I happen to know a lot about HDV (I moderate at
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf and have written for
http://www.hdvinfo.net) and I would say, go HDV. We'll all be on HD before you know it. The Playstation 3 will be Blu-Ray and eventually Microsoft will shove an HD DVD player in the Xbox 360.
As for HC1 vs A1...by the time you outfit the HC1 with accessories that are standard on the A1, you'll have hit the cost of the A1. And with the pro A1, you get Sony professional support, not consumer support (like the HC1 and FX1).
Keep in mind that the HC1/A1 are one cmos chip cameras that are good, but the FX1/Z1 are 3 1/3 inch ccd chips. For more, visit:
http://www.vasst.com and click on the HDV portal.
Final Cut Pro 5 is a native HDV editor and MUCH better than the others, trust me. No Direct Intermediate needed! (And the Apple Intermediate Codec is garbage still--darkens the video.)
Hope this helps,
mpstrex
ps-I've directed a film shot on the FX1 and recently produced a short shot on the Z1. The Z1 is my favorite HDV camera right now, until I can use the Canon.