Not done any Digital8 format stuff but have archived a load of MiniDV tapes to the computer, on which they are stored as "DV" format, which is I believe a variant of AVI, As AVI is an uncompressed format, so I would concur that AVI is probably the way to go. Its also a very "user friendly" format in that it can be converted to almost anything.

I must admit that I used a Mac and iMovie to do all mine - simply a matter of hooking up the camcorder via firewire and importing as DV.

If you are using Windows, then check out http://www.videohelp.com/ - they have extensive how to guides, software and forums covering every aspect of video encoding.

the advantage of .avi files is that both Mac and PC based programs will speak to them and, if you're into that sort of thing, so will more advanced editing programs like Final Cut etc. Compatability is certainly a major plus. I've read a few whispers on my occasional dip into video editing forums that .avi might be on its way out, but only a few and, even if it were, it'd be easy enough to convert them from .avi to a subsequent format (and certainly quicker than re-importing them from the original source tapes.) I'd go for it.

The only other "do" I'd recommend is to back everything up on a second hard-drive; For two hours a couple of months ago I thought i'd lost all the video of my daughter's first year. Turned out it wasn't lost, but the memory of that bowel-watering feeling will never leave me. Keep the back-up in another part of the house and direct everyone to it in case of a fire!

If I ever have a conundrum like yours, the first thing I do is to head over to http://www.doom9.org/ for some plain(ish) English(ish) pointers and explanations.

I'm currently working my way through 40+ years’ worth of home cini / video footage in an attempt to digitalise it before all the gadgets and formats they are currently held on disappear forever.

There's so much of it! I'm enjoying the editing process where I'm lifting key moments and creating films around specific themes (particular holiday, small children or significant event etc).

I'm using the excellent iMovie on the mac to do this which gives me all the facilities I need to combine video, stills and music soundtrack.

These days I simply use my iPhone to capture video and try to edit it fairly quickly so as not to add to the log jam of material I have building up for rainy day editing.

I spent about thirty quid on an adapter that fits most old video formats and transfers via usb to the mac. Hard disk space is the issue of course.

I'm saving and backing up my finished films in the iTunes format. My hope is that this will be transferable to wherever technology takes us next.

Once I have my finished versions I can happily then delete all the massive files that I collate as I go along.

In this throw away world we live in, I think it’s important to organise these valuable memories before it’s too late, and then hand them over to future generations. backing up becomes so so important of course. Where's that bloody cloud when I need it?

It is an incredibly time consuming hobby by the way!

The general gist seems to be that .avi is either as good as, or better, than any other option. I'm going to see about doing a tape a week.

Also I'm intending to have my back ups in duplicates, just like my music collection. It might cost me a bit on additional hard drives but that's just the way it is.

Don't get Ralph Fiennes to do it.

Luckily it seems that standard definition is nothing to a semi-modern computer. It swallowed a 59 minute tape in one go while I multitasked by playing a resource hungry computer game at the same time. It didn't drop a single frame. I was expecting to have to dedicate the computer to the job, but now it seems I can do it in the background.

The resulting .avi file was 12Gb in size. Which is big, but not monstrous. I went with .avi as I've been using it for years and I'm comfortable with it, and I suspect it will be supported forever more even as a defunct legacy format. I just don't know anything about MPEG-4.