Lite-On LVW5001 DVD Plus Player/Recorder
Firmware updates makes this a great product!
Bought this to transfer my Hi8 tapes to DVD.  It works superbly!  The Mepg2 tapes it creates are very sharp and clear and play on any computer.  You need to download the update from the website in the manual and burn this to a cd and insert into the drive.  It fixes most of the problems mentioned by others in reviews.  I plugged my Hi8 into this to burn the DVD's and the DVD looks better than the original!  <br />If you have tapes older than 1988 do something with them before you lose them!  They will pop and crack and lose color in time.  <br />Mepeg2 files recorders create are fine but you can't sharpen, lighten etc. like you can with AVI's you capture with firewire PC cards by plugging your camera into the PC.  I tried the capture route first and spent a fortune.  It never worked right unless you have a 200gig hard drive or 2 and a new Pentium machine.  It is time consuming.  This recorder is quick easy.  Splice these later on the PC if you want and burn to dvd's.