It would have been nice...
 

With all these new cameras raising the bar its hard to complain...

With the high resolution 60i image, it would have been nice to get an up-res 1920x540 to 1280x720p60 image. With the full 4:2:2 color space, it would actually have the full color resolution on HDV. And be advantageous for sports recording.

Since the V1 actually uses 1920x1080 at 60p in the DSP it would have been better to downscale from 1920x1080p 60p to 1280x720p 60p for a way for people to have an option for 60p output to tape. This would have really pushed SONY to the front of HDV as well by being the only HDV camera to shoot both 1080i and 720p formats.

I am constantly amazed at how much more about camera design that a few folks seem to know more about than other engineers. Doesn't matter if it's Sony, Canon, JVC, Panasonic, Grass Valley, Ikegami, or whomever...it's always said by a few "It would be better," "They should have," "They could have," "They ought to...,".

Sony doesn't support 720p. That's all that really needs to be said, IMO. Why would they step backwards?

Some of us would consider interlaced to be "backwards" (a throwback to a 1950's-era compromise) and progressive to be the future... ;)

Agreed. Which is probably why Sony created progressive video in the first place. But broadcasters aren't ready for 60p yet.
720p was always intended as a stepping stone to the future, and that was a while back. 1080 was the original proposal, and it's here now. And...US displays do a much better job over all with 1080 than with 720. (Americans like those bigger displays). ;-)

There are alot of sports events that are better in 720p. In my case golf. Definitely helps when the backswing and downswing combined are in the 1 sec range. Isn't ABCHD broadcast in 720p60?

When I used my ATI HDTV Card to check just now (3:51 PDT)

NBC broadcasting in 1081i, PublicTV 720p, ABC a 720p (football game), CBS 1080i (football game), and Fox at 720p (baseball game).

ESPN, ABC, and FOX are always 720p60. As is NASA and DOD.