After recently investing in a new digital camcorder I am looking at getting my old 8mm holiday and wedding tapes onto DVD. I need to get a cable which will connect to my laptop, either through a USB connection or through the express card slot and connets directly to the camcorder which has audio/visual Phono connectors.
If anybody can tell me if in fact there is a cable for what im looking to do or in fact is there a better way to do this.

Regards and thanks, Conor.

Do a Google search for 'USB video' and you should find several options.

Does your laptop have a firewire port?

If so, you may be able to connect your 8mm camera to the digital camera, then the digital to the laptop.

i.e. 8mm > Digital camcorder > Computer.

This way you'll use the digital cameras built-in analog-to-digital converter to digitize your videos.

The same method can be used to digitize VHS or Beta movies.

i.e. VCR > Digital camcorder > Computer.

If you don't have firewire ports, you can buy a firewire PCMCIA card. The card plugs into your PCMCIA slot and provides one or more firewire ports.

Please let us know if you found someone's advice to be helpful.