I am debating on whether to fix my HC1 or buy another HC3 or something for a deck. Will this work?

tapes should interchange fine unless one cam has an alignment problem - just moved a tape between 5 cams for a test, including one Canon - all play fine on HC7

How about the other way - Hi-def to hi-def camera (different brands and models). Since the HC1 is hi-def and I know the tapes do not work on my mini-dv camera deck...

Hi def won't play on a SC cam period... be like trying to play a DVD in a CD player...

BUT, HDV is a standard format, so seems to interchange between cameras just fine - there might be some limits to this (like the 24P and 24F formats on the pro cams?), but HC to HC is fine, the HV20 plays Sony fine, and vice versa. HC played FX7 and Z1U tape fine with plain vanilla settings.

Generally speaking from my experience, the manufacturers don't have any reason to block compatibility in a "standard" format, and unless a cam is out of alignment, you should be OK

Thanks for that. I was thinking of getting the HV20 from Canon, but wanted to make sure it could play the tapes from the HC1 and now I know it does.

Does the PAL version work as a deck with NTSC cameras and vise versa?