i just got my xl1s a few days ago. i just played around with it and hooked it up to my computer. i use vegas so when i went to capture it was almost like analog. i thought that capturing via firewire meant that it'd do a high speed copy of all the footages from the DV tape. i still have to wait realtime for the 60min tape to capture all 60min? *sigh*.

You are limited by the transfer speed of the tape. Presumably, getting the tape to run at 2X speed is too complicated and expensive for the format. Sony does have a system where you can capture 2X or 4X real-time, but it isn't worth the price of that system ($20k I think). You can log your clips (take notes) while you capture or do something else.

Firewire is digital and is far better than analog. The reason why you might be seeing lower picture quality on capture is that the codec or data rate you are using is not at DV quality.

Please post your settings

Firewire or any other connection captures in real-time unless as Glenn has said you are willing to spend a lot lot lot lot lot lot more :)

Ed