convert massive .dv video library to better format

I would like to convert a massive .dv library to a better format for viewing and to save hard drive space.

The library is about 1 terabit now and is hard for iMovie to handle.

I would like a way to automate this task as it would take days for me to do this manually.

I would like to keep close to the same image quality.

.mov maybe? .m4v? H.264? MPEG-4

These videos are from an old camera and the new camera imports video as .mov

— Travi