Coming Soon to Home Video on VHS

[captain_slinky]

For years now, I've had the capability to transfer VHS tapes to DVD thanks to a stand-alone DVD recorder and a seemingly indestructible VCR. Every time the picture quality got bad, I just pop in my handy-dandy Head Cleaner and VIOLA! Excellent VHS rips!

Unfortunately, as I am trying to get my whole set-up working this morning, the Head Cleaner just isn't working any more :( The potential causes of this are

• The heads in the VCR, after years and years of use and abuse, have finally warped and the VCR is just ready to die
• The Head Cleaner Tape, purchased somewhere around 1992, has finally outlived the life expectancy of a dry-type VHS head cleaner ("Good For 100 Cleanings" according to the box, I've gotten at least twice that in the past 20 years)

And so now I have a series of progressively costly solutions to my dilemma; which one do you think I should do?
[Poll #1925552]

Right now, options #1 and #2 are the only ones I can afford... or I could save up and go for one of the other options. But buying electronics brand-new? That just rubs me the wrong way...