Best setup for MiniDV capture via Firewire?

[Rockdog]

Sorry in advance if this question has been answered previously. Hopefully I am asking a slightly different question. I have over 100 MiniDV tapes I need to transfer. I believe it might be cheaper to buy my own setup and do the transfer myself. I own a Windows Workstation Laptop, but it doesn't have a firewire port. So, I realize I need a PC with expansion slots and a video card with a Firewire port. I would appreciate recommendations on what to buy - Win PC specs for video transfer, Firewire card, and software. I could pay $10 per tape to hire a service to transfer this for me, so I guess I save money if the total cost of purchasing my own equipment is under $1,000. I can do editing on the workstation laptop, so I only need a PC powerful enough to handle the transfer. Thanks again for your suggestions.

[aedipuss]

i'd try somewhere like goodwill for a used workstation. check the back for a firewire port, or if it's running check the device manager for ieee1394.


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it really doesn't matter how fast/slow the computer is and windows 7/8.1 are fine and probably easier to work with the old winDV than newer windows. firewire doesn't rely on the cpu. a pentium 3 used to work just fine. what you will need is a decently sized hard drive as a 1 hour minidv transfers at 13GB to the drive.




what you don't mention is if you have a camcorder or deck to read the tapes with. miniDV tapes can hold different flavors of DV or HDV, some of which require special cams/decks to read.

[nicholasserra]

Just read this. Or search.

https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/402827-How-to-Capture-700-Mini-DV