I was going to mention WinDV as well.
I use Final Cut Pro and it has a very good DV download manager built in. Video logging and everything.
Sometimes, rarely, I have had an issue with a bad tape with messed up sections. For those, I go to my Windows machine and use WinDV. It downloads everything and even splits up the file to your prespecified file size.
It is what I always used before I got my MAC.
I have never used the built in download utilities that come with the editing software. Adobe, Pinnacle, etc. They all suck.
