In message 98mdnZ2dnZ1JF63pnZ2dnWpAv96dnZ2dRVnyoJ2dnZ0@pipex .net
"Dave D" wrote:

I've used both an antique ATI 'All in Wonder' and a relatively new,
and absurdly cheap (30$), 'Comprousa' TV-card: the latter is at
least as good and simpler to use, producing MPEG2 files directly.

MPEG2 isn't 'state of the art', of course, but then neither is Hi-8:

Oops: I should have said 'MPEG1' in both places.

... my digitised/played-back picture isn't noticeably worse than that
when linking camera to TV direct, so there's no point in a 'better'
card. ...

... Then I bought a secondhand All In Wonder (not Pro) which I was quite
happy with, though it had some annoying bugs.

My AIW, also second-hand, was/is probably similar, if not identical:
16MB, not the 32MB version.

Now I have a Nvidia Ti4200. ...
The drawback I have with [it] is that although it allows capture in
resolutions up to and above TV quality, when I do so it gives very poor
results including dropped frames and a 'banding' effect, especially
noticeable on fast action scenes. It looks like the interlaced lines
are out of sync, giving and almost zig zag effect.

- My Compro TV-card should also capture in better-than-TV MPEG2, but not
in a PC powered by an 800MHz Duron: anyway, it would be 'overkill' for
the output from a Hi-8 camcorder, with near-pointless increase in the
resulting file-sizes.

- The 'interlace out of sync' effect should, IIRC, be avoidable.
It arises, at some point, 'cos a fast-moving scene has changed by the
time the second 'half-frame' is interlaced with the first.
I've forgotten, and can't readily find, details of the Hi-8 format, even
whether it basically *is* interlaced, but software to convert between
formats with different numbers of lines usually gives options
concerning interlacing/'progressive scan', 'which field first', etc.

Having chickened-out by letting the cheapo card 'do its own thing' in
MPEG1/VCD, I'm now rather vague about all this ...

... I planned on archiving all my camcorder stuff on DVD, but as I can
only capture at lower resolutions, it's a non starter.
I guess I'll wait until I get a DVD recorder!

I hope you're not eventually disappointed, either by non-improvement in
basic output quality (the source is still distinctly 'old hat') or,
specifically, a recorder tailored to TV-transmissions not coping well
with the different(?) input from a Hi-8 camera.

--
Peter Duck