I slightly drop the blacks in post in FCP and raise the saturation a bit-not too much. Not every shot needs this, but even with a customized preset in-camera, the post effects noted above seem to give the images more dimension. This is my experience mostly with Canon, not Panasonic. Panasonic presets seem already on the borderline of too much color. Personally I would rather shoot a flatter image and bump it in post. It gives you more creative options on the timeline.

I'm getting nice results when displaying on a 100" Sony Pearl Projector and the XH-A1 via component out and SD-DVD fom an HDV timeline in Final Cut.

I've been debating this over at DVXuser.com in regards to CCing A1 footage and HVX footage. It seems that the A1 footage holds up SO MUCH BETTER than the HVX footage, regardless of the 4:2:0 compression.

I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing this!

Agreed on both points. The DVX100's color-rendition was great. The HVX200 seems to shove everything a bit over-board. I am trying to find out how you back away from all the ultra-saturated colors.