New VHS/S-VHS or repair old ones?

[mark23]

Any new S-VHS/VHS players out there for dubbing to dvd or capture? I have a Panasonic AG-1970 and JVC HR-S9500U that seem to have issues. The panasonic seems to play everything well however the audio becomes muffled after a few seconds of playback of any tape. The JVC vcr seems to have other issues from noisy picture on playback to tape ejection issues.

I was wondering if there is a newer model out there that seems to be the cadillac of VCRs to playback S-VHS or VHS at any speed or if it is worth trying to get these 2 units fixed. I know the best player to play tapes in is the deck it was recorded in, but this is not possible since most of the tapes i have were recorded by a local cable station and given to me for dubbing to DVD before they degrade any further.

I have read that some HDTV VCRs could provide optimal quality with some up converting capabilities. Are these decks better than standard VHS/SVHS decks?

Thanks
Mark

[Video Head]

Sounds like both units have dirty heads. A professional cleaning would probably clean the video and audio issues up. The ejection issue with the JVC is most likely the belt. Does the tape not fully eject when you press the eject button? If you open the bottom panel you will see a belt. That belt is what runs the eject mechanism. The belts get old and start to slip. You can take it out and clean it if it is not so old that it has become brittle. You can try to find a replacement belt but most repair shops will not sell you the part...they want the repair business. I usually just clean them and reinstall. Works for most.