The Canopus device should work alright but if your old Hi 8 machine is starting to play up you should be able to pick up a cheap one on ebay (just make sure it's working 100%, and go and check it in person if you can as there is a lot of rubbish on there too). Do you have a Mini DV camcorder?

If you have one, a technique I use occasionally is to plug the av leads from a VHS deck, into the Mini DV and then run a firewire cable from the Mini DV into the computer. This is known as analogue to digital conversion where the analogue video and audio go into the Mini DV, it gets digitised and then goes out the firewire cable and into the computer.

Unfortunately you need a Mini DV camcorder with all the connections on it, and they are becoming less available now on all but mid to high range (and price) camcorders.

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Better than a poke in the eye with a pointy stick any day...