HD Camcorder, HDV, MiniDV - confused!

Hi guys

What's the easiest way of transferring HDV camcorder tapes onto the hard drive?

I would have thought that a camcorder like the Canon HV30 would do the job but that says it takes MiniDV tapes even though it records in 1080i.

Is HDV a different format to MiniDV or more of a branding exercise? Even Canons top of the range 'camcorders' use MiniDV so I'm a bit confused over what HDV is and what would use it when

Many thanks in advance for any pointers!

The HD video cams on the market use one of four mediums: (all produce the same end result)

HDD - hardrive cam,
pros- no media to carry/lose, longest continuous recording time. easy transfer to any pc via usb.
cons - no removable medium (if you do fill it, it is full until you get to a pc), heaviest of the three types and usually the largest. Mosty use AVCHD codec that can be a pain to edit and transfer with buggy software.

MiniDV - these are becoming more rare, the first 2/3 generations were only this format, often the media is branded as HD DV tapes, but any mini dv tape works (the more expensive ones simply have a ECC circuit and larger buffer on the tape iirc)
pros - lighter than HDD cams, changable media.
cons - only 90mins per tape, tranfer to pc via Firewire+video capture software only

DVD - AVOID! - stupidly short recording time on each disk in the highest quality, power hungry too

Memory stick cams (self explanitory)
pros - small, lightweight, longest battery life - memory has no moving parts
cons - usually use the same AVCHD codec the same as the HDD cams do, memory sticks limited to 16GB atm, but thats still a fair quantity of footage.

What's the easiest way of transferring HDV camcorder tapes onto the hard drive?

use a free prog called HDVsplit

VERY simple, the resulting file will play one a pc using vlc media player or even on a ps3...