It's interesting that the TV tuner still goes up to channel 83 on UHF.

VCR Plus i think that's what your thinking of for the timer recording

Freezer spray can help solidify the gunk for removing it with a toothpick. Flux remover is also good for cleaning it off and kind of clumping it together a bit more, without harming plastics

I definitely felt the top VCR was visibly better. No question.

these were decent vcr’s for the time we had a model with front av and s video i wish we still had it

They gave these machines the front panel look of the DSS satellite receivers of the time. The difference of picture quality between the 2 machines could be due to aged capacitors in the video circuitry.
There were some later Hitachi built RCA models where the board was over the top of the mechanism and these were a real bear for cracked boards and damaged traces.
In my opinion the best ones were the Matsushita and early Hitachi built models. The Toshiba models were comparatively rare. There was quite a run of Samsung built units.
I remember the first shipment of VBT200's coming to out shop on a cold day. The owner was anxious to try one out and didn't know about dew forming on the head, and got the tape stuck on the drum.

I've seen a ton of VCR repair videos and I've never seen a belt that is THAT bad. that's crazy 5:50

Trick I learned many years ago cleaning belt goo is use is Max Pro rubber rejuvenator. It turn it to liquid pretty much and makes it very easy to clean even in the pulley and get it all out like if there was no goo and new. You don't have to fight with it anymore, I keep can of the stuff around just for that and cleaning pinch rollers. You can use it to get the goo off your hands as well.

No it doesn't destroy the plastics, at least never seen it so far.

I think the older one looked a little sharper & the greens were greener but the newer one don't look too bad.

Amico non posso crederci,invece di smontarlo hanno brutalmente tagliato il telaio al sottoscocca e hanno anche danneggiato la motherboard!.complimenti per il lavoro,ammiro il tuo scrupolo e la determinazione che hai a voler fare un bel lavoro.il 652 secondo me ha lo sharpness tarato in modo più soft.gran video!

Cool video. My old Emerson VCR needs the mode switch fixed, but it’s so old that it would be extremely difficult to access.

Your Home theater unit I think has what's called a time base correction - where the other unit dose not have it..

I know this mech, did a few Toshiba's/Thomsons, i like it. Gotta be careful when you separate the mech from the board. In one case i had the drum inside that was cracked (previous owner  i believe) and of course it was touching / creating inbalance / making nosie like crazy. I managed to fix it though

I had the same model as a workhorse for years until the head wore down (EP went first). Actually miss that model- very delicate tape handling. To get a good still image I had to do slo-mo and use tracking to adjust. Only catches: tape guides needed periodic adjustment and LP speed playback was never 100% when EP and SP were spot-on.

They both look better then my VCR but the 1994 looks best.

Pretty sure I had effectively the same VCR as this back in the day - mine was branded Ferguson (an old UK legacy brand that Thomson bought out around the same time as RCA) and the front was very different to this, but the internals look pretty much identical. Didn't realise it was a Toshiba under the skin, but it does explain the decent build and reliability (Thomson stuff generally was a bit meh). I think the PSU caps died on mine in the end and it was scrapped (I wasn't into repairs at the time).

The 1994 model has a lot sharper image. Was the sharpness control in the middle setting on both VCRs? Although the 1996 model almost seems like it has a double image, and that's why it's blurry. Might be a video circuit problem in the damaged area. Maybe something is not connected and it's a termination issue. Nice VCRs BTW, I wish I can buy the PAL version of the 1994 model at some point.

Could the 1996 model have picture adjustments in the VCR menu?