>While you're at it, how about export to Flash video?

No, Sony should not do .flv Flash video. This is money going to Adobe or to ON2, and you and me have to pay for the licenses. Flash 10 recommends h.264 MP4 video, not FLV anymore. All it's needed is the ability on Sony AVC and/or MainConcept's custom dialogs to enable "streaming". As long this is done (it should just be a checkbox), then the created MP4 files are usable via Flash's video swf applications. That's how Youtube does it too for their HD/HQ videos: they are MP4 now, not FLV.

Do you live in an area that has the SX1? If so good for you, it looks like a nice camera

Personally I have no idea why they are using .mov format instead of something more directly editable like HDV or AVCHD files since it's recording in HD anyway, unless the camera doesn't have the processing power to do AVCHD encoding on the fly.

If we are talking about features in the new version, how about actual 64-bit OS support and not crashing every time I try to render a project that has 5.1 surround sound from AVCHD source files?

If they can get that bug fixed and do 64-bit support I'll probably upgrade.

CUDA and Core i7 optimizations would be cool too (let me put in 8 threads for rendering), but not as important as the stability fixes.

Eugenia - You are a wealth of info.

So if we are currently exporting to Main Concepts h.264 mp4, can we use it for streaming now without the dialog box having a checkbox? It's sound like a no from the way you describe it. Is there another step after exporting to MC h.264 mp4 from VMS9 to be able to use the movie in Flash video's swf app?

Right now we can not because there is no checkbox for streaming. At least the MainConcept encoder supports this, but it's not part of the exporting dialog that Sony uses. This should just be a checkbox on the SonyAVC and MainConcept dialogs, but NOT enabled by default, otherwise the Sony PS3 and other players choke on these kinds of files. Quicktime works, but not every app is, so streaming still needs to be OFF by default.

As for Flash video apps, not sure if existing ones can play these files or if you need newer ones that specifically support MP4.

For now, if you own Quicktime Pro, you can export your Vegas file in Avid's DNxHD lossless codec (free third party codec), and then load that file on Quicktime Pro, then export in MPEG4 in h.264/AAC, but with Streaming ON (it's a checkbox on Quicktime too). Then you can use that file with your Flash apps, as long as they are updated for MP4 support. Adobe's documentation should have more info on that.

The tutorial I have on my blog about proxying is not difficult to follow. And besides, if proxying becomes available on Vegas, I'd think that it will only be part of Vegas Pro, not Platinum. Traditionally, proxying was only a feature that Avid had in its high end workstations, so there is still this mentality that it's a "pro" feature. No matter if most of us need it anyway. Regardless, there is a solution available right now, and it works well. I never had problems with that method and I use it occasionally with my Kodak MP4 files.

So if you want to buy the SX1, go ahead and do it. Personally, I would suggest against it though. I wanted to buy one too while I was in France for Christmas (they don't sell it in the US you see), but looking further into it, it encodes the h.264 MOV files in just 16 mbps. Think that the Canon 5D uses 38 mbps for the same resolution. 16mbps is as bad as most AVCHD cameras. So why not spend that money on a better AVCHD camera then, like the Canon HF-S100? Not only these cameras will have better quality because of their 24mbps encoding, but also they give you so much more control -- from focusing to exposure, shutter speed etc, most of these features don't exist in the video mode of these digicams! Not only that, but AVCHD is miles faster to decode than MOV h.264 files, because Vegas is not as optimized for Quicktime-decoding as it is for MainConcept one (which is the codec that uses to decode AVCHD). So you won't even need proxy files for AVCHD editing with your new PC that I know you bought.

And don't get me started that they are selling this camera only in Europe, but it can only do 30.00 fps which is a US/Japan frame rate! You can't do good DVDs with it, because you are in a PAL country! Not only that, but if you try to create an NTSC DVD instead, and you drop your 30 fps videos in an NTSC timeline, there will be ghosting galore because of resampling (you would have to disable resampling to avoid the ghosting).

I know that it's very tempting getting a digicam that can also shoot good video, but I think that if you are really interested in video, you should buy the right tool for the right job. The SX1 -- and even the 5D Mark II -- are not the best tools for the job. Not yet anyhow, not until Canon adds more frame rate support, and manual controls in their video mode. Sure their footage looks nice, especially 5D's, but if there is no some rudimentary but needed video abilities in there, it's useless -- at least to me. This is the reason I haven't bought the 5D MII yet -- it doesn't do what I need.

Just to be complete:
Canon 5D Mark II: € 2900
Canon HF-S100: € 1199
Canon HF 100: € 660
Canon SX1: € 509
Canon HG 10: € 559