THE VCR AUTOSCAN WORKED! I'M FLABBERGASTED. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I had emailed the manufacturer, Panasonic, but never got a reply.
I didn't try the RCA cables because the VCR has a lot of jack ports and I wasn't sure which ones to try. The autoset, as my machine had it, worked, so that's enough. HOORAY!
This confirms my opinion that dsl reports is one of the best websites out there.