Sorry Liz, I thought you were downloading Videos from the Internet.
I have a DVD recorder and a VHS recorder, both connected to the TV and I record my VHS tapes direct to the DVD recorder using DVD-RW discs. I then copy the VOB file (on the disc) to the computer, edit out the adverts with a free program called AVIdemux and then format it to either MPG, WMV or AVI (for showing on the computer) or use another program to copy the edited version on to a DVD-R disc.
I used to have a USB recording device but had problems with it and so started doing it as listed above.
Hope you soon get the audio to work for you.
Cheers,
Wak.