from replies received it seems my machine is too much of a snail to capture analogue at a reasonable rate. I have been thinking of buying a DV videocamera anyway, i read somewhere that transferring home video from dv videocam was "copy" rather than "capture". i would plan to do this by firewire or usb. is copy easier for the pc? is there a way to slow down the running of the tape, in either dv/hi8 or even vhs so the clunky old pc can capture it in it's own good time? ( i can leave it running overnite ok). thanks