How do I transfer a complete MiniDV to my Mac?

MacBook Pro, Maverick, iMovie 10

I am not into videos but I promised friends to help them transfer their MiniDV tapes to an external harddrive. I played around a bit only to realize that it was not really obvious (at least to me) how to set up iMovie to do that simple task. It automatically seperates scenes, applies transitions etc.

All I want is to transfer a 1hour tape in one go to the USB harddrive. Is there any easy way to achieve that?

Thanks.