Both play back miniDV. The JVC can also play back DVCAM.

The 480/60p and 576/50p modes are standard-definition resolution, but they aren't NTSC or PAL or DV. They're HDV modes, encoded in MPEG-2. As such they play on the JVC, but I don't know whether the Sony has any ability to play them back or not.

Does anyone have link to the intruction manual for this product?

Hello Andrew...
Here is your link...
http://books.jvcservice.com/booklist...del=BR-HD50U/E
Hope this will help you..somehow!

I had used this deck...and it seems that it works fine until now - I have used MDvPRO tapes from JVC with both DV and HD footage!

I just don't see a reason to buy the deck. The Firestore solution is way cheaper and it can hold up to 80Gb in footage. How many tapes is that? No capturing, no moving parts. That's the way I'm going.

Is there any real difference between a HDV or ProHD tape and a normal mini DV? I thought it was just a re-branding to sell them for more. Wouldn't good old Fuji mini DV tape be good for the HD100?

I don't know about any other brand of tape made for HDV, but the Sony tape, and presentations from BASF, demonstrate why the more expensive tape is better. Not only fewer dropout potential, but greater error correction due to +4dB better s/n ratio, which can mean a better picture, because the camera has fewer errors to correct for.

Well I need a deck because I can't tell my clients and other cameramen to send me firestore drives to edit from. While that might be a good idea for my own personal capture (and a good way of counterweighting the HD100). I don't think deckless is a viable workflow option.

Really? And here I thought mini-DV was mini-DV.