I have been searching the internet for about 3 hours looking for a devise that will allow me to transfer my Hi8 video on to my computer without firewire. My camera is a Sony CCD-TRV118 NTSC if that meens anything. This guy at Walmart told me i need to buy a usb cable but i don't think he is right. Plz help.

This is a Video Camera by the way

[johnjackthom]

Although you could probably find a PCI video card for the computer which has AV inputs, unless you're very lucky the results could be poor.

The Canopus range of Analog to DV convertors are streets ahead for quality and reliability but the cost may be a problem.

www.canopus.us/US/products/ADVC-50/pm_advc-50.asp

[Ultraviolet]

I'm not an expert by any means, but you could try a Video convertor kit e.g. AVC-2210 by Adaptec. This connects to your USB and will capture s-vhs or composite output from the camera. The PC recognises the device as a valid video source and you can then capture using the software that came with your device or Pinnacle Studio or similar.
The downside is the transfer will be analog and you won't have any control over the camera from the PC (like DV).

UV

Something like this :-

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProdu...duct_Id=103844

will almost certainly do the job - but as already said quality of picture will not be as good as using firewire and you will have to control the camcorder manually.