Has anyone got experience doing this?  ive got a bunch of tapes I would like to convert to dvd and was hoping on getting some on opinions on the easiest way and best hardware to get the job done.

I do it a lot. I have two combo VCR/DVD recorder/players made by Panasonic.

My wife records soap operas and uses the DVD RAM discs for those recordings instead of the now discontinued VCR tapes.

Both have one button dubbing (it's so easy a cave man can do it)

I just bought a software program called Roxio Easy VHS to DVD. You can also convert cassettes to CD's.

http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/easy-vhs-to-dvd/standard/overview.html

Thanks guys

Wayne ,  i had heard a lot of bad things about those vhs to dvd recorders from getting bad sound to choppy pixelated video...I'll have to look into that again.

Crankenstein - never saw that before and I am very likely going to try that...This way its in the computer already and i can edit videos as needed.

thanks again!

When I did it I just used my Tivo that had a DVD burner in it. It sure made the job simple.  Another option for if you want to do editing is to buy a special video card for your PC.

Thanks guys

Wayne , i had heard a lot of bad things about those vhs to dvd recorders from getting bad sound to choppy pixelated video...I'll have to look into that again.

Crankenstein - never saw that before and I am very likely going to try that...This way its in the computer already and i can edit videos as needed.

thanks again!

I was going to buy a DVD recorder/VHS combo when I found the software program. I've got a ton of old cassettes that I can't listen to so since this worked for both I figured I'd try it. I've only had it a couple of weeks but so far transfering the cassettes has worked well. This is kind of my "winter project" to help ward off cabin fever until I can fish again, LOL.

here is a little cheaper deal here

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3504456&CatId=1428

I have to get this...can even do albums

dman, the DVD quality is as good as the quality of the VHS tapes. You can only transfer the quality of the media you have recorded. I have never experienced a lesser quality of sound or picture of the source. The models I have are DMR-E75V and DMR-ES40V

With the video-in ports, I can make DVD's from any player including another DVD player. I also copy mini-DV tapes from my video camera to DVD also.