An other possibility would be a Digital8 Camcorder...
....most of them allow playback and even capturing of Hi8 and V8 tapes - so
you may transver your footage in near DV Quality (the camcorder will convert
A/V from analog to digital, and he will do it better, than a lot of lowcost
converters) with i.Link (aka firewire aka IEEE 1394)...
If you don't have such a camcorder, you may lown, borrow, rent, .... one