your request was, but I figured this should be a speparate thread anyway and glad you found it.

KAKU:

What about the video quality of the downcoverted HD to DV? When shooting HD and downcoverting to DV, does it definitely look better than any other mini DV camera ?

Can you capture the cineframe 24 or cineframe 30 over firewire?

I will do "HDV to DV" and DV comparison tomorrow.

<<<-- Originally posted by John C. Chu : Thank you!

This is great news.

As a lot of folks on this board say...downsampled/down rezzed HD is gonna look awesome since we are starting from a higher res source...

Anamorphic DVD's are going to be wonderful....

This is a great way for beginners/people to start using the camera--without having to worry about editing HDV just yet...

Thank you so much for finally answering this question.

Now, I just need an extra four thousand bucks.... -->>>

Completely false. On SD DVD, whether you shoot FX1 in HDV or DV mode, or use the AGDVX or XL2 etc will produce just about the same result. You will end up with the exact same resolution, and in all cases, the exact same color space.

People are confused with film or CineAlta-like footage which is great, has a wonderful color palette, shallow DOF etc. When down size to DVD, they still retain all those qualities. It is like DV VS DV shot with a 35mm to DV adapter.

<<<-- Originally posted by Donal Briard :

Completely false. On SD DVD, whether you shoot FX1 in HDV or DV mode, or use the AGDVX or XL2 etc will produce just about the same result. You will end up with the exact same resolution, and in all cases, the exact same color space.

People are confused with film or CineAlta-like footage which is great, has a wonderful color palette, shallow DOF etc. When down size to DVD, they still retain all those qualities. It is like DV VS DV shot with a 35mm to DV adapter. -->>>

You are saying that the viewer is not going to be aware that footage originated from a camera with higher detail in this case when downrezzed to SD??

I, for one, will wait to hear from Kaku on this..

John, rest assured - I've done the tests.

You would have to have a visual impairment to not see that FX1 to SD DVD is obviously superior to XL2 to DVD...

We've sold off our XL2's at the t.v. station where I work because of this development... we broadcast out in Mpeg2 on digital satellite and we've run tests - the FX1 is clear winner - hmmm.

How can I put it in terms we can all understand?

XL2 is New York Yankees.

FX1 is the BoSox.

I don't know what steps Donal has taken in his tests - but ours were very thorough and we can all sleep better knowing the HDV to SD DVD is a great way to go!

oh, just to clarify - I'm talking about the down-convert...

FX1 DV certainly would be expected to be on par with XL2... but FX1 HDV > NTSC SD DVD is a grand-slam home run, to continue the baseball analogy...

That makes sense Mark--I mean, if nothing else you're starting with a higher rez source that can actually shoot a decent wide shot...Yes, it may end up at the same resolution and colorspace, but it starts with much greater detail...it just makes good sense...