I rented a Z1 for shooting. I was thinking I will have to rent again for capture but... just started to wonder... can a regular DV Camera (old TRV-900) play the HDV tape and can I capture the HDV from it? I figure... the info is already captured on tape... just transfering it to the PC... BUT dont want to degrade the quality in any way! Please inform me.

If the tape is recorded hdv you will need a camera capable of recording/playing an hdv tape to use for capture.

If you record dv with the z1 then any dv camera will work for capture.

link:

http://www.videoforums.co.uk/guide-what-is-hdv-2-86.htm

while it may not answer your specific question, it does hint at what may turn out to be problems, especially while editing.

Hope it helps a little. Good luck.

If a regular DV camera could send HDV data out of it's firewire port, there would be no quality loss getting it into your computer, as it's all just 1's and 0's at that point.

But sadly, regular DV cameras CAN'T output HDV via firewire.

That sums it up... thank you... I guess Ill have to budget in another day rental for a camera for capture.