In the most basic terms, you need three things to turns you tapes into DVDs:

- A camcorder or VCR to play your tapes. If you have tapes to transfer to DVD, you probably already have these.

- A DVD recorder that attaches to your TV or a DVD recordable drive that attaches to your personal computer.

- Blank DVD+R or DVD+RW discs.

Should you buy a DVD recorder, a DVD recordable drive or both? The answer depends on what you want to do:

DVD Recorder:
A DVD recorder is just like the DVD player you may already have connected to your TV, except it’ll also record. More and more people are buying DVD recorders as replacements for their VCRs because they can record to discs instead of to tapes, which deteriorate over time. Consider buying a DVD recorder that attaches to your TV set if you want to transfer tapes to disc with little or no editing and easily make high quality recordings from TV shows..

DVD Recordable Drive:
Recordable DVD drives are just like the read-only DVD drives that already come with many computers, except you can burn (record) your own DVDs. You also can use your DVD recordable drive to back up your hard drive or transfer large files from one computer to another. Consider buying a DVD recordable drive for your computer, if you’re interested in editing.

Both: Consider buying both if you want to be able to record your favorite TV shows to disc and edit your home movies and transfer them to DVD. With DVD+RW you can even edit or add to discs recorded on a DVD recorder using a DVD writer in your PC, or vice versa.