Well, to be fair, this was a used item. I'm sure a brand new unit would have performed much better. I am in the process of digitizing my entire inventory of VHS, 8 mm, and MiniDV tapes. My old 8mm camera still works but the rewind function doesn't, so I got this unit to rewind about a dozen tapes I have on hand. Depending on the tape position, the rewind is fast, but as it gets to the finish, slows down appreciably so that it takes almost a half hour to get the job done. As of this writing, however, I have rewound all of them, so it completed its task, although not very well.
I would still recommend a similar unit in better condition.