Firewire was designed to transfer large quantities of data at a sustained high speed, so it is possible that you will see a performance gain by using it. Unless you really need to save some minutes; however, I don't see it giving you sizable performance gains.

If you want to try it out, go to any store that has computer equipment and pick up a cheap PCI Firewire or Firewire/USB2.0 combo card. They run anywhere from $10-30, so it shouldn't be too expensive. Even if you end up sticking with the USB2.0 connection, you will still have extra ports to use.

finally got thru to Sony

The USB2 streaming has aspect ratio of 352x240 pixels
The i link has aspect ratio of 720X480 pixels
Both offer 29.97 frames per second
So firewire wins; higher bandwith;lowrer compression rate

off to purchase the proper hardware

thanks

AK