I meant to add that I also captured some footage with Roxio DVD creator and it seemed to be marginally better, but it captured in 640x480, so my video was not 16:9. Again any assistance is appreciated.
I recently purchased a Sony DCR-HC96 mini DV camera. I am a bit perplexed by what is happening. When I hook the camera directly into the TV, the video is clear and looks awesome (although it is displayed in 4:3 on my TV instead of 16:9). However, when I download the video to the PC using the USB cable and the Sony software, is is very pixelated and generally poor quality. My question is this. Is it a software problem, or is it an interface problem? I know the camera takes excellent video as evidenced by the picture when connected directly to the TV. I am getting a firewire cable this evening, but I thought that it would only make the video download faster not higher quality. If it is just a crappy software problem, can someone recommend a reasonably priced alterante. Thanks for any suggestions.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic