Mike,
I've been there, and I ended up buying a camcorder even though I had a perfectly good 8mm Sony, because I needed analog inputs. I ended up buying a Sony TRV230 which is a digital 8 camcorder with analog inputs. The advantage for me was that I could still play my analog tapes from my old 8mm camcorder, AND the new camcorder had a firewire output so I could capture my family videos to the PC with very good quality.
I have sinced bought a mini-DV camcorder for my business and it is a great little unit also, but I can't play any of my 8mm tapes in it.
Not sure if you have a VHS or 8mm camcorder, but moving from an analog 8mm to a digital 8mm could be a smart move, if you have a PC on which you want to capture your family videos and share with far off relatives (see how I made that sound appealing to your wife?
)
Regards,
Bill