Hi8 capture? by camera to comp? or by analog-digital convt?

[portrower8]

I have a sony, High8 camcorder with USB 1.1 output and video capture software. It has never been able to capture video that well. I've been looking and reading on this forum about this "Conopus ADVC-100" which appears may be better than the other external analog to digital converters -- so my question is this. Am I better off putting my High8 videotape into a camcorder that has a firewire or usb 2.0 output and capturing it into the computer like that? Or is it better to take it out of any camcorder that will play High8 directly through the Canopus ADVC 100, then into the computer capture software.

What I want to use all this for:
I have a lot of family video videos, rowing practices and such, wedding, etc that I'd like to get all digital so I could make fun DVDs. For example, fundrasing DVDs of rowing that had video clips, powerpoint presentation, and slide shows on it for alumni. Wedding, pictures and video shots etc. Old home movies on VHS I'd like to archive onto the DVD too.

So, what way would someone out there more experienced than I reccomend for capturing High8 and VHS. Does it sound like I'm going in the right direction? Unfortunately, I haven't a lot of money (still college student), and occasionaly I visit this computer websites where you can 'build your own computer' or pick the video editing workstation -- and I do for fun, and eyeball that bottom line price and wonder, truly if this is a hobby I could ever afford to get into - or if I'm just playing with some unreailistic dream -- I don't want to spend all this time, and what money I do have -- if I can't do it decently, or right.

I'm glad this resource exists. I haven't been able to read everything -- but I'm trying to digest all these details.

Justin Wilkins
Chattanooga

[redwudz]

Well, I'm an advocate of the ADVC-100 and it or equivalent would suit your purposes better and it is an investment that you can use in the future with different computers and systems. I am not sure of the quality of the USB 1.1 data transfers you are doing, but I know it is slower. If you are mainly interested in saving money, I would work on getting the quality of your finished product the best it can be using the setup you presently have. Research is free and there is quite a bit of information on this site and others to guide you.

[handyguy]

I use a Sony Hi8 & record to a Panasonic e30 dvd recorder wiht s-video & the dvd-r looks the same as the original. You'd probably only be able to get a e50 or better now. I can then put the dvdr in the computer & edit if necessary.

[FOO]

I went round and round with that camera and the USB.
I always got terrible quality MPEG1 files out of it.
Never could find a third party program to capture either,
but I didn't try very hard because the USB1 doen't have
enough bandwidth to get raw video.

I capture analog out of it with a capture card and the quality is
very good.
I think you will have to do that.

.