At my wits end.

[presto]

I don't think you need to buy anything else. Put as much video as you want when you author the DVD. Don't worry about the program telling you the DVD will be too big. After you have the DVD files on your hard drive use DVD Shrink to transcode the video so that it will fit on the disk.

DVD Shrink is an excellent free program.

[spectroelectro]

JVC DRM10S is the best DVD recorder out there. You can capture in FR 180 (variable rate mode) and get 3 hours in half D1 format, 352 x 480, which looks identical to full D1 (720 x 480) if your source is VHS videotape.

The JVC uses DVD-Rw discs so you can re-use 'em. Finalize the discs, pop 'em out of your JVC DVD recorder and read 'em onto your hard drive of your computer via DVD-ROM drive, use Womble MPEG to cut 'em, and there you are. Ready to burn to DVD.