Yes, you need a Digital timepiece to accomplish this with your DA-88's. However, the only way you will get sample accurate sync is by sending DA-88 sync to your Tascam machine. The DA-88 sync cable sends sample locations and deals with absolute time on your 8mm tape. This means that with sample accurate sync you will be referencing to the absolute time of your DA-88 tape and not the timecode track. If you use the SY-88 card for the transfer(using LTC and Word clock) your transfer would only be phase accurate. There may be a variation of + or - 30 samples, but the signal will not drift.