Uploaded October 2016 | Updated September 2026, 4 hours ago
LifeFlix is a Mac OS (only) program with the singular purpose of capturing video from DV video sources, such as MiniDV and Digital8 camcorders. It also supports HDV, but does not support MicroMV camcorders or USB video capture devices. Its one unique feature is the ability to de-interlace (using field blending) and compress the video to MP4 (H.264 codec) "on-the-fly" while capturing from tape. It can also capture the DV video data without compression.
Either way it stores the video into .MOV files, split by scene. You can combine scenes after capturing, but this is not recommended if the tape contains a combination of 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio footage. LifeFlix also has some very basic editing features, such as the ability to split or trim scenes, but they don't work that well, especially if you've chosen to compress the video.
LifeFlix doesn't offer any choice of bitrate for its MP4 compression, but it uses around 3 Mbps for 4:3 video (640x480 resolution) or around 5 Mbps for 16:9 video (854x480 resolution), so the quality is reasonable. It supports both NTSC and PAL. Compressing to MP4 while capturing from an HDV camcorder is not recommended because it downscales the video to 960x540 resolution, so you lose the HD quality. I also encountered a strange bug of it losing the first scene when capturing from HDV. It shows up on the preview, but as soon as the tape reaches the next scene, the first scene is deleted.
LifeFlix might work well if you have a large amount of DV tapes that you want to quickly capture and compress to MP4 with little or no editing. Otherwise it doesn't do video capture any better than iMovie or any other video editor, and at $29.99 it's a bit pricey for its limited purpose, and it is for Mac OS only; there is no Windows version available.
LifeFlix is a Mac OS (only) program with the singular purpose of capturing video from DV video sources, such as MiniDV and Digital8 camcorders. It also supports HDV, but does not support MicroMV camcorders or USB video capture devices. Its one unique feature is the ability to de-interlace (using field blending) and compress the video to MP4 (H.264 codec) "on-the-fly" while capturing from tape. It can also capture the DV video data without compression.
Either way it stores the video into .MOV files, split by scene. You can combine scenes after capturing, but this is not recommended if the tape contains a combination of 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio footage. LifeFlix also has some very basic editing features, such as the ability to split or trim scenes, but they don't work that well, especially if you've chosen to compress the video.
LifeFlix doesn't offer any choice of bitrate for its MP4 compression, but it uses around 3 Mbps for 4:3 video (640x480 resolution) or around 5 Mbps for 16:9 video (854x480 resolution), so the quality is reasonable. It supports both NTSC and PAL. Compressing to MP4 while capturing from an HDV camcorder is not recommended because it downscales the video to 960x540 resolution, so you lose the HD quality. I also encountered a strange bug of it losing the first scene when capturing from HDV. It shows up on the preview, but as soon as the tape reaches the next scene, the first scene is deleted.
LifeFlix might work well if you have a large amount of DV tapes that you want to quickly capture and compress to MP4 with little or no editing. Otherwise it doesn't do video capture any better than iMovie or any other video editor, and at $29.99 it's a bit pricey for its limited purpose, and it is for Mac OS only; there is no Windows version available.
