Mini DV Disc to Mac Nov 12, 08, 9:51 a.m.

Was hoping someone familiar with video could help me on this...

I have a handful of Mini DV tapes and am looking for a way to rip them to my Mac hardrive the easiest way possible.

Is there a way to do this without having to re-record them in real-time? I haven't even connected the camera to my mac yet (need to go out and buy HDV firewire cable today) so maybe I am jumping the gun. I assume once I plug it into the firewire port, that I will have to hit play on the camera and essentially recapture the video onto my Mac??

Any help is appreciated, thanks :)