Canon mini DV

[5STM5]

I'm looking to transfer mini Digital Video films onto a hard drive. I bought a Canon MV880x mini DV camera but my windows operated 8.1 laptop doesn't recognise the video side, only SD card photos. I can't find any software downloads that can help. Does anyone know of any?

[Road2Ruin]

Windows movie make(which is free) worked for me when I did it with my Panasonic. Very slow though as can only be done in real time.

[eltawater]

If you've been recording the video to the miniDV tape then there are no video "files" as such to transfer like you would with the images.

You'll need to connect the miniDV camera to your PC via a Firewire cable to a Firewire port on your PC and then use something like WinDV to control the camera and manage the transfer from the tape.
http://windv.mourek.cz/

The camera is very, very old now and the software was discontinued a long time ago so your mileage may vary.

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1140431/Canon-Mv...

[AndyTR]

If you have a friend with a mac then a firewire out of the canon to mini display port is the easiest option, amazon have various adapters. Bit of nightmare with a PC to be honest as you'll need a firewire input. I've an old mini dv and did this years ago, still have it kicking around somewhere.

[S47]

Another option is to transfer the Mini dv tape to recordable DVD via a standalone DVD recorder, which normally have SVHS, DV 'firewire', and component inputs, [at least my Panasonic DVD does] if you want a MP4 file you can then rip the DVD - easy peasy.

[The_Jackal]

it will be cheaper and quicker to just pay someone to convert it is it is important. Not worth the faff.

[5STM5]

Thanks for the replies. I'll have go this weekend.