Is this a decent capture setup?

Hi all,

This post exists in the newbie section, but I thought I'd add it here in order to maybe get some more feedback. I had already bought a VHS to DVD 3 Plus setup before discovering VideoHelp. LMotlow provided me some good info on that thread, and I decided to change my setup.

Here's kind of where I'm at: I want to capture my analog home video to digital at a good quality level. I can afford to spend a few hundred bucks to do so. I have a total of maybe 25 to 30 hours of analog video to capture. The home video is mostly Hi-8 camcorder tapes, but I have a few old VHS tapes as well that I'll need to convert.

I'm thinking I'll get an AVT-8710 for TBC, but I have a few questions on how I would set it up.

I think my setup for the Hi-8 tapes would look like this:

1) S-video from camcorder to 8710
2) S-video from 8710 to the dongle that came with my VHS-to-DVD3 purchase
3) RCA audio from camcorder to VHS-to-DVD3 dongle
4) VHS-to-DVD dongle to USB port on my laptop

Questions:
a) Can I use the dongle that came VHS-to-DVD3 without degrading video quality?
.... i) If the dongle is crap, what should I use instead?
b) Will the audio still be in sync with the video. (Since the audio bypasses the 8710, I'm worried it won't align properly)
.... i) If the audio is likely to be out of sync, how do I fix it?
c) Does the capture software on my PC matter? e.g. if I use the VHS-to-DVD capture software I already have, will it degrade my TBC'd video?
.... i) If the capture software does matter, what's a good choice?
d) What else am I over looking?

Thanks for any advice and help.

Dan

P.S. I've been reading lots of threads and searching around the forum, but honestly the sheer volume of possibilities for doing this makes it hard to decide what's best. I'm hoping asking some questions on my specific situation is ok.

Is this a decent capture setup?

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