iDvd and HD
 

Ok, If I get the Sony Z1 (not sure yet) then I get the new iMovie or the Final Cut Express HD and burn it on my Superdrive will it be real HD?

No. Both iMovie and Final Cut Express will now have support for digitizing HDV footage from the Z1 by firewire. You can edit the footage, then output firewire back to the Z1 or Sony's HDV deck and have true HD, on HDV tapes. Or, you can transcode your HDV timeline into a Standard Definition MPEG2 for authoring into a DVD.

Now, it seems that Apple is betting on Sony's Blu-Ray being the next standard for High Definition DVD. You can bet that if this happens, you'll be able to buy a Blu-Ray internal drive for your Mac, or an external firewire burner, or a consumer Blu-Ray DVD Recorder, just like all the options you have available with Standard Definition DVDs now.

Until the HD DVD war finally settles itself out, we won't have a lot of low-cost options for delivery of HD content.

That being said, whatever format wins, I'm sure you'll be able to render your HDV footage into something suitable.

I wouldn't worry too much about what format is going to win out for HD delivery, and whether the Z1 will work. After all, it doesn't matter now if you shoot DV, Betacam, 16mm, Varicam, CineAlta or HDV. You can still cut a program for broadcast or SD DVD. I'm sure that any flavor of HD will work with whatever format(s) win out, for both broadcasters and consumer products.

Thanks Scott. I just talk to a guy at Sony and they hope the Z1 is out by the end of Feb. Hopefully more specs on the camera too.

I would like to know if the Z1, or any other HDV camera for that matter, looks like when played to SD. I mean in my country there are not very many options for HDV broadcast so it is mainly SD. Can anybody point me to some examples of footage so I can see the difference in quality between the Z1 and the PD170(as its called in Europe) Or give me any other info? On the blue ray issue : Paramount,Universal and Warner Bros have officially committed themself to the HD-DVD, and not Blu Ray.