Mitsubishi HS-U82 quality transport for capturing?
 

I bot mine new, $999 @ 50% off (!) because it had 2/3rds speed slo-mo having piezo mounted heads in the drum. (I also have a NIB drum for it)

It was expensive so thinking it may have had a good transport.
There is no mention of a TBC, I think it has some kind of maybe chroma noise reduction.

ALSO, I don't know if it makes a difference that most of my tapes were made on this machine.

I ask because probably 10 years ago, it simply became dead.
While I do want to fix it, knowing it would be a desirable deck would make me get around to fixing it sooner.

I also have the JVC 40k D-VHS deck which might be better for capture, however it was starting to malfunction in that it wasn't recognizing the table of contents on digital tapes (at least that's what I remember.)

That deck model is too old to be useful capture.

At very most, in hypothesis (not even theory), it may play some really bad tapes less bad, due to the advanced features. But it's probably nothing that couldn't be better done simply by manually alignment/guides/heads on a better deck.

JVC D-VHS is not my favorite for capturing. Too many issues. S-VHS with line TBC is vastly better.

This forum has several posts on this model. For example: https://www.digitalFAQ.com/forum/vid...hi-hs-u82.html

Definitely not what I wanted to hear, but thanks for the truth.

Given a 1 year period of searching for a TBC machine like a JVC, what is a realistic cost?

I've thought of selling off all my SVHS (U82 dead, 40k w/issue, SV-771 w/tension issue, HR-S3600U never fired up and a lesser, lowly basic JVC ET that does work) but it would have to be local sale since the packing effort for eBay sale is more than I can handle. So local sale for cheap is only realistic option.

Should I consider RF capture? This appeals to me, I can do the electronic work, but my understanding it takes a lot of time to capture a tape and there are issues with capturing the sound - it's been a while, have things changed?

Thinking more about the U82,

Old, yes, but there is no comparison to any consumer deck: this is the only consumer deck that has piezo crystal moving heads in the drum that allow 2/3rds (and 1/3rd) speed slow motion. The only VCR's that have this as far as JVC goes are the big pro deck models that have total variable slow motion.

They went all in with this $1999 retail deck and for that advanced drum system complete with slip rings, there's no way they didn't put the best transport in that deck.

And since it's all about transport stability, unless there were design flaws, how can this not be an uber stable transport?

Thinking, very little experience with this deck because who in their right mind would buy a $2k Mitsubishi VCR? - unless a Slo Mo Fanatic.