MiniDV cameras transfer from tape to PC through a firewire cable. If you don't have a firewire port on your computer I would suggest you buy a firewire card and install it in an unused PCI slot. Look for blank metal panels on the back of your computer. These would indicate empty PCI slots available. USB is used to transfer the still images captured on the media card in your camera such as SD or XD media or compact flash, not from the tape. My JVC camcorder has two ports for transfer: one firewire and one USB. The two cables cannot be swapped since the connectors are different at the camera ends.