From my experience I guess I haven't been clear so I'll give it another go.

1. MiniDV requires firewire connection to the PC. USB2 just can't handle high image video quality capture.

2. MiniDV will not look its' best if capture settings are mpeg2 720X480. Capture setting should be DV and a .avi HUGE file will be created with the miniDV quality you would want.

There are different opinions about analog and other lower quality video.

As already posted, I see not a visual improvement when I create a standard definition dvd whether I capture via usb2 or firewire old analog tape home movies.

Smarter people or maybe with better eyes than mine could be disagreeing with that.

My opinion is: miniDV must capture via firewire (or a dedicated video capture card) and as a DV .avi file. Lower quality video camcorder files can be successfully captured via usb2 as mpeg2.

You can capture ALL types of camcorder video via firewire so why not if you have it? If capturing analog video via firewire your capture setting file type can still be mpeg2 720X480.

Hope all are having a great weekend! Hope I'm on track here!