Are there any machines out there to view the HDV tape other than the camera itself?

if possible, other than the Sony player that coasts about as much as the FX1 itself.

Sony has the M10 U deck, which is battery powered or AC powered. It will play either the JVC tapes or the Sony tapes

It'll play JVC tapes, but it won't let you digitize the JVC tapes, will it? You can only play the Sony tapes out through the firewire; you couldn't use the Sony deck to digitize JVC tapes. It'll play the JVC tapes and let you view the analog output, but not through the firewire...