Handbrake issue

Ok so I know this really doesn't have to do with the mac pro so much, but I knew that if anyone would know it would be the pro users. I have tons of raw footage I just transferred onto my harddrive for editing in videopad. Now the issue is that I can play the footage in vlc (i'm on a windows workstation) but when I put it into videopad it says its converting it and then it doesn't work. So I downloaded handbrake and the .dv filetype would not translate to .avi and it refused to convert it or even recognize the raw footage


help me please,