Copying MICROMV tapes to a computer
Initially, in the late 1990's you almost had to have a Mac to do video easily, but doing video has always been possible using the PC.
I used to have three different Firewire cables and have needed each of them for various transfers to a Mac; a PC and a laptop. Do industry standards like Firewire, USB, HDMI make a standard? Anyway, there's a small Firewire to small Firewire or iLink cable; a large, long D-shaped plug to large long D-shaped plug cable and finally a small to large Firewire plug.
To read Micromv on the Mac I would use iMovie 9 running in OSX Yosemite. Plug in the MicroMv camera using a Firewire cable (the plug is the long D Firewire plug on the old iMac going to a small Firewire socket on the Sony IP7 camera). Then use the iMovie camera button to control the camera to import your footage. (By iMovie 10 this no longer worked for me unless there's a tweak to find). But iMovie is good enough here.
Using the PC it may be simpler to get a copy service to transfer your stuff. There were at least a few services on ebay charging £4 per tape (2015).
Otherwise the software that works on an old PC machine includes Sony Movieshaker software or Pinnacle Studio 9. Sony Vegas video editing software also worked for me and it was by far the most featured package.
Erasing MICROMV tapes
In the absence of a bulk tape eraser, I've simply recorded a view of the wall over old tapes. After that's done, go to the camera menu, look for Title and Erase All, press Execute and the tape memory, which stores what's been recorded and when it is erased.
Playing MICROMV video
Use VLC player for the easiest ride. MICROMV transfer to the PC produces .MMV files which is a variant of the MPEG2 / DVD format. Before I found VLC player I used a command-line program that could convert MMV to MPG.
Otherwise try uploading what you have to Youtube and see what that makes of it.
