I have a Sony SLV-R1000 S-VHS VCR. In it's day, it was one of the
best you could buy, and cost over $1,000. When I last tried to play a
tape in it, I get nothing but a gray screen with wiggly lines in the
top half, and vertical bars in the bottom half. I doesn't matter if I
use the S-Video output or the RCA jack video out. Audio plays fine.

Does this sound like something worth paying to repair? Or shall I
just give it a proper burial? It's such a good VCR I hate to just
throw it away, and I know I could buy a new one for probably less than
what it would cost to repair the R1000. The only problem is trying to
find a replacement with S-Video output.