MacBook or WinXP for Digital8 tapes?
 

Hello, I have a question about capturing my Digital8 tapes.

For context, I have a 2013 MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 2 Ports, with adapters for FireWire. I am also currently building a Windows XP PC out of a Dell Dimension 8300 for VHS tape capture. Its specs are:

• Intel Pentium 4 3.4Ghz Northwood (w/SSE2 Support) (I can also swap this for a P4 3.4Ghz Prescott for SSE3 if needed)
• 4GB DDR-400 PC3200 Ram
• ATI AIW 9000 Pro (AGP)
• TBSC Sound Card (PCI)
• A DVD, CD, Zip 250, and 3.5 Floppy Drive
• A SATA SSD for the OS
• And a 2TB SATA HDD for my captures.

I would like to hear your thoughts on weather I should get a FireWire PCI card for my XP capture machine and capture my tapes on there, or if I should use my MacBook Pro for the captures. I would be using iMovie on the MacBook for this.

If I did use my windows XP machine for the Digital8 captures, what software should I use for it?

Either one would be fine for capturing DV video (which Digital8 is). On the Windows PC, use WinDV to do it.