Sony DCR-HC44E - Some quick questions

hello, i've recently purchased the sony dcr-hc44e camcorder. i was trying it out last night and when i transferred the video to my pc it was a really small image when opened up in windows media player, the sort of size and quality you would expect from a video from a camera phone. the file however was quite large at 500mb for a 2min video. the video was captured by usb with the sony software provided. any ideas why its like this?

i don't know anything about camcorders and i hope this is a noob question

[dibdab]

I believe you need to capture it to your pc via firewire.

so would it be a dramatic improvement?

[dibdab]

Yes it would. Firewire is the only way to capture the picture at it's best.

cool, thanks very much, got a bit worried there