I recently acquired the HVR-Z7 adn was surprised to find out that my HVRM15U Deck does not play tapes recorded with the progressive modes. I was also surprised that there was no topic here about this... or maybe I'm doing something wrong, or I was the only one mad about having to spend another 5 grand.

So my question is can the HVRM15U Deck play progressive modes? If not which Sony deck is guaranteed to play it?

thank you all for your help!!
I've often resolved many issues here.

ps- and please I can do without the "just record to CF cards" answer.

They all do, but only via analog component.

http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/app-videoproduction/resource.solutions.bbsccms-assets-cat-cambroprod-solutions-hdv.shtml

From the brochure: "The HVR-M15U offers HDV 1080i, DVCAM and DV SP recording and playback capability for easy migration from standard to high definition production, as well as playback of HDV 720p pre-recorded tapes (analog output only)."

EDIT: Sorry, my mistake. By "progressive" I thought you meant 720p, not the various Sony Progressive modes. I'll just shut up now...

I have an HVR-M35E and it will play and record in native progressive mode, it also has HD/SD-SDI output so I can dub to digi beta or xdcam.

I am interested in this as well as I am looking to buy an HVRS-270 and shoot in its HDV1080 25p mode. To accompany it I will be purchasing an M15 deck and want to be sure I can play my Sony recordings in its progressive mode via Firewire tm my FCP- system.

The answer to all your questions are the new sony decks:

HVR-M15AU and HVR-M25AU for the US
http://news.sel.sony.com/en/press_room/b2b/broadcast_production/pro_audio_video/release/34858.html

HVR-M15AE and HVR-M25AE for Europe
http://www.sony.co.uk/biz/view/ShowPressRelease.action?section=SB+SS+ALL+Press+Center&pressrelease=1207064692287&site=biz_en_GB

Well, that was my fear... I guess I'll need a new deck. On the good side for Canon A1 owners, the HV-20 does play sony's progressive format, so the new Sony decks are are likely to play material recorded in the Canon format.

So I'll just use my HV20 for now.

thanks!

On a slightly related but different topic:

The PS3 does this perfectly with the CF cards. You just take the CF card out of the Z7, insert it in the PS3, and step through the video clips with the PS3 remote. 30p, 24p, 60i... they all look great!