JVC HR-DVS1 Mini DV / S-VHS VCR

bought this unit when it was the only consumer MiniDV/S-VHS combo unit. worked great for about a year. After i bought an additional camera, i started having problems with the MiniDV tapes playing properly. It developed extreme video and audio dropouts about once every 5 seconds. the tapes that play poorly in this unit play fine in the original camera. i sent it to JVC for adjustment/repair and they replaced the heads and checked the "alignment". this didnt fix the problem and JVC said there was nothing they could do but replace the unit which would cost more than i cared to spend. VHS side still works great. there is no Firewire/iLink/IEEE1394 port on the back, so the front fold down panel is always down when i use the unit for video capture or recording (very annoying). Cannot record to VHS directly from Camera via firewire.