When I need to do something like that I use a standalone Panasonic DVD recorder with a re-writable DVD-RAM disc. It produces DVD compliant MPEG-2 files in a .VRO container which you can copy to the computer and load up in whatever editing/converting/authoring software.
There are better ways I'm sure but this is relatively painless and does away with having to connect various playback devices to the computer. I see the Panasonics and Samsungs on Amazon and ebay sometimes, ~$200.
I dunno who fixes VCR's these days...I've got a Sony SuperBeta HiFi and two high end Mitsubishi SVHS decks that I'd like to get running some day. Probably no hope of finding proper belts and the like...
