Very nice.


JJK

>>>What is the difference between the Sony and JVC HDV cameras?
The JVC cameras are 720p. This means they have 720 lines of horizontal resolution, displayed/shot in progressive frames. The Sony cameras have 1080 lines of horizontal resolution, shot in interlaced frames. The resolution of the JVC camera is 1440 x 720p, and the resolution of the Sony cameras is 1920 x 1080i. <<<

i believe that the sony hdr-fx1 only shoots 1440x1080i max(??), and the jvc camera will only go up to 1280x720p... the numbers you have listed are real hd specs, not camera parameters.

The numbers are based on delivery, not shooting. In fact, that particular answer, is almost copy/pasted from the JVC website.
The anamorphic aspect is what stretches it to fit the 1920 width. I'll have more info up on that in coming days.
[edit] looking at the way JVC describes it is more market oriented than answer oriented. Thanks to your question, I've changed it to our own answer, which is much clearer. Thanks for bringing it up.[edit]

"Is the Audio format of HDV any good?
The audio format of HDV is MPEG 1 Audio layer II. It has a bitrate of 384 Kbps, and can be very good. However, it's not suitable for heavy editing, so audio, like video is best sent to the intermediary. (and is automatically done so by the intermediary tools) Keep in mind that while this format is not quite up to CD standards, it is quite good. If you need high quality audio in a PCM format, we suggest you use a DAT or other uncompressed source that can do a true 16 bit/24 bit recording at 48k/96khz sample rate."

So does this mean the audio on the FX1/Z1 is worse than my palm cheapo camcorder that does 16bit? Does it mean one can not render final audio to AC3 as with DV? Does this mean one can not process the audio extensivly in SoundForge? I think I need a FAQ on the HDV FAQ.

Hey Spot you get Sony to let you put up some still from the new Sony cameras and I bet your HDV FAQ will get tons of traffic.

I think that is going to be a very good resource.

I think what that means is that it's pretty much the same as mpeg-1 layer 3, at high bitrates fine for recording but lossy, therefore one would want to convert to say 16/48K or better asap before you started editing it. It's only a few mouse clicks in Vegas to render it out as a new audio file, hardly a showstopper by any stretch of the imagination and if you were recording critical audio you're already going to have more kit anyway. For critical audio I always avoid using any camera's audio system, there's plenty of not overly expensive options, DAT, Fostex FR2 or the nice kit from Power Core.
Actually I think the FAQ does kind of explain that

I'm not in a league where I will use any location sound capture device other than the camera. The FAQ quoted seemed to my limited knowledge to imply that the Z1's audio in HDV mode was "inferior" to that in SDV mode. As I'm considering the FX1 vs. a PD170 or a VX2100 I was looking for some clarification. Will someone compare the two audio bit-depth/sample rate for me to resolve my confusion.