Hello Wilfred,
to 1 You will find all necessary information in my post
FireWire FAQ">"s.PC connect your camcorder and capture images"
To 3: You could compress your videos with
Windows the
Media Encoder. Windows Media files can be played on virtually any Windows PC.
Another thing about Windows XP with SP2: You could have problems when connecting your camcorder (more accurate is) synonymous in the above post.