Fungo,
I bought the exact same Sony DVDirect recorder you did. Got mine last summer and have been converting many of my old analog tapes to DVD. I recently bought a new Sony Digital 8 camcorder that also plays back my old Hi8 tapes so I just plug the camera into the recorder, put in a tape that I want to put on DVD, put in a blank DVD and press record...haven't had any problems at all so far. I use the AV cable for the analog recordings and a firewire cable for the digital recordings. I'm not a video master by any means but if I can do this I know anyone can.
If anyone is considering purchasing a Digital 8 camcorder to replace their old HI8 camcorder and you want to be able to play back your old tapes in the new camcorder, I highly recommend the Sony DCR-TRV480. It is very inexpensive and takes great video...uses the same tapes as my old analog Sony camcorder. It has a 20x optical zoom and a 990x digital zoom which works great for filming at baseball games. A great camcorder for the money!
Ann