Need to Transfer Mini DV Tapes

[Jay4]

I have several home video Mini-DV tapes I came across recently while moving. The camcorder that recorded them is long since dead and buried, so I have no way to play them back. Can anyone recommend a player for these tapes that has appropriate outputs such that I can record them to a current file type? I'm curious about what software people would use, but I am even more curious as to what, if any, physical players might exist that could play these things back. I didn't come across anything particularly satisfying with my Amazon search.

I'm willing to spend a little $ on this - I don't know exactly what is on the tapes, but it is from the era when my kids were very small, so I am quite curious to see what is there!

[KarMa]

Look up DV capture on this site. Just about any mini-DV player will play back your tapes 1:1 bit perfect, assuming the player still works and the tapes have not shed.

[dellsam34]

You need a DV camcorder (PAL for Europe and NTSC for north America and Japan), a PC with firewire port (iLink), a firewire cable and WinDV application.