According to Apple, the Sony HVR-*Z*1U is compatible with FCE HD. In your post you mentioned the the HVR-*V*1U. Not sure if this is simply a typo or if it's actually another camera model.
Anyway, here's the link to what Apple considers to be fully compatible devices with Final Cut Express:
EDIT: Upon re-reading your post a little more carefully, I may or may not have answered your question correctly. You are talking about a camcorder here, right? (You mention hard drive recorder; does that mean that the camera records footage to a hard drive?) Hopefully I answered your question, but sorry if I didn't!
If your referring to the external 60 gig hard drive, it has no support for timecode yet. My Sony reseller says the company will have drivers for OSX in a few months however.
It basically means you have to dump the footage in without timecode for now.