Archiving old analogue video tapes

[Dr. Jamie]

I'm new to this forum. Much of the interest expressed in Blu-ray relates to playing movies; however, I am interested in archiving more than one hundred hours of (for me and my family, priceless) home videos recorded on a Hi-8 camcorder. These tapes are degrading by the year. DVD cannot hack the bandwidth to provide good quality masters. Blu-ray seems to be a great solution.

OK, I need to get a new PC or a Mac with a capture card. Also, my 1990 vintage Sony V-101 has packed it in. Nobody wants to repair it; so, I need a Hi-8 tape player. (Sony left many of us hung out to dry on this issue a few years ago and I cannot get them to talk to me.) Nevertheless, I am working through these issues.

However, a Blu-ray recorder seems to be an ideal solution for handling the bandwidth and storage capacity problem. I could store the whole library in top quality digital format on, say 25 discs for later editing (as distinct from hundreds of DVDs of poor quality). The tapes could continue to degrade and I would worry no more.

My questions are as follows:

1. When these recorders become available for computers, will they be usable as a general purpose storage medium like a hard drive or must they be used for recording videos in a specific format?

2. On a related subject, does anyone know how to get a reliable tape player/recorder like the EVO-9000 series?

3. Finally, if there is a better way to do this, I welcome suggestions.

Dr. Jamie