My sister has a SONY DV camera (small cassette type), sorry I'm not sure of the model but I expect the answer will be the same for all.

She's never transferred images to a PC but would like to do that now. I once heard the USB link is too slow and a Fireewire link is needed.
So my questions...
Can she simply buy a cable, link and transfer as though it's another data storage device?

Does she do this using options in the camera's own menu?

Or does she need additional software? (According to the box she bought it in there was once a CDROM, but she's not sure where it is now).

What format is the video likely to be saved as?

Thanks for any help,
Robin.