Video conversion - please help

I wonder if you can help me.

I have a VHS video tape with some home movies on.
I want to convert the home movies from video to DVD. Then on my computer, I
want to save sections of the home movies (from DVD) as separate files to
play on a digital photo frame.
..
I have a VHS video recorder and a DVD recorder. I tried connecting 1 SCART
cable, with one end in the video recorder and the other end in the DVD
recorder.
However, I could not get this to work.

How do I go about connecting the video recorder to my DVD recorder?
What leads must I connect to be able to copy from my video to my DVD
recorder? Do I need to connect an aerial even though I won't need to use it?

Alternatively is it possible to connect my video recorder straight to my
desktop PC? If so, how and with what cable(s)?

Once I have my home movies on DVD, using my computer, I want to copy small
sections of the movies and save them as new files.
Does anyone know of any free software that will enable me to copy small
sections and save them as new mpeg files?

For information I use Win XP Pro.

I hope you can help me.

I appreciate any help or information given.

Thanks!