Obviously using one of the convertor options - analogue component out to HD SDI will deliver a signal that can be captured and edited on a NLE.

The questions I have are:

What are the costs and benefits over using the standard 720 24/25/30p to miniDV or hard drive?

What does one lose coming out analogue and converting via one of the third-party products?

I have one last question - how will the JVC 1080i output (either from the camera or HD50 deck) compare to the Z1 1080i output? (I know this may be a theoretical only at this time).

Cheers,

Nigel

"What are the costs and benefits over using the standard 720 24/25/30p to miniDV or hard drive?"

Not compressing to HDV. Cost is a very expensive RAID setup and a analog to digital converter.

"What does one lose coming out analogue and converting via one of the third-party products?"

You loose the massive compression of HDV.

Regardless of the very minor loss you might get going from analog to whatever third party converter, or directly to your HD component-in NLE. You will definitely get a much better picture compared to using the HDV codec.

Of course, carrying around your NLE or non-HDV HD deck around in the field might not be practical. But in a studio environment, this might be the best setup... capture directly on your NLE! I'd imagine you'd get killer keys with such a setup.