[lug] vhs capture - windows

[karl horlen]

i've got some old vcr tapes i'd like to finally transfer to digital so i can get rid of the tapes.  i have ZERO interest in converting the transferred video to DVD.  i just want it on a hard drive in a format that i can play with a standard media player like quicktime or windows media player.  

i called around thinking this would be pretty inexpensive to do but i was mistaken.  and most places only transfer to DVD which means i have to do another round of uncertain conversion to get it to my HD in a playable format after spending the initial money.

can anyone recommend a good capture device, preferably usb, that will allow me to plug in a vcr to transfer and convert to a useable playback format  that can be stored in my HD? i would like to do this on a windows versus linux box.

iirc, i tried this a couple of years ago and gave up because the process was bug ridden.  i'm hoping the hardware and software technology today make this a relatively simple task.

thanks