Hi,
BrenR is correct about Hi8. Back in the murky days of standard VHS, Hi8 looked pretty good by comparison, but it's still analog video and no amount of processing is going to add resolution to it or make it look like DVD or HD. If you ever saw the old laserdisc format, Hi8 was comparable. Nowadays, laserdisc looks quite grotty when you compare it to digital formats like DVD, let alone HD. Despite being read by a laser, laserdisc video was analog. Late in its life, the laserdisc soundtracks went frequency-modulated (FM) analog to Dolby AC-3, a digital audio format, but the video was always analog.
So go with standard DVD, which should remain compatible for years to come. At least it will preserve all the resolution that Hi* was capable of. It's entirely normal to want to archive old video of family and loved ones. I have some Hi8 video of my son when he was about 7 or 8 taken on a sailboat I owned for years.
Regards,
Alan
