Help! how do i improve video quality of my transfered Hi-8s? any suggestions.? what could be wrong.?

I suppose you're capturing through USB.
Don't.
Use S-Video. And don't capture through a TV-tuner, but get a decent capture card ($ 100). If you have a lot of tapes, it's worth it. If not, get someone else to do it for you professionally.

well, please suggest a capture card... tnx! and does the software matter..?

I have two suggestions for you: Pinnacle Studio AV/DV (PCI board, analog and firewire inputs and outputs, bundled with Pinnacle Studio 9 as a NLE - $ 120) or the Deluxe version (PCI board + breakout box, both digital and analog connections, bundled with Pinnacle Studio 9 Plus and some other Pinnacle software - $ 160). Cheap and cheerful, I say. Also solves the issue of choosing a software NLE.
Or you can take a look at those Canopus ADV devices, which connect through firewire and let you input analog signal, they're more expensive and I'm not really sure they're worth it.
Regarding editing software, other than Pinnacle Studio, I'd suggest you check out Sony Vegas and Premiere Elements (they all cost about $ 100).

i have given my casettes to be converted. i got vcds back. do i need to make the mpeg files in vcd to avi to edit in premiere ?

Bad choice. Having your recording already archived in a highly-compressed, unsuitable for editing format, such as VCD has limited your options a lot. You'll now have to rip those discs (and you already lost half of the quality) to MPEG and I'm not sure Premiere handles MPEG well (not from what I know, but maybe a Premiere user can tell you better) - you'll probably have to choose another program.

the tapes were not hi 8 . they were old ones. i used tmpeg to make vcd files to mpg. now premiere can import them and export to mpeg-1 without a problem.

thanks a lot.

now i need to solve how to edit my vob files too

Vegas can handle vobs and vcd files on the timeline, he said unhelpfully...

__________________
I have two prejudices - I am anti HDV for consumer camcorders, and I eat mooks who claim to be pro wedding vidders and ask dumb questions.

www.zaskarfilms.com You tube channel 'zaskarfilms'
JVC DV5001e (big cam), Sony PC6E (tiny cam), Vinten pro5, PAG light, SM58, Sony ECM50, Sony C-76, 0.5x convertors for sony, Rode video mic, Vegas 7.

mark i need to pay for vegas, i got only premiere.

i am doing the following :

convert my vob to mpeg-2 ( with mainconcept encoder )
then use my mpeg-2 in adobe premiere
lost my way in exporting ( was trying to make it to a dvd )

as i read in the forum, working with uncompressed avi gives best results. but couldn't find a way to make my vob to uncompressed avi ( tried dvd2avi but i can use only codecs in there ). am i missing something ?

Try using Virtual dub to rip to AVI. Then edit in premier.