I'm reading thru the manual while I wait for B&H to ship my camera. It's page 42 in the manual- the "About the time code display" section states that in playback there's no timecode display- that's not right is it?
The other thing is that just above that section the manual states that there well be a letter after the tc display, the letter denoting what running mode the camera is in. It states that there will be an "E" for external code-- but it doesn't say that's only for the G1, and in all the other sections where a specific feature pertains to the G1 and not the A1 there's always "XHG1 only". So does this mean you can set the time code to an external source with the A1? Wishful thinking on my part?

I do not have the XH A1, however the A1 does not have external timecode input.

So, I think the manual omitted the fact that the E, for external timecode input would apply to the G1 model only.

In reference to your first question, I would assume that some type of tape counter or timecode will be displayed, just as it is on the XL1, XL1s, XL2, XL H1, etc.

I also assume that a tape recorded on an XL H1 with timecode will play back on the XH A1 and you will be able to see the timecode in the display. It will be interesting to run this test.

I think I just found a couple of minor errors in the manual- I mean, there's got to be timecode displayed during playback- that'd be a pretty big negative were it otherwise.

I'm not sure I understand what they mean by that either, as p 143 DOES have a depiction of timecode from a tape being displayed in the EVF. Maybe they meant that during playback a camera-generated code isn't displayed as the timecode is from the tape? Dunno.

On the "E" for External Timecode, perhaps that has to do with being able to copy the timecode in HDV/DV from another "digital device" (eg another camera). That's a nice new feature that both the A1 and G1 can do. If you're copying the timecode from another camera along with the video/audio, perhaps the "E" shows up?