I bought an Ilo brand about a year ago.
I tried using it as a VCR. Worked great at first.
Then I started getting bad DVD RW disks with it.
It still records DVD R just fine. Just not RW.

If you only have 30 or so VHS movies,
DVD R would work just fine for that.
Go rent a recorder from Rent-A-Center or some place.
If these are commercial video tapes they won't record.
But home made VHS tapes will record just fine.

I just got a Tivo box. Free with a one year commitment. $12.95/month.
And I can transfer recordings to my computer.
Not sure, but a Tivo box should take a VCR input.

I suggest renting a DVD recorder for a week or a month
and see if you like the results you get.

Hope this helped some.

Pooh Bear

One other option is that there are people out there who specialize in transferring video from tape to DVD. If you live in a very small town, there might not be anyone local, so you might have to visit a larger town or mail away your tapes. But it can be done.

You might want to find out the costs of doing that vs. buying even a cheap DVD-R and spending your time transferring the videos. If they are not just straight transfers, though (that is, you don't want to rearrange or cut parts out), it may be easier to do yourself than to show someone else how do it.