usb firewire cables and chips

I have just purchased a Sony camcorder and I see its has two download
methods

USB (which is included and I have a USB enabled PC)

The other is Firewire (I Link). People have told me that the Firewire
connection will give me better picture quality because firewire is faster
and does not compress the data. I was under the impression that both
firewire and USB 2 are around 400MB/s and I don't understand why the images
across USB are compressed some how? The files are still AVI's on the PC? If
there any truth to this story? If so how much better is the picture quality
I will receive with a firewire connection, and is there any special s/w I
will need or just a fire wire card ?



Along with this purchase I am looking to purchase a DVD writer I have seen a
spec which states the writer needs "It is required to use a cable
corresponding to U-ATA66 (80-wire conductor cable)."



How do these 80 wire cables help if there are only 40 pins in the plugs that
are connected to these cables ? What do the other 40 cables do?



Lastly I am also considering upgrading my PC originally to a Pentium D8x0
series chip (dual core) One supplier has recommended that I used AMD
instead, as thay are faster is this true?, I thought the dual core Pentium D
series were the fasted chips around ?

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, (E-Mail Removed)
says...
>
>
> I have just purchased a Sony camcorder and I see its has two download
> methods
>
> USB (which is included and I have a USB enabled PC)
>
> The other is Firewire (I Link). People have told me that the Firewire
> connection will give me better picture quality because firewire is faster
> and does not compress the data. I was under the impression that both
> firewire and USB 2 are around 400MB/s and I don't understand why the images
> across USB are compressed some how? The files are still AVI's on the PC? If
> there any truth to this story? If so how much better is the picture quality
> I will receive with a firewire connection, and is there any special s/w I
> will need or just a fire wire card ?
>
There won't be any compression with USB, but there may be issues with
dropout if you want to transfer in real time. Although USB2 and
Firewire are nominally about the same speed, Firewire is better at
maintaining sustained transfer rates.
>
>
> Along with this purchase I am looking to purchase a DVD writer I have seen a
> spec which states the writer needs "It is required to use a cable
> corresponding to U-ATA66 (80-wire conductor cable)."
>
>
>
> How do these 80 wire cables help if there are only 40 pins in the plugs that
> are connected to these cables ? What do the other 40 cables do?
>
The extra conductors are screening to reduce crosstalk.
>
>
> Lastly I am also considering upgrading my PC originally to a Pentium D8x0
> series chip (dual core) One supplier has recommended that I used AMD
> instead, as thay are faster is this true?, I thought the dual core Pentium D
> series were the fasted chips around ?
>
>
Depends what you're doing with it - although the crown seems to pass
between AMD and Intel quite regularly these days, Intel seems to keep a
nose ahead in the "Digital Content Creation" stakes, so if you're doing
video manipulation that may be the better choice.