Yeah of course you can.
To edit using a VCR you need to have the following items.
1 x camera where you can plug in composite cables
1 x composite cables (red, white and yellow cables)
2 x VCRs that allows the use of composite cables
1 x sound source. (stereo that accepts composite cables)
1 x scart cable
2 x blank video tape
1 x patience
Ok first things first. Plug the composite cables into the camera and the VCR. The footage will be on the VCR channel. Find what you want to copy from the camcorder tapes and press record on the VCR. This will take time as you want things to line up nicely. Just remember to not erase what you have put on the blank VCR tape.
Once you are happy with that its time to add sound.
Remember when you add sound you are recording over the sound you have recored, so you will not hear little Johnny telling you he loves you, instead it will be your chosen music.
To add sound, you need to connect the 2 VCRs together using composite cable. In VCR 1 is your footage, and VCR 2 is a blank tape VCR 2 should be connected to your TV. You need to pull out the red and white cable from VCR 1 and plug it into your sound source. Then press play on both the sound source, and the footage tape in VCR 1, and record on VCR 2. You might need to practise this.
To add text there is 2 ways I can think of, off the top of my head. 1 is to do it in camera if your camera allows this and the second way is to record it on your camera via a piece of paper or magnets or something.
Now I tend to find editing via the computer easier, and allows you to have more control and allows you to do more things. If you have a digital camcorder you can usually plug your camera straight into your PC using USB/Firewire. Using some editing software you can very easily do exactly what you want to do and then burn it onto a dvd. I suggest Windows Movie Maker (WMM) because its simple but powerful and also free. (you need to be using XP to use it though).
To do this, you need to download WMP from Microsoft and install it. Open the program. Plug in your camera to your computer and turn it on.
Then go to File, Capture Movie. Fill in all the details like where you want to save it and the name you wish to call it. Then choose High Quality Pal. Then choose to capture (upload the footage) in the meathod you choose entire tape, parts of tapes etc.
Capture the footage. You can unselect the box that says to make clips because windows will decide where it want to put a cut in your clip (you can change things though).
Once this has captured you will see the bottom row (box) and it will have lots of images of film this is your storyboard time line. Play each clip and using the button split clip into 2 clips you can then edit that way. Ie find the start of the scene you want, use the button to cut it then play the cut version and cut again where you want. Remember to name your stuff.
To import music just go to file import music. (it might be on the menu option to your left in standard view). To import text do that same thing, but the text needs to be an image
use paint or photoshop for this.
You can then add special effects, credits, fade in and out, etc etc this way.
When you are done save the movie as an MPEG and then burn on to DVD.
If you run into problems let me know and I can see where I can help you.
