mini: My old camcorder is broken and I want to buy a new one (a hard drive camcorder). My old one used the mini dv cassettes, now I have got loads of cassettes that I wanted to put on dv/cassette but can't because its broken.What should I do. Please help meHow can I transfer video footage from a mini dv cassette without using a camcorder?You could see if there is a local service that wll do that for you... You could get a miniDV deck - but they are more expensive than a miniDV camcorder. I do have a few questions about your plan to get a hard disc drive camcorder... What do you do when the camcorder hard drive is full? After you transfer the video to your camcorder, what do when the computer's hard drive is full? MiniDV tape is digital tape and a good video archive media. And when the tape is full - or when you feel like it, just put in a new, cheap tape... Personally, I would suggest you stick with miniDV tape camcorders. They don't have the known problems that hard drive camcorders do related to vibration, high altitude and archiving... These are just three - among MANY - of the reasons the prosumers and professionals continue to use miniDV tape... If you want to get that video into your computer, your computer needs a firewire port because you will use a firewire cable to connect the camcorder's DV port (not USB) to the computer's firewire port (not USB) for editing and burning a DVD or rendering a file to upload to YouTube... If your computer does not have a firewire port, hopefully it has an available slot so you can add one... If you *think* a dard disc drive camcorder is somehow better, I can assure you it is not. The ONLY advantage it has is possibly a long record time - I can do the same just by carrying spare, blank, miniDV tapes.How can I transfer video footage from a mini dv cassette without using a camcorder?I agree with Little Dog. A HDD camera is fragile and the drive could get damaged from the camera being dropped or bumped around.