I bought this head cleaner for vhs to dvd transfers and it does what it's suppose to. The alternative is to open the case and clean the heads with a cloth & alcohol, which I've done before. With old vhs tapes, I've found that you need to clean the unit once in every 30 hours of play. You will know this when there is static on the screen when the video is playing or when you hear squealing noise while the tape is playing. Also, old tapes get "stuck" or hard to turn in the cassette housing. Gently drop the cassette on a flat surface from about 1/2" a few times on each side to loosen them up or find an unwanted vhs tape and swap the tape reels & tape out between the cassettes. Goodwill has vhs tapes for $.49. This should last you while you do the tape transfer.