Definitely, the way to go is via a domestic DVD recorder. I bought one with a hard drive- I know that they're more expensive, but the hard drive makes editing so simple, compared with the inflexibility of simply transferring to a disk.
I generally leave the tape to transfer its contents to the hard drive, and then cherry the bits I want to leave. It's amazing how much dross I've been keeping on my VHS tapes over the years. When I review them, I keep a very small percentage onto disc eventually!
I also now transfer my camcorder content to my domestic hard disc recorder, for editing before transferring to disc. I hardly use the computer for video editing now.