Getting Hi8 movies digital ?

Being about to buy a new video camera after having used video8 for

several years, I intended to go small and digital. The one thing that

I don't like about the mini-DV or Digital8 format is the fact that it

is tape based, as are the analog systems. Now, seeing what happens on

the memory market (dvd, flash, mini hard disk...), I believe that

sooner or later tapes will be ruled out (see MiniDisk --> MP3 on the

music sector).

With this, and a lot of bad experience with tapes in general, I would

go for a Hi8 system and save money for the time being, and switch to

digital only when prices are down for MiniDV, or new tapeless systems

available.

Question: Is it possible to convert Hi8 movies into something digital

(via PC/Mac), thus being able to establish a valuable copy for future,

tapeless generations without loosing Hi8 quality, or is Hi8 analog and

tape - bound forever, and should I invest into MiniDV or Digital 8 for

my purposes ? Infos by anyone who had the same decision to take are

appreciated ! Thank you, Holger

Holger, This may be a case of "the blind leading the blind", because I'm new at video and have a lot to learn, but here goes...

I operate a MiniDv and a Hi8 (my backup camera). I can wire the Hi8 with an A/V cable to the MiniDv to record my analog content in a digital format. In the transfer, there is a slight loss in quality. With digital to digital transfer, there is no loss. I believe you can record directly from Hi8 to the computer with an S video cable.

What do you want the output to be? If you want to save the movie for generations to come, you wouldn't want to store it on your harddrive. I guess I can't imagine a tapeless future, yet! Anne P.