I have a VCR that's probably 10 years old but not used all that much. I wanted to transfer some video tapes to DVD (I have a DVR too).

I popped a tape in and hit play and the VCR promptly started eating the tape. I tested a few other tapes and same thing.

So, is this VCR screwed? Are the heads out of alignment or just need a cleaning (I can't find the head cleaner and I'm pretty sure I had one). Is it even the heads? Any idea what it would cost to repair? I don't really want to buy another one just to convert the tapes because it's unlikely I'll ever use it again after that.

Any suggestions?

could be the heads, could be any part of the system that moves the tape.

It may very well need a cleaning, that would be most likely.

Either pick up a cleaner and try it or see if a friend has a vcr that you can use to convert your tapes to dvd.