Mac user needs help connecting MiniDV camcorder to a PC & what software

[KeepItSimple]

Hello I need to hook up my Canon MiniDV camcorder to a PC to capture and edit but I'm so used to my mac hardware/software I'm not sure what to do.

Do I have to have a firewire connection or can it be USB2? I don't see firewire on the PC I'm trying to use.
Also what software would i use to capture and edit? Does Windows have an imovie-type software in the operating system?

Thanks in advance.

[redwudz]

FireWire is what you want with most any DV camera. USB is generally for snapshots or low resolution web video.

There are quite a few programs that can transfer DV to the computer. One of the simplest ones is WinDV. Once you get the DV on the computer hard drive you can use the AVI type editor of your choice. I use VirtualDub Mod most of the time. Both VDM and WinDV are freeware. VDM needs a DV codec like the Panasonic DV Codec installed.

And Windows Movie Maker that is included on Windows XP can also do DV transfers and editing. But you would need to output as DV if you wanted to convert to a MPEG format for DVD later.

If you need a PCI FireWire card, they are usually about $20 US and are 'Plug and Play', so no configuration or drivers are needed.