External TBC vs. S-VHS with built-in TBC?
 

Is it more important to have an external TBC than an SVHS player with built-in line TBC? I know having both is better, but which of the two is more important?

If your car had a rear flat tyre and a front flat tyre, which one would you repair?

You're attempting video triage. That never ends well.

It's either
(1) wasting time with inferior gear,
(2) making excuses why lousy quality is actually good.
or
(3) both, as getting any results can be time-consuming, and requires willful acceptance of bad output

That was a great analogy, spot on. :congrats:

At very minimum (not "good" but "better than nothing") the strong+crippled ES10/15 provides line TBC with non-TBC frame sync. It's clumsy, many tapes will fail, with it can work some % of the time.

Another decent option is JVC S-VHS with line TBC + one of the weaker "with TBC" frame sync items. But this can get messy, as many harm quality, and some of them have simply disappeared (for example, no more DVKs to be had, not for many months now -- which has driven up costs on those).

Re: The tire analogy... If you only had the means to fix one of them? The front, because of steering control and weight distribution.

Re: The triage analogy... Triage, by definition is making a decision of which to save when you see no possibility of saving both. You appear assume people who won't to spent this much money on all this gear are just cheap, when few people I know of can afford to do it. If you would post video examples that the equipment you are selling works, or at least video examples of the difference in results between the various good and bad transfer methods you have described on here, it would be appreciated.

Then I would pay a professional and get a taxi. (use a professional digitising service).