Capturing MiniDVs to Windows or Mac?
 

Hi, I have maybe 60 MiniDVs from Panasonic GS400, Canon Mv3i trying to get into editing and conversions to MP4s.

1. I was able to capture to my antique XP machine (i7) with firewire card and WindowsMovie?Maker as AVIs, and convert to mp4 using WMM which actually replay on other devices. Wondering if there's better software in XP to do editing.

2. I have a Windows 10/Xeon machine to which I copied the AVIs and trial mp4, thinking to use that for video editing. But all the programs I'm trialing beyond WMM (like Premiere Elements, Lightworks, Resolve) seem to have horrendous problems like not accepting the AVIs, or loss of sound, which are frustrating and have seen 3 days lost: and I can't see myself needing their complexity. I'm almost thinking of a capture card for the Xeon (whether internal or external).

QUESTIONS
A. Is there a rock-solid relatively basic editor in Windows 10 world which will accept AVI in files captured from my XP

B. Or do I need to recapture into the Windows 10 Xeon, if so is there a preferred basic firewire capture card in which folks have confidence, which I can use with an editor program in a stable manner. (I've been reading about the outboard Elgato Capture but that seems limited to VHS-type resolution)

C. Or is my best bet to buy an old iMac from a friend (iMac 27 inch, 2011 model, 3.4gig i7 4-core, 8gb memory, AMD Radeon HG6970 1024mb, 2 tb, Sierra 10.12.6) which I could get for minimal price, and Apple firewire cable as my capture and editing station using iMove?

I know these are dumb newbie questions but the availability of AVI-oriented gear in Australia seems limited now.

virtualdub might be your tool (always has been for me for 15 strong years) it's lightweight with many filters to play. I'm not sure you can export to mp4 though (wait for answers).
Otherwise i like avidemux (mp4, mkv export )

If you don't want to go through the hassle of reconverting all of your tapes, I would try installing FFMPEG and use it to convert your AVIs to a different format (preferably lossless, for editing). AVIs come in a type-1 and a type-2 and I have always had issues with NLEs accepting one of them (though I forget which).

You can determine which DV-AVI type they are with DVDate

If you have trouble with the current "type", use DVDate to change them to the other type. then try them in your editor.

A (now) free program that will allow you to do basic cutting/trimming of your DV-AVIs is Scenealyzer. You can't add titles or do fades but it will allow you to save the trimmed/clipped file into DV-AVI (no loss of quality) so that you can then render to MP4. There are plenty of "simple" options for that, including Handbrake.

At this point, you certainly don't need to re-capture.

Re your comment re Windows 10/Firewire, if you have a Firewire card, you wouldn't use Elgato (which would re-encode into a non-DV-AVI format), you'd use WinDV (which simply "transfers" the video, in Digital form, to DV-AVI files on your computer. In any case, I doubt whether that would be needed; you've already captured the tapes, hopefully into DV-AVI.

Re the Apple, that would certainly be an option. You quite possibly could just put your DV-AVIs from your XP box onto a external drive (NTFS?) and put them on to the imac.