My mother’s VCR–only a couple of years old–has a problem. When we rent films, the image jumps, as it would on an old TV where the horizontal hold is off. We tried pressing the “tracking” button on the remote, and taking out the tape and “tightening” it; also rewinding and stopping. But it doesn’t seem to be the tapes, this happens too frequently.
Any ideas?
??? Looks like companies are QC-ing VCRs about as much as the QC floppy drives these days… 
You’re “couple of years old” VCR is a very cheap piece of garbage, so RF pretty much nails it.
I repair stuff like this as a hobby, but it’s not something the average DIYer can do. And it’s way too expensive to fix at a shop.
Next time, don’t buy the cheapest VCR on the shelf. Pay $40 more and get one that is only 80% garbage.
(Now, if you had a 10+ year old VCR, then it is probably a good quality one and worth saving…)
I got tired of replacing my $100 vcr every year, and went out and bought a $600 one. That was 8 years ago, so now I’m ahead of the game.
The difference in performance and lifetime is worth it.
My only regret is that I didn’t wait another year for Digital Still Picture to become available. Otherwise it’s an excellent piece of equipment.