I was faced with the same problem and I bought a DVD recorder to add to my home theater setup. You can get a standalone DVD recorder, combined with a DVR or combined with a VCR for between $90 and $250. I bought a standalone DVD recorder and connected it to my VCR, to cable and to my DVR and, of course, to the TV. I can watch DVDs on it, record from the VCR, record from cable (just like we used to do with a VCR in the old days) or dump shows recorded on the DVR to DVD. I can also dump stuff from a camcorder straight to DVD. Of course you can't do any sophisticated editing with this setup, it just allows you to move video from one medium to another. But it is set and forget: start the VCR rolling, press record on the DVD recorder and step back.
If you want to edit the videos, maybe clean them up, then you would want to go with a more sophisticated setup, with a video capture card on your PC to convert the playback from the VCR to a digital file, edit and burn to a DVD. You would have to buy the video capture hardware, but the software you need to create the digital file, edit it and burn it to DVD are all included in Windows XP Home, Vista Home Premium and Windows 7 Home Premium. They are Windows Movie Maker and Windows DVD Maker.