I can't get my HV10 to playback on 4:3 TV with only composite in. Any solutions?

There's a setting in the play mode menu for SD out, I believe it's called DV out. Did you set the cam to that?

Can the HV10/HV20 do real time conversion of HD to SD out? (Like a Sony Z1U/FX1 does.)

Say I shoot a HD scene, and don't have an HDTV nearby, can I set it to down-scale the footage so I can jack it into an SDTV and watch? (Letterboxed or cropped as the SDTV is 4:3).

Thanks.

Robert, Yes, according to Chris's overview:
http://www.hdvinfo.net/articles/canon/comparehv10hv20.php

I would hope that it would output full resolution anamorphic instead of letterboxed.

It's letterboxed.

Bummer.

Ah well they must have thought - this is the compatibility mode, let's make it compatible.

You should be able to set the TV Type in playback settings, eg 16:9 or 4:3, for composite and ?component outputs... can't test right now as I can't find my video cable :-P

But, you should be able to play 16:9 format video in either letterboxed on 4:3 TVs, or normal on 16:9 TVs, just set output to match the TV type.
I don't think it would have an option to zoom/crop ws video to 4:3 tv, only letterbox...

manual p34: Play/Out Setup:
"NORMAL TV], [ WIDE TV]
In order to display the picture in full and in
the correct aspect ratio, select the setting
according to the type of television to
which you will connect the camcorder.
[NORMAL TV]: TV sets with 4:3 aspect ratio.
[WIDE TV]: TV sets with 16:9 aspect ratio.

You can set the component output to be 480i or 1080i.

p59:
"Playback on a TV Screen
The quality of the playback picture will
vary depending on the connected TV and
the type of connection used.
Change the following settings as
necessary before making the
connections. Refer to the corresponding
explanation of each setting in the
PLAY/OUT SETUP menu option list ( 34).
- [PLAYBACK STD] to select the output video standard.
- [TV TYPE] to match the output video to the aspect ratio of the connected TV.
- [COMP.OUT] to select the video specifications when using connection type .
- [DV OUTPUT] to select the standard of the output video when using connection type ."

That is correct. You can playback HV10 HD footage to an SD TV and it down converts in real time. Either letterboxed 16:9 or full 4:3. The full mode is squeezed vertically to allow the entire frame.

I started this thread and thank you for all your suggestions but when I connect the HV10 to Normal TV it will only playback sound no picture. This Toshiba 4:3 TV has three settings TV, Video 1 and Video 2.

Sorry your post got kind of hijacked!
Perhaps the video cable isn't fully plugged in? It has an extra contact around the barrel for the video signal, along w/ normal stereo minijack contacts, and might not be in far enough to contact... ?
Otherwise, there may also be a setting on your TV to select S-Video or composite in, maybe it's on SVideo?

On this Toshiba TV the only way it would work was hooking it up to Video 2 not Video 1. Strange. Thanks for your help.