Capturing from a DV camera to Hard drive via Firewire is a lossless process - the picture transferred from your camcorder is an identical copy. This is possible due to Firewire permitting fast data transfer rates. A firewire connection also enables remote control of camcorder functions via the PC.
USB cables can't handle the data transfer rates required for DV capture, so any capture would necesarily involve re-encoding with a resulant drop in quality. USB connections also won't allow for PC control of your camcorder.
If your camcorder has DV out, use it... |