My guess is that on hard drive models, you can directly copy the movie file from the Camcorders's harddrive to your harddrive via USB, then no realtime streaming is needed and you get even better quality than with Firewire.
And in this case USB is good enough to transfer the file, as it's probably also packed on the Camcorders harddrive. With MiniDV Camcorders the movie needs to be transferred unpacked in realtime, and that's why Firewire is needed.
And in this case USB is good enough to transfer the file, as it's probably also packed on the Camcorders harddrive. With MiniDV Camcorders the movie needs to be transferred unpacked in realtime, and that's why Firewire is needed.