You won't get a Firewire cable included with Mini DV camcorders, it's partly to keep costs down and companies are becoming more Scrooge like as the years pass. That's news to me about there being no memory card slot, but I'm not surprised by it. Yes, Windows Movie Maker will do fine for the capture of video and basic editing. It will allow you to make movies to view on your computer and put on YouTube and that's about it. If you want to burn DVD's you'll need to purchase a full editor. You can download 30 day trials of all the editors used on this forum from their respective websites and see which one you like best before parting with any money.

I don't think Firewire cables were ever included with camcorders, getting a USB cable included these days is difficult enough.

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