Again, you don't have anything to do with Firewire here.
Do this:
- Take the s-video or composite video output from the camera,
- Connect that to the input of the DVD recorder,
- Play on the camera, record on the DVD recorder.
That's it. Really easy.
No computer involved. Just record the video to DVD, and there's your DVD.
Some DVD recorders are better than others, and then beyond that some can clean-up the quality of the 8mm tapes beyond what the camera may be doing.
DVD recorders have been thoroughly reviewed here:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/reviews/dvd-recorders.htm
The links on that page are for USA models, for sale at
Amazon.com and Walmart.com
Comparable models can be found for a
good price at Amazon.co.uk (CLICK HERE!)
If you still want to edit, there are MPEG editors. It really depends on what you mean by "edit". If you refer to just cutting out segments, or some basic re-arranging, then you can do this in the MPEG domain. Some guides on this site cover it, see the "
Edit DVD from DVD Recorder" guide and
"Removing Commercials" MPEG editing guide, which covers all the concepts.
If you want to get really fancy (which takes good software and some decent skill), then you'd need something that can do AVI capture (
HuffYUV codec on Windows) or uncompressed Quicktime (for Mac). You'd also be using higher-end programs like Adobe Premiere, Vegas, Final Cut Pro, etc.