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Originally Posted by VideoSaver
What steps do you take to recondition the VCRs that you sell refurbished? I am wondering if I should continue to search for a new or open-box JVC VCR or purchase a refurbished unit.
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Open-box doesn't mean anything whatsoever, as the units were sold new 15-25 years ago. Nothing is "open box" or NOS (new old stock) anymore. Anybody making that claim is just lying now. At best, you'll have a used deck in well-cared-for condition in the original box, but even that doesn't mean much. VCRs age, used or not.
Refurb'ing a deck is complex, and differs per unit.
All JVC decks need alignment tweaks. The guide alignment is pressure based, and gravity takes a toll on springs. I rarely come across JVC decks that don't need a tweak. And that's not something that is easy to do, without a large test bed of tapes, or scopes (understand that even scopes can be wrong, to find the best overall alignment for the deck). Head wear affects alignment (affect, not effect),
which is why I grade decks. This is probably the most time-consuming part of my refurb work.
Sometimes part swapping is needed, everything from panel control buttons to the rubber bands that drive gears. Since nothing is sold new, I rely on my "attic graveyard" of for-parts VCRs.
The worst problem I'm seeing in recent years is idiots that "clean" VCR heads for no reason (the fix-all mentality), and using the wrong tools to do it (cotton swabs aka Q-Tips, solvents, etc). There too many dipshits making Youtube videos showing you how to ruin VCRs (
example). Refurb sometimes involves ACTUAL (re)cleaning of the heads, but using a magnifying glass to remove cotton debris snagged into the head cylinder, the verifying the miscleaning damage wasn't permanent. It's so tedious. I've not yet tried to rebuild a head assembly (by frankensteining multiple bad cylinders), but I know that day is coming, and I'm not sure if I want to mess with it.
Refurb'ing a JVC deck is not a fast process. A library of test videos is needed, something most people cannot get. And parts are needed, something most people do not have. Plus knowledge, and some of it not found in service manuals. Plus experience, sometimes due to costly past mistakes.
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Originally Posted by ajg617
Well, my JVC HR-S9600U purchase off of ebay many years ago appears to be toast
Suggestions welcome. |
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Originally Posted by ajg617
What do you have left? My HR-S9600U is toast. Thanks, AJG
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Originally Posted by JonnyB
PM sent I hope you still have one left.
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Will be PM'ing back this week.
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Originally Posted by Kaos-Industries
So then if I'm understanding you correctly, I can afford to get a JVC S-VHS VCR without TBC because it won't be used anyway in a chain that involves an ES15 as a makeshift TBC, and that other factors like condition matter more.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by latreche34
It's not that simple,
And to be honest a DVD recorder will never replace a line TBC inside a VCR for a simple reason, The VCR reads the raw RF signal coming out fresh from the video heads and knows exactly where each scan line starts and ends. While in a non line TBC VCR, by the time the signal has been processed by the VCR circuitry and gets thru to the DVD recorder a lot of things can go wrong
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Essentially this. ES10/15 + non-TBC VCR is a crutch, a shortcut, with limitations. The ES10/15 is a not a TBC, and was never meant to be a TBC replacement.
I was the one that discovered the ES10 passthrough feature 16 years ago, and posted about it at VH. Both then and now, I've always stated it for anti-tearing. Others were quick to falsely proclaim it a TBC, not understand that TBC is a wide term that can mean almost anything (therefore risking it becoming a meaningless term). For years, I refer to is a "sync filter", because it was pre-processing to the frame sync. But on closer examination in the last decade, it's a crippled line TBC with a non-TBC frame sync. Crippled because it must allow passage of anti-copy, and natural errors can present as the artificial anti-copy errors.
Others have since tried all sorts of random DVD recorders, hoping for a "cheap TBC". But it's all in vain, waste of time and funds, negative economics in the hopes to avoid buying an actual TBC. ES15 was 99% like the ES10, but nothing else is. Some PAL units were essentially with-HDD ES10/15, and maybe a certain PAL Sony. It's not a big list, can count those on your fingers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by latreche34
Or you can sell it for parts, this hobby needs parts.
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Yep,
