Interesting challenge, 8mm tape to avi/mpeg/divx?

[Grail]

My grandmother is starting to get into computers and now wants me to hook up an old 8mm tape so she can "record it onto her computer." I don't have a clue as to how it can be done. Unfortunately, I do not know exactly what she will use to play the old tape, but the computer is: G200, Celeron 800, 256mb ram, and Liteon 48x12x48 burner. The system doesn't have a capture card (might be able to stick in a TV tuner temporarily).
Any ideas on ways of converting the 8mm tape over to her computer? Would prefer AVI/MPEG for now, but I'm flexible. I know it is dependant on what she uses to play the tape, but could you at least give me some suggestions/ideas on how she could actually do it? Thx in advance.

[funky-d-munky]

Step 1: Get a camera that can play you 8mm tape.
step 2: Get a capture card. Seems you have a g200 a Rainbow Runner G may be a good fit. Used, cheap.
Capture footage.

Why does your granny want the footage in her computer?
Does she want to edit it?
If she just wants to watch it camcorder to vcr would be faster/cheaper/easier.

[Ted222]

My guess is VCDs (MPEG1) would be of great interest to her. I agree with Funky, an old Marvel G200 or G450eTV would be the best bet.

If she gets past the VCD stage, then you are looking at AVIO/ PICVideo or something similar.

Hope she has fun with it,

Ted

[Brian Ellis]

Whoa! Which O/S? G-200 would do fine but ONLY if she has Win98SE, not W2k or XP. The latter MAY be possible, but can she assimilate the embroilments that make this forum so heated? Remember also that seeking perfection is useless if the source video is the old 8 mm format, which is not exactly the same as DV in quality, so taking the PICVideo or HuffYUV route is using a steamhammer to crack an egg.

[Grail]

Wow, thx a lot for the replies.

My grandmother has WinME (don't ask, I didn't install it!).

To answer a few other questions, she would like to convert it to something that can be played in DVD's as well as computers. She has these big ideas of distributing the video to family members. She *might* also want to edit it to get most/all of the footage down to one size. She hasn't gotten that far in telling me exactly what she wants to do. I get a sinking feeling that I am to be the one who does a lot of the work...

RRG huh? I might have a friend I could buy that off off. Hmm... Sorry for the newbish question, the RRG occupies the expansion port correct? The add-on ram will be perfectly fine where it is? I haven't seen my old G200 since I bought my G400MAX back in 99?

Here is the specs for my grandmother's computer:
Intel Celeron 800, Asus CUSL2-C, 256mb ram, Matrox G200 w/8mb ram upgrade, Soundblaster PCI128, Aopen 56k softmodem, 13 gig Fujitsu HD, Liteon 48x CDRW, Asus 50x CDROM

I'll also add my system incase it is actually me doing the work. BTW, I am running Win2K SP3.