MiniDV to 'Computer' - Mac Mini?

[badgerade]

I've got about 30 MiniDV tapes that I want to transfer to computer and ultimately get them into my Google photos.

I don't have a PC with firewire card anymore, but a bit of research shows that Mac Mini's up to 2012 had firewire ports, so I'm thinking this is the simplest option? They can be had for around £100 on eBay, and I'm thinking would be more of a known quantity than buying a random old desktop/laptop with firewire..

Before I go ahead, does anyone have any different suggestions?

[EmailAddress]

Of interest perhaps... https://www.avforums.com/threads/best-way-to-conve...

[Road2Ruin]

Get someone else to do them for you. I did a few, some years ago, they were a pain. Often they would fail halfway through, they takes ages, the quality is variable and you need to purchase some equipment.

A lot of camera shops will offer this service and I would happily pay quite a few quid for a good copy already converted. Our local shop charges £15 per tape, with discount for multiple tapes. I know it sounds like a lot of money, when you multiply it up, but you will see what I mean when you try and do a few.

[Mr Pointy]

This place would charge around £360 to do 30 tapes so that's £260 to avoid all the fannying around trying to learn how to convert & import files:
https://mrscan.co.uk/digital-video-film-scanning-s...

[98elise]

Mr Pointy said:

This place would charge around £360 to do 30 tapes so that's £260 to avoid all the fannying around trying to learn how to convert & import files:
https://mrscan.co.uk/digital-video-film-scanning-s...

He would still have the Mac to sell on, so it's still £360.

I did about 10 MiniDV tapes using a very old borrowed laptop and camera and it was easy.

The software ignored any unrecorded sections, so I could just stick the tape in and leave it running. Much simpler than analogue tape that you have to monitor.

To the OP do it sooner rather then later. My MiniDV camera wouldn't work. My brother had 2 and only one of his worked, and the laptop had a dodgy screen. While it might be easy to transfer technically, the kit to do it is becoming landfill.

[Road2Ruin]

98elise said:

Mr Pointy said:

This place would charge around £360 to do 30 tapes so that's £260 to avoid all the fannying around trying to learn how to convert & import files:
https://mrscan.co.uk/digital-video-film-scanning-s...

He would still have the Mac to sell on, so it's still £360.

I did about 10 MiniDV tapes using a very old borrowed laptop and camera and it was easy.

The software ignored any unrecorded sections, so I could just stick the tape in and leave it running. Much simpler than analogue tape that you have to monitor.

To the OP do it sooner rather then later. My MiniDV camera wouldn't work. My brother had 2 and only one of his worked, and the laptop had a dodgy screen. While it might be easy to transfer technically, the kit to do it is becoming landfill.

Of course, £360 can be a lot of money for some people. No suggestion that this is the case either way for the op. For me though, my time is worth so much more. I did 6 tapes, with maybe and hour on each. I had to re-do three of them, and then after that convert them again to reduce the size. The software I had was a free MS software. I reckon it took me 2 days to do, glong backwards and forth to look at the computer.

[98elise]

Road2Ruin said:

98elise said:

Mr Pointy said:

This place would charge around £360 to do 30 tapes so that's £260 to avoid all the fannying around trying to learn how to convert & import files:
https://mrscan.co.uk/digital-video-film-scanning-s...

He would still have the Mac to sell on, so it's still £360.

I did about 10 MiniDV tapes using a very old borrowed laptop and camera and it was easy.

The software ignored any unrecorded sections, so I could just stick the tape in and leave it running. Much simpler than analogue tape that you have to monitor.

To the OP do it sooner rather then later. My MiniDV camera wouldn't work. My brother had 2 and only one of his worked, and the laptop had a dodgy screen. While it might be easy to transfer technically, the kit to do it is becoming landfill.

Of course, £360 can be a lot of money for some people. No suggestion that this is the case either way for the op. For me though, my time is worth so much more. I did 6 tapes, with maybe and hour on each. I had to re-do three of them, and then after that convert them again to reduce the size. The software I had was a free MS software. I reckon it took me 2 days to do, glong backwards and forth to look at the computer.

Fair enough. I'm retired which puts a different value on my time vs money.

Once I had the kit set up it was simple for me, and quite a nice project. I also digitised every paper photo we had!