AntcuFaalb said:

Is it possible that the AGC in the Panasonic AG-1980P is causing the problem(s)?

If so, does anyone know of any early VCRs produced without AGC circuitry that can be modded for S-Video?

Sorry I am late to the party. Haven't been on OT.com very much this past year (new to parenthood, and it is crazy!). At any rate, I would be willing to give it a shot on my deck, and I live in Northern Virginia (about a 45 minute drive to Baltimore from my house).

I have a JVC HR-9600U. Generally looked at as one of the best prosumer decks.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/video-restore/1567-vcr-buying-guide.html

It is then connected to my PC via SVHS cable with a Hauppauge PCI card that can do lossless AVI. I could just make a straight lossless AVI capture and save it to an external hard drive and give it back to you. It will probably be around 20gb. So a thumb drive would work too. I am not 100% sure that the end result will be drastically different from yours, but who knows, might be worth a shot.

I made this preservation if you want to see what I was able to get out of the 30 year old 1982 rental tape.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-1982-Rental-Copy-Preservation/topic/14254/