Did HC1 miss out on the HDMI? Is it only with the HC3?

Sadly there's no hdmi output on the HC1. There are component outs, but I've got no idea if they are uncompressed or not. You can also record direct-to-disc via firewire and a laptop, but I think that is an hdv signal.

Component out on *all* HDV camcorders is uncompressed.

Ok, so how can I capture that uncompressed data with a laptop?

Hmm - I'm not aware of anything that works with a laptop, but the black magic cards work great:
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/hd/

Ok, the HC1 doesn't have hdmi output, so I am not sure if that would work...yes/no?

Also, component out just has RCA jacks. So am I correct in thinking that there is no way of getting uncompressed to a laptop via this method?

Well like I said, I don't know of a way to capture component HD with a laptop, but using the blackmagic card (with a desktop machine) you use a breakout cable to hookup the component outs of the hc1 to the card (using rca to bnc adapters):
http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/connections/index.asp?prodID=18

surley you can just use firewire to capture the signal???

I've said this before, but may have been missed in the sheer number of very informative posts here, so I will try to explain again.

Look at this image: http://www.millcon.nl/Harm/HDMI.jpg

Yes, I can see with the 4:2:0 firewire compared to the 4:2:2 HDMI, it is going to be better off with the HDMI card. Hopefully other manufacturers come out with their own knock-offs and bring down the price.

Yes, I can see with the 4:2:0 firewire compared to the 4:2:2 HDMI, it is going to be better off with the HDMI card. Hopefully other manufacturers come out with their own knock-offs and bring down the price.

David,

My message maybe was not clear enough, but once your shoot is recorded on tape it is stored as 1440x1080 @ 4:2:0 and there is no way you get it back to 1920x1080 @ 4:2:2 format. The info has been lost forever. Even a HDMI connection can not change that fact. HDMI is just a transfer protocol and in essence no different from fire wire, once the data has been stored to tape.

ONLY when you capture LIVE, BEFORE RECORDING to tape can you use HDMI or HD-SDI to it's fullest potential, uncompressed @ 4:2:2 but that requires massive storage potential as indicated.

Yes, I think I understand- I want to go directly to laptop - not recording to tape, so I guess that is recording live so-to-speak. Is that what you mean?

Correct, but I would be interested to hear the specs of your notebook that supports a sustained transfer rate of 200 MB/s (that's MEGA BYTES). I know that a 2 disk SATAII Raid0 @ 7200 RPM will NOT fit the bill, not even close. Even a 2 disk Maxtor Atlas 15K II SCSI array will not meet requirements. If you double click on the thumbnail in my previous post, legibility will be improved. Read my remarks.

Ok, so only with those speeds I will get the 4:2:2. Now I am clear. No my laptop does not have those speeds.

Correct, but I would be interested to hear the specs of your notebook that supports a sustained transfer rate of 200 MB/s (that's MEGA BYTES). I know that a 2 disk SATAII Raid0 @ 7200 RPM will NOT fit the bill, not even close. Even a 2 disk Maxtor Atlas 15K II SCSI array will not meet requirements. If you double click on the thumbnail in my previous post, legibility will be improved. Read my remarks.

That's why we're considering the Intensity card with the Cineform codec. It's HUGELY reduced the transfer rate so a fast, single HDD with fast CPU can capture easily. See Cineform's page for details:

http://www.cineform.com/products/TechNotes/Blackmagic/Intensity.htm

I am not clear how a data stream of 1.485 Gbps can be reduced to something far less than that, in order to allow a notebook drive to capture it, without some form of compression. It just does not make sense that HD-SDI and HDMI use a data stream of 1.485 Gbps and the Intensity card can reduce that stream without losing information or compressing. Can somebody please explain?

ok, that also answers my next question if the Blackmagic card can someone fix this data stream speed problem.