You will need some means of getting video into your pc. It can be via the composite or s-video input of an existing graphics card, an add-on tv tuner card that has either of those inputs or an external usb device. Usb is the easiest to add but is slightly more likely to give problems later. For maximum compatibility with dvd players you need something that can record in mpeg2.
You can burn the mpeg2 directly on to a dvd but for max compatibility it's best to author as a video dvd, even if you have the most basic menu system (play all the video when disk inserted). It's probably worth making some trial runs with a dvd rw that you can erase and try again.
You should experiment with the bitrate so that you can get what you want on a dvd at the quality you want (ie no worse than the vhs when played back). No point in making the bitrate too high with vhs, which is relatively low quality video. If you transfer the video at the required bitrate it will save time at the authoring stage. Also, make sure the tone is correct at transfer. Adjusting later hugely increases time to finish the project. Get this all sorted out before you start transferring in earnest.
If you just want to snip out ads, join mpeg videos with no other editing, I would highly recommed VideoReDo (payware but very simple and accurate editor).
There are plenty of guides on how to make transfers, Google "vhs to dvd".
Videohelp has a few guides and a lot of useful info. Most capture devices come with software for the capturing and instructions on use.
It's such a wide subject, and many ways to do it, I'll leave my contribution at that.
Starman*
