Making a useful comparison
 

Moving along the HD learning curve, I have acquired two, lightly used Vixia cameras and have run a few preliminary tests. Given budget constraints, I chose an HF200 and an HF S200 for their manual controls (among other features), with the intention to use the first for a locked-down wide shot or other secondary unit on two-camera shoots, such a interviews.
While was naturally impressed with the HF200’s image in comparison with that of my standard def GL-1, the image from the HF S200, not surprisingly, is manifestly more clear and detailed. The color rendering is also noticeably different, the 200 appearing somewhat more neutral on my (admittedly un-calibrated, non-HD computer monitor, and the S200 giving a somewhat warmer (towards magenta) image (also noticeably darker, perhaps I simply botched the settings).
If it is not a foolish comparison, I’d like to see if the apparent image sharpness might be made more similar if I set the S200 at XP+ and the 200 at FXP or MXP. My question is, what would be a useful procedure for making this comparison? I realize that a number of variables are involved, though I don’t have a grasp of this domain yet. I’m familiar with general testing setups from my decades of pro photography.
My editor is Vegas 12 Studio Platinum, my monitor is a 19" 1280x1024. At the moment, I don’t have a blu-ray burner; I’m anxiously awaiting the launch of M-disc blu-ray discs in June, which reportedly will be writable on standard blu-ray drives. I do have a 28" HD TV with an HDMI port. Perhaps some idea could be had from playing directly from each camera to the TV. Is this correct?
One final note: I understand that there is a format (BDMV?) that allows writing HD video to standard DVDs. I would think that this implies down-sampling, which would tend to obviate the differences I am looking for. True?
I’d be grateful for any favorite sources/articles, video tutorials. Thank you.