http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&langId=-1&catalogId=1751&productId=89827

If i bought this camcorder (Hi8 with USB) and used the dvd rw on my laptop could I record my Hi8 tapes to DVD??

I would get it from
http://www.unbeatable.co.uk/CatalogueItem_17356.html

Or do a search for somewhere cheaper, Argos is not.

The specs on that site say it has I-Link (DV out) use that with your laptop (If its the same laptop you was asking about other day, the sony one) Get a 4-pin to 4-pin firewire cable and transfer them that way, copy a full 60 mins tape (14GB) and compress it to a DVD, Winavi is a really good simple to use program that will fit a 14GB avi file to a 4.3GB DVD.

I do a lot of video encoding from VHS (and analogue in general) to AVI and WMV - no I'm not a pirate but I convert educational video tapes into digital for storage on a media server at my school.

Anyway, get a device with a firewire port if you can. If not, then get USB2. USB is too slow for anything of decent quality.

Pinnacle do a device called the MovieBox DV, I use that, along with a Plextor Convertx (http://www.plextor.be/products/video_products/px-m402u.asp?choice=ConvertX%20PX-M402U) which produce great results. The latter device is fully DivX compliant.