I am not an expert, but it seems that the Y/C board on the AG-1980 is known to be problematic. I recently recapped the Y/C board and Timer board on my AG-1980 and picture quality is greatly improved after the Y/C board recap (used to have this terrible barber pole/rainbow diagonal pattern). The Timer board recap took care of dim LCD display on the front of the machine.
For $75 a piece on the 1980's who knows what issues they might have. If all that needed to be done was the Y/C board, that would be a pretty good scenario.
As far as when to repair the machine, I am not sure what the "best practices" are in the repair industry, but I've always subscribed to the "If it isn't broken don't fix it" mantra, just out of sheer economy. I imagine if someone was doing this professionally, they would probably just do the recap right away as they know they will have to do so at some point. But I am very much a hobbyist.
In either case, these machines are gettin' OLD and they use sad aluminum electrolytic capacitors, so you will likely have to do some work. Have you tested either of the machines yet?
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