When you mean that the JVCBRHD50 won't even play the sony tapes, you mean the sony tape recorded in HD 1080i?
And if the sony (which model?) play the JVC tapes does it mean that you can import tapes shot in HD with the JVC (and so edit the footage)?
Thanks

The Sony HVR M25 will play the 720p tapes from the JVC but only out the component outputs, not out firewire. To capture from them you need a BMD or AJA card that'll accept HD component. Bear in mind that'll give you a fairly high datarate as there'll be less compression than HDV (and no upside, it's still been through HDV compression in the camera). Going down that path you'd probably overall save a bit by buying thhe JVC deck as well as the Sony.

Bob.

From what I understand the JVC will play the HDV tapes shot with a Sony but it will not display them. In other words it will send the data over the firewire but it won't display out to a TV/Monitor. I have not tried any Sony shot tapes but I have read others who have tried.

And from what I understand the same goes for the Cannon flavor of HDV and JVC on the Sony decks. They will play, output via firewire, but won't display.

I think, from what I gather in thread elsewhere that deal with this, it has to do with the way things like pulldown is handled in the JVC 24p and how the other version of 24 on the Cannon and the Sony's are handled. Some people have said that the Sony decks will play the 30p material, but not the 24p material from the JVC. The CU-VH1US-P will supposedly play back all flavours of HDV but it won't display any 1080i material.

To be clear I have tried any of this because I do not have any Cannon or Sony recorded tapes. But in a way the firewire issue makes sense because is is only a data transfer and software like CapDVHS will capture and output whatever HD/HDV data it is given.

the Sony deck will not pass JVC nor Canon 24f down firewire or HDMI. Sony won't play 24f anyway.
JVC won't play 1080.
Sony will display JVC via component, as Bob and I had said earlier, but the only way to capture the JVC footage with a Sony deck is with a hardware card that offers component input.
I do have a JVC HD100, Canon XLH1, Sony M10 and M25U, and a BR 50, simply because of all the incompatibilities. Sort of a PITA, but what are ya gonna do?

I am not sure as I say, because i do not have any test tapes from the cannon or the sony. it might be a firmware issue - again not sure. Your milage may vary. When I was doing serious looking some people had tried to take a sony shot tape and "play" it with the BRHD50. No picture. However via the firewire they were able to capture the data using CapDVHS. The reverse of that is someone who tried outputting a "non supported' format to the JVC camera and it recorde - no image was visable but on recapture the data was all there.

Likewise people have also said the JVC 720 24p material was not "playable" on the sony decks however the 720/30p material was...at least via the firewire.

Now as far as the componet - much discussion on this and the JVC camera. Namely that you can take a direct feed off the camera and capture the full res. Someone did tests using Cineform's Prospect HD. Same would go for the BRHD50 deck as you can get 1080i out via component. Also someone at JVC confirmed the deck(s) will take the 1080 tapes, will not display any image, but would still send the data down the firewire.

Hmm....Interesting.
Saw your post, flipped the switch to the BR50, and put in a tape from the Z1. Connect HD and Vegas don't see an incoming signal. Maybe there is a firmware update I'm not aware of. Nice to know about, I'll dig into it tomorrow. Would be very nice if I could use the same deck for both formats.