Micsteam, bringing something from VHS to YouTube can sometimes be a big pain in the butt, no doubt about it (especially if it's your 1st time). Expect a large learning curve and a frustrating path of trial & error.
However, I'm willing to help you along the way.
Yes, some digital recording equipment can be incompatible with other devices (the fine print in the manuals usually says so) and you will definitely need additional software in order to post the videos to YouTube. However, your initial problem might be as ROLLERBALL mentions - the wrong type of discs.
All of my VHS stuff was transferred to DVD-R discs (
*Note below) on the same machine (Sharp) 11 years ago and I've had several problems with newer computers not recognizing certain discs. Sometimes it was necessary to resort to my old, nearly-dead, Sony VAIO laptop to read the discs & then convert them into manageable files.
* Not DVD-R DL because those are "dual layered".
Let's try to work this out in private, micsteam. I have your phone # but lost your e-mail address. If you still have mine, shoot me an e-mail and we can hopefully get your vintage-Indy-video nuggets uploaded!