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Well, sort of. Some issues specific to the record deck can be solved by going back to the original gear, but if given the choice of the original deck or a tuned-up newer S-VHS, I'd rather have both just in case - but I'd prefer the newer S-VHS. I wouldn't spend any time or money on that old deck except perhaps for fun and nostalgia. My family had what I think was the next model along, the RCA VLP970HFT. Similar, but a front-loader instead of a top-loader. Our deck was bought around 1986, I believe yours is about the same age.
They weren't great decks despite promising features. Ours had severe limits in LP and SLP mode, we learned to avoid it at all costs. It wasn't until college and my roommate's JVC that I realized that LP didn't have to look like complete crap, and could be HiFi (the RCA didn't allow it).
We did have a tethered cam and would pull half of the deck out to drag around along with it, the tapes are dreadful. Didn't much like running off a battery, all kinds of noise between clips despite the flying erase head. The bargain RCA full-size VHS cam we replaced it with a few years later was night and day.
Anyway, try it, see how it goes. The moment it gives you trouble, I would give it a nice memorial service and move on. From what I recall both belts and capacitors are time bombs in 80s RCA gear. I kept some of their videodisc stuff around for a while, the belts were always gooey snot when I found an old player.
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