Home movies

[celestial]

I'd like to convert my home movies from VHS to DVDs. I have tried capturing some video from those tapes before, but the quality was rather poor (even with Pinnacle Sudio's "high quality" settings) and the audio got out of sync with the video. I was using a very old Rage All-in-Wonder card to do the capturing; this is probably why the quality was so low.
Would it be better to use my computer, or a standalone DVD recorder?

[setarip_old]

Would it be better to use my computer, or a standalone DVD recorder?
"Better" is judgmental, however using a standalone DVD recorder would certainly be easier...

[celestial]

I've seen DVD recorders that let you record straight from a VHS tape to a DVD. How do those work? Do they try to fit the whole tape onto a disc by re-encoding the video at a lower bitrate, or do they allow you to adjust it? How much video can you fit on a disc (standard 4.7 GB) with one of these?