1st thing to remember is takes at least as long as the length of the tape/movie. VHS recording needs to be done real time. So a 2 hour movie is minimum 2 hours plus your setup finish time.
You can get a VHS player with built in DVD burner. That's the easiest for unattended conversion. Prices have gone back up on them I assume due to low demand. Figure $75 and up from there.
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If you have a tower PC with a TV Tuner/Capture card you can record to your hard drive then burn from that. Time consuming.
Alternately you can pick up something like a Dazzle or Matrox box and do the same as before, again it's time consuming.
If you have an older non HD Mini-Dv camcorder they usually have video in and Firewire out so you can use that in between a VHS deck and computer instead of a capture card/Dazzle. Your PC will need to have firewire in but if it does not firewire cards are cheap.
If you are only looking at doing a couple/few tapes then might be best to simply send out to a service.
If you have a bunch then option 1, the VHS DVD burner combo is the way to go.