I had a DVDR (DVDR = DVD Recorder) from Walmart.  It was made by Magnavox and was fairly cheap.  I believe I paid about $100 - $125 but it would only recognize certain brands of blank DVD's and I had to order them online because none of the stores carried them and I was going to do the same thing to copy The Yule Log off my DVR and I needed the DVD 9's Dual Layer discs because the DVD 5's are supposed to hold 2 hours of video and I when I got the discs in the mail, the DVDR from Walmart wouldn't recognize the discs.  I called Magnavox and they told me all the brands that it was supposed to support, and the ones I ordered online were one of the brands but they wouldn't work.  I had some of the other brands in my home but they were only the DVD 5's and it still wouldn't recognize any of the blank DVD's.  I think Magnavox wanted to get rid of them so Walmart probably got a good deal on them and figured that selling them cheap enough, they would get rid of them quickly.

I ended up having to bring it back to Walmart because it was useless to me.  There were other boxes of the same DVDR that people brought back too, and when I go to the Electronics Department at Walmart, you can tell that they have been opened and re-taped so they were ones that people returned.

So instead, I bought a USB Video Capture Device, but that wouldn't do you any good unless you had your computer at your parents house and then captured the video to the computer and then used software to author and burn it to a DVD.

My suggestion would be to look into a DVDR but something different than Magnavox and I would check the reviews on the brands.  One thing, it will take 4 hours to transfer it to the DVDR.

I don't know which company makes the best DVDR, being I got rid of my Magnavox one and went with DAZZLE HD Video Capture Device and it has the RCA Jacks on one end and the USB connector on the other end and with software you then can transfer the video from the DVR, a DVD player and even a VCR to your computer and if there were commercials, you could edit them out, create chapters and menus. 

You should be able to save some money if you get a DVDR and use the DVD 5's because there is an option sort of like on a VHS VCR where you can fit 6 hours on a 2 hour tape, but the quality is diminished.  But if you want to retain the highest quality, you would need a DVD 9 Dual Layer disc.  And a DVD Recorder that supports the type of disc you would need.  Some have -R +R -RW +RW  so again you need to make sure the recorder will support the disc you use.

I hope I haven't added to your confusion.  The DVD 5's hold 4.7 GB of storage and the DVD 9 DL (Dual Layer) have 8.5 GB storage space

You can always ask a salesperson and they could help you decide on the DVD Recorder and discs you would need.  You need to make sure that they know you need to be able to record something that is 4 hours long.

Best Buy would be better than Walmart.  I don't know about Target.  Radio Shack might be a good place too.