I responded to this thread but wasn't logged in so it disappeared! Basically I've been stalled using my A1 for HDV as the edit is where the bottleneck is. I use Final Cut Pro not Vegas.
I just picked up an XL2 and I'm anxious to do comparisons. I like the quazi full size feel and buttons on the XL2. The A1's button are way too hard to find in the dark.
I also suspect that we may find ourselves holding an outdated HD format as the mpeg4 codec's continue to be developed.
any other form of HD (DVC Pro HD or XDCAM) is way out of the league of DV even for the camera purchase, let alone the horsepower needed for the editing system.
for the time being, I'll stick with 16 x 9 SD. this is a complete system that I can rely on from tape to edit to DVD

What specific problems with the A1? I run FCP on a PC machine and loved working with A1 footage in real time.

I have been using the Sony PD170 in SD 4.3 rendered out to DVD, looks great on SD TV. My clients all have Widescreen TV and to them it still looks great,So I have been using the Sony Z1, they cant really tell the change apart from things look a bit stretched on the Sony PD170.

I know HD Widescreen is the best looking thing at the moment. But to the average person that has no knowledge on formats at all, everything looks the same. I think content has everything to do with how good it looks. No content, looks crap,content looks great.
SD is still kicking around even SD stretched is still looking good.
But to me SD 16.9 is the one we all need to get... HD is here and will take off as soon as price drops for the average house hold.

Now lets get out there and shoot content.
Cheers
Simon

Downrez HDV? OK but, unless your going to wearout your camera drive, you have to buy a deck. There's another 3K. for what?

Internet Myth #1. In reality, you're *not* going to wear out your camera drive by using it as a deck.

Huh? With all the concern about total hours on the heads and camera wear I woulda thunk it otherwise. Hours is hours, regardless of whether they're recording or playback hours since the wear under concern is caused by the physical friction of the heads and tape moving against each other. Are you saying this because such concerns over head wear are over-rated?

Bingo. For all the hand-wringing over using the camcorder for playback, I can't recall a single instance of someone reporting that they actually "wore out the heads." Gummed up from mixing tape brands, sure, but the transports are fairly robust these days and a camcorder will be obsolete long before its heads ever wear out. Of course, if you're capturing video eight hours per day, every day, then obviously you need a deck, because as I've said before, the primary reason not to use your your camera as a deck is because doing so takes the camera out of production -- and if it's not shooting, it's not making money. I strongly recommend a deck for *that* reason, not because of any perceived "damage" from playing tapes. If tape playback was bad for a camcorder, then it wouldn't have a VCR mode.

I certainly believe so as I shoot everything in HD.

I have just recently found out that the image (I believe) is more superior when I capture, edit and render to HD then I render the HD video to SD video.

Also, if you use FCS, you can already offer HD DVD's to clients, if they say "Do you offer HD?" Personally, I would NOT want to say "Well, you know, I just haven't spent the money on an HD Camera, because I wanted to buy a better tripod.

Maybe if you want your camera to have a useful life for only the next year and a half, you can get an SD camera.

I have already had clients asking me about giving them HD DVD's for distribution. And THANK GOD I can say "Of course I can. Nearsighted Productions wants to give our clients the BEST of quality at a more than affordable price to the general public."

I PERSONALLY like to give that choice to the client.


So in all that, SD maybe? HD definitely!

What is the point of getting a 3k$ deck when you can buy a good HDV cam for 1k$ and use that as a deck AND B-roll cam?

Besides, heads last for THOUSANDS of hours, replacing them costs few hundred $$, there is NO reason not to use the cam as a deck, or getting a cheap HDV cam for that purpose.

MPEG4 is currently more relevant for HD delivery than acquisition, but even if future cameras do use MPEG4 recording that won't make current HD cameras less useful.

As far as editing horsepower is concerned, you can do basic HD editing for most recording formats on a good laptop if you set things up right. And with today's desktop computers you can do more with HD than we used to do with DV without pre-rendering, so life is good.