I bought one the minute they were on the market. I love it but don't expect it to look quite like HDNET - after all, your camera will cost about $58,000 less than their's do.....
Having said that, the pros are that it works very well, comes with software to make your own movies. It also takes SD in 4x3 and SD in 16x9 - which I haven't tried even. It has quite a few built in effects but most of them are not available in HD. It will down/upconvert to about any resolution you want. The other day I was visiting someone who has a Mitsubishi, I think it was, projection and I couldn't get it to work at all. Then it occured to me that this set is 1080i only - so I quickly changed to "convert 720P to 1080i" and VOILA - just like downtown. It also takes shapshots but they are not terrible high res. Something like 1290x780. Yes it does have component output as well as composite and S Video.
Here would be the cons. You have to use the camera as your VCR to show your tapes. Of course, you can convert it to a DVD but it will not be as sharp. This same friend has a Mitsubishi HD tape recorder and I am anxious to see if it will take the images thru it's firewire input......
The software that comes with it works fine but is limited in it's effects - titles, transitions, etc. But this is a limited version of (LE) of a program that the software vendor sells to pros for around 5 grand - so I suppose we can't expect the full version. I expect there will soon be other software to edit HD tapes. Also, if you're going to be doing editing on your PC, you need a processor at least 2 Gig or faster - I just upgraded to 2.6 - and lots of hard drive space. As you load in clips and form your movie, it takes a lot of drive. But most of it can eventually be erased when you've made your DVD's or copied the final version back to your camcorder.
Hope this is helpful.
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