A friend of mine is considering the XA10. For his purposes, he still needs quick access to 4:3 SD full-screen (non-letterbox) video from a new camera. I just want to see if anybody can confirm that this can be done through playback via the A/V cable.

Also, it's clear from the promo materials that you can record simultaneously to two memory cards. Is it also possible to record to both the internal memory and a single card at the same time?

I've never tried the SD down convert so can't answer that.

You can't record to the cards and internal flash drive at the same time. You can however, make a back up onto a card from the internal memory once you've finished shooting.

The downconverts are terrible. I use my NLE system to downconvert HD>SD.

I'm not sure what 4:3 full screen is, exactly, but at any rate, doesn't the XA10 record in 4:3 mode anyway? I think it does, at least I've seen that on the menu, I thought.

I'm aware that you can downconvert in a NLE and that there is some sort of downconversion feature built into the camera too.

But here is what what I'm asking:

The footage would be shot in 16:9 HD. But when finished, he wants to quickly playback that footage via the A/V cable on a standard def recorder/monitor. Without the image having letterbox bars or being squeezed, will it fill up the entire screen in a 4:3 ratio? (on my Sony Z5U camera, this is called "edge crop" in the playback menu setting)