Sylvr, I can't find s-vhs units here in Santa Barbara at anywhere near that price. And via a composite output the 990 put a perfectly steady menu on the screen; at least the first 990 did. It also worked OK with tapes on my Panasonic VCR before it died - though come to think of it the tracking was pretty fiddly. But that first 990 had no s-video or component video output at all. Now this replacement unit does fine with DVDs via component - or at least it did before I started this upgrade ordeal - but it won't convert composite to component. S-video I haven't tried, and can't right now.

As for priorities, I still have the quaint idea that stuff I've paid considerable money for ought to work as promised. Naive, I guess. . .

syvlvr wrote

When I ran my dvd via s-video it was fine thru the 990. But like you, I find the 990 to be quite awful via composite.

I ran composite, S-video and component thru the 990 from my DVD to test whether or not it would do as specified. It did. My S-VHS also works well via S-vid and composite (doesn't have component, of course). Also an old Mitsubishi LaserDisc, which only has composite out (precursor to DVD-ancient technology) and ran fine.

Could it be the cables??
BTW I'm using cheap old RCA cables that comes with equipment for my composite and old analog audio.

If something doesn't work correctly or you can work it out...have you called Steve or Scott.