Hey guys, serious newb here on the Video Editing scene. I bought a Sony DCR-HC42 for christmas, and have been playing around with some editing using the bundled software. My question is 2 fold,
First, If I have the option to transfer the video from the cam to the pc using USB 2 or Firewire 400, which would produce the best results? It is my understanding that Firewire is really for this type of thing, but isnt the USB2 interface faster?
Second, Do I want to bring the video over in AVI, MPEG, or other format?
Once the video is on the pc, my goal is to do some video editing, add some effects, transitions, etc. then put it onto DVD with the best quality possible.
Any thoughts or pointers will be nice. It looks like I have found myself a home as far as a DV forum is concerned. Thank you all so much in advance.

Ryan