There are a ton or recorders out there that will do the job of recording, your absolute biggest headache will be the decrypting, with alot of the encrypted DVD's out there I would highly recommend getting the following software for your home PC and then creating copies that you could use from there, first items you will need is the copying manager, I use 1-Click DVD (best damn copying software on the market ...PERIOD!) trust me, I have a large collection of DVD's also and my kids ended up destroying a bunch until I learned about this software. I honestly tried several others before buying 1-Click DVD and found 1-CLICK to be the easiest of all to use. The next software you will need is ANY DVD decryption software, this is awsome, no matter what kind of encryption is embedded withing the DVD this puppy will remove it for you, this will allow you to make seamless back-ups of your movies without any headaches whatsoever...here are the links to the web sites, they will allow you to try before you commit to buy!
1-CLICK DVD: http://1clickdvdcopy.software-review...FQGPWAodq32nsA
ANY DVD: http://www.slysoft.com/en/anydvd.htm...FSMkWAodODwtxQ
You can spend a fortune on recording hardware especially now since alot of the burning companies are switching to HD and BLUE RAY formatted DVD's. Forget dual layer, when a single Blue Ray DVD can hold 25gigs and up and when used as a dual sided DVD it can hold up to 60gig's.
Go out and buy a Blue Ray player/burner, the picture quality of these DVD's is absolutely stunning!