Well remember what Scotty said in Star Trek III; the more they overthink the plumbing...

Not to mention record technology is simple as hell if you boil it down to basics; the grooves vibrate the needle and the rest of the turntable just amplifies those vibrations to audible levels. Can't say the same for anything digital. It's a bit like microfilm; all you need to see it is a source of light and some sort of a magnifying glass. A flash stick is useless without a computer, a far more complicated bit of tech.

The first VHD player I bought was a SHARP brand. It did not and work properly and would just run over the disc extremely fast and display messed up garbage on the screen. I paused it in a couple of places and the picture was all jumpy, black and white. Just messed up in general. I bought a VICTOR HD-V1 next, a high end 3D model that came after the HD-93/9500. This one worked perfectly and was in fantastic condition. VHD players almost always live up to the "junk" title in auctions.

I experienced a problem with the discs I put in the SHARP though. The places I paused the discs on the SHARP skipped. The FF/FW method helped a little, but somehow that other player damaged the discs. No idea how seeing as the needle does not touch the discs. I collect anime that never made it to LD (thanks VICTOR!) and they are incredibly hard to come by so I was pissed. The 2 it damaged was Cosmos Pink SHOCK and Bari Bari Densetsu part I. I thankfully managed to buy second copies, but they were not cheap. The only thing that first pos player was good for was a second needle as it was a VICTOR needle. I wish NATIONAL used them, too...

So, I've realized something...I've got a few discs that tend to skip a lot....but here's the thing: I think I've discovered if you keep playing them over and over, the skips become less and less frequent...so does the image noise... maybe the stylus is "cleaning" the dirt off the disc? I dunno, I have no f***ing clue what I'm talking about...but from what I've been seeing, it helps those old Hard-Off discs quite a bit....anyone else realize this?

I see no reason to doubt that theory at all.