durkinjt;I'm guessing by DVD recorder you mean a standalone set top.
You need to run it through a converter to strip the Macrovision copyright protection & possible some other protection as well.This is only on commercial VHS movie tapes.
The one I have & I think the best one is Dimax Grex.This is not a cheap unit but I think does as good a job as you are going to get.
Keep in mind the best you can expect is as good a picture as the VHS has when played in a VCR.Although they usually are some sharper.
I'm sure there are people that could load the files in a computer & improve them further.That is more than I know how to do so I will let others advise you on that.
I haven't checked but I think it would be as legal to backup a factory commercial VHS tape to DVD as it is with the commercial DVD disc.So my advice is for that type backup.