Importing miniDV files losslessly
Hi,
I have an old Sony TCR-TRV11 Camcorder that uses miniDV cassettes for recording video. I have recently imported all of them thorugh firewire 800 via iMovie '11 as .dv files into the iMovie Events folder. Is there a way to convert those .dv files losslessly into .mov? I have done research and learned that you can use MPEG Streamclip to do the conversion process, but I'm not sure what settings to use because I'm not really a pro at this stuff. Is there data loss when converting using software like MPEG streamclip? Is it better if I get Final Cut Express and import from the camcorder again, this time directly into the .mov container file format? And if I purchase a used copy of Final Cut Express, will it work on my computer? I just want to preserve all my old videos without losing any detail/information.
Thanks!
iMovie '11, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.4)