I've been reading and researching what the XH-A1 component output really outputs... Is there a definitive answer? There seems to be a lot of confusion about it, so it's hard to know what to believe.

I'm hoping it's true 1920 x 1080 - albeit analog. I've also heard it's at a higher data rate than HDV... maybe 36 vs. 25? Any help would be greatly appreciated as I evaluate what to do with my trusty A1 for an upcoming shoot. I want to go tapeless and am evaluating a setup to capture from the component out.

Yes, the component out when capturing live is uncompressed. But, the sensors on the camera are 1440x1080, so you can capture full raster, but the CCDs will always be the lower number (which isn't that much of a hurdle, HDCAM was 1440x1080 and that looked good even at 3:1:1 chroma sampling)