If you are going to use PBP, you can use any port pin as long as it does not interfere with the operation of other peripherals you need, or you try to make an input only pin an output. If you are going to use the internal hardware MSSP port, you must use the pins described specifically for that operation. I have used both, and the hardware port will give you much greater speed, but less flexibility. Writing 500 plus bytes per shot can create a bottleneck in information flow. If you are acquiring data at a slow rate, I suggest shiftin and shiftout. If you feel a need for speed...Go hardware.

Ron