Dave wrote:
I mentioned to a drinking companion that I am transferring all my videos
to DVD and he has asked to to transfer some video from video 8 cassette,
that was taken in 1985, of his grand daughters.

When you finally make that DVD, make a copy to DVD-RAM as well as ya
other more player accessible DVD-formats. The longevity of standard
DVD-R unfortunately isn't that great, and ye may find the original tapes
might outlast those (though not necessarily the hardware to play them!)

--
Adrian C