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  #41  
11-09-2021, 12:22 PM
dpalomaki dpalomaki is offline
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As noted above, some caps can be easy to replace, and some not so easy. Issues become finding a suitable replacement (physical size, voltage, capacitance, tolerance, ESR, etc.) and room on the board to work on it. Surface mounted are a bit trickier because it becomes easy to over heat the joint and delaminate the foil from the board. Newer gear tends to provide less working room, and handicams provide no room..

Some components, especially those in power supplies and high voltages circuits may be listed as a safety item with exact replacement called for by the mfgr. Some specialty components may no longer be available.

So buying a beast of unknown condition as a project machine might produce a good end result, or at least provide some fun and amusement during long winter nights and/or COVID-19 isolation.
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  #42  
11-10-2021, 04:33 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NJRoadfan View Post
The circa 2000 7800U was a 5800U with 2MB Digipure added in. Technically it was a downgrade
The irony. The 7800 has aged so much better than the 9800. The 2mb does pass more line errors than the 4mb 9800, due to obvious RAM buffer overrun, but that no longer matters as much, when faced with the fact that the 9800 often won't even accept a tape (and/or shuts down). As much as I like the 9600-9911 units, I no longer get anywhere near those. It's a guaranteed bad unit in need of multiple repairs.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatter View Post
Does anyone have any experiences to share on using Facebook marketplace? My guess is that there might be less scammers on there
No. eBay is just liars ("tested" but obviously never was), incompetent nincompoops ("works" but image is fubar), etc. Facebook is outright scammers, take the money and run. Aside from the marketplace at this site, the best venues are places where hobbyists gather, such as certain Reddit subs. Not generic marketplaces like eBay, Craigslist, Facebook.

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That way I could try it out, look at it, etc.
But do you even know what you're looking at? For example, too many people falsely assume an AG-1980 works. But turn on the line TBC, and the image goes darker or lighter, adds chroma noise, or maybe turns completely garbled. Bad caps in action. But as a newbie, you're completely out of your depths, until shown. Far too many users have come here over the years, with a bad buy, seeking to repair. Sadly, some are irreparable, you wasted money on junk best ecycled.

Quote:
For eBay, there are warning signs of a sketchy listing.
Even non-sketchy listings have telltales. For example, somebody recently opined to me how he'd passed on a SR-V10U. I saw it. I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near that thing. Somebody else contacted me a bit later, irritated by --- can you guess? -- a bad SR-V10U! The main telltale was actually cosmetic, and told me how it had been stored (like junk).

As a test, I recently bought 3 VCRs, all from auctions that seemed okay. And yet, all 3 were bad, all returned. Not even good for parts, at least not for that amount of money. At least one seller outright lied about "tested" (the power cord was dangerously frayed, prongs bent), conveniently hidden in the auction listing. WTF was that person thinking? Like I'd not notice when it got here? Or more likely, attempted shipping insurance scamming, which happens too often with expensive AV gear.

Quote:
but it could also be thrown around during delivery
This is to be expected, which is why I pack gear like a vase in a safe. But most goober sellers just throw it in a box, usually flimsy, too small, with no real padding. So you do indeed get a box of parts.

Quote:
Edit: I actually just saw this on eBay. It has a DD, so that's a concern. I'd want to see video from the thing before I'd even consider it, but I thought I'd ask if anyone has dealt with this person before?
I wouldn't get anywhere near a 25-year-old 9500 deck these days. That DD will be shredded from (even mild) use by now, due to the brittle crappy nature of the materials that comprise it. Assume the 9x00 DD decks must have bypass surgery, using latreche's guide (which BTW, is not 100% foolproof, so still some risk here). Even if it "works" for the seller, climate/elevation changes in shipping may make it arrive DOA, due to the fragile nature of that DD. Been there, done that, twice -- not eBay, either, more reliable.

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Originally Posted by mbassiouny View Post
On eBay even when you mark "no return" if things do no got as expected, it is not 100% hassle free
It's never hassle free, and can sometimes drag out for months. So your funds are tied up. I've come across not just scammers on eBay, but outright foaming-at-the-mouth lunatics (literally Q-anon types, yikes!). I use to buy various hobby goods from eBay, but eventually discovered more direct sellers -- and I met those on hobby sites (as mentioned earlier). If you're curious, Transformers (and TFW2005).

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Originally Posted by dpalomaki View Post
Buying from a reputable dealer with a brick-and-mortar store can be safer.
There's no B&M for this gear in 2021. Maybe SA, but you'll pay an excessive amount that really just covers the rent/mortgage of the B&M.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatter View Post
All good points. I've asked the eBay seller if he can upload a video of the VCR playing a video.
I also asked him if it was originally his, or if he bought it off of someone else, and if he knew if it had been used a lot, and if it has had any refurb work done on it.
I'll have to wait and see.
- The video of the playback will be dodgy.
- The chain-of-custody of the unit origins could be completely nonsense. And I've seen that quite frequently in the past 2 years. It used to not be that way, but scummy people figured out that it was a selling point to some buyers. The best times are when auctions are 100% copy/paste (both image and text) from another auction. FYI, this is exactly what the Houston VCR scammers does.

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Originally Posted by dpalomaki View Post
Head life may be the most difficult because most VCR do not have a usage meters to list the running hours.
This is why tracking is important. It's affected by head wear. It's not directly corellated, but it can give a good idea to the head condition. This is a primary basis for my own deck grading.

Quote:
Ebay has both established reputable real business sellers, recyclers/liquidators, junk dealers, and individuals. The reseller reviews can provide a hint as the the seller, as will see what else they are selling. If a sellers other listings are mostly diapers and sweat socks, and car pine tree air fresheners don't expect much expertise in the VCR realm.
Lots of recyclers have mountains of AV e-crap for sale, so that's also not a real determiner. It can be hard to spot a quality deck.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatter View Post
One question. I'm often hearing of cap problems, which I'm assuming are capacitors. Aren't they "fairly easy" to replace?
No.

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Originally Posted by dpalomaki View Post
buying a beast of unknown condition as a project machine might produce a good end result, or at least provide some fun and amusement during long winter nights and/or COVID-19 isolation.
You can also get good stories from it. I once started a small fire from a project repair gone sideways.

As per RR above, the stench is something you can never forget. Nor scorch marks on the tile.

It's not just about repairing gear, but knowing what to repair, if it can be repaired. That's something you want to know in advance, or at least have a good idea as to the actual issues. Not just a random buy, random issues, random possible bad outcomes (not just failure, but safety).

As always, eBay is good for many things. It's still a great flea market, garage sale, for many items. Video gear is not one of them. You overpay as buyer, overfee'd as seller, and it's often failed crap either way. Buyer doubly, triply, beware! And "I told you so" in advance!

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  #43  
11-10-2021, 05:05 AM
dpalomaki dpalomaki is offline
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Quote:
Not even good for parts,
And some "parts only" units may have had the hard to find parts already stripped out and what you are looking at is whats left after the cream is skimmed off.

On a "positive" note I found VCRs at a garage sales that trill had a tape still in them. One was a kiddy cartoon tape in good condition, another some home-made "adult" material,
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  #44  
11-10-2021, 09:22 AM
Darkmatter Darkmatter is offline
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Replying to everyone. lol

I have to admit, a faked video wasn't something I had considered...

Am a noob? Yes, I would say so. I'm probably not a total noob overall (the overall part is the sticking point,) but still a noob. Old video and the 1000s of different players that were made and how they age isn't my area of expertise.

I'll have to give all this some consideration.

On the one bright side, I did find an old computer in it's case that's from the DDR2 days. It doesn't have an AGP slot, but it does have both PCIE and 2 PCI slots! So I should be able to use an ATI AIW card in it. I think I'll get it up and running with XP (which I still have) and see how she runs. All the necessary parts are already installed except for an AIW card.

So... how do the PCI AIW cards age, and were any made with component audio and an S-Video port, or were they all composite only?

Thanks
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  #45  
11-12-2021, 12:18 PM
mbassiouny mbassiouny is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
Video gear is not one of them. You overpay as buyer, overfee'd as seller, and it's often failed crap either way.
Exactly, I have been there, as seller and buyer, I overpaid when buying, and I lost up to 25% on fees when selling (after the eBay managed payment trash).

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
No. eBay is just liars ("tested" but obviously never was), incompetent nincompoops ("works" but image is fubar), etc. Facebook is outright scammers, take the money and run. !
Speaking of lies, here is a funny one: a seller had a listing for a AVT-8710:
in the listing they said sth among the lines of: "from my own workflow, similar to datavideo tbc-1000, in fact in some cases I found this one to outperform both TV One 1T-TBC and Datavideo TBC-1000"

And later the same seller posted a TV One 1T-TBC and wrote:
"...to outperform both AVT-8710 and Datavideo TBC-1000"

The funny part is not that he just copy=pasted and just swapped names, but in fact AVT-8710 and 1T-TBC are actually the same TBC in different outer chassis...

I can no longer find the listing but it appeared in may/june a bit before the refurbd TBCs started to appear on eBay.
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  #46  
11-13-2021, 11:40 PM
drzapp drzapp is offline
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I've been lucky, I guess. I found a 9600, 9800 and 2 9500's That were sold for parts on Ebay for ~$150-200 each (I know, overpriced, but that's Ebay). The only thing wrong with them was the DD, power supply caps and brakes/rollers. I have been able to repair all of them with parts from 3 750DD's that were ~$30 each, and refurbish/ align the tape path. I then sold the repaired VCRs for $450 each. I started doing this as a hobby during COVID, not expecting to make any money at it. I just love the challenge of repairing old electronics.
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  #47  
11-19-2021, 04:56 AM
mbassiouny mbassiouny is offline
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Adding to the list:

- Keywest BV: https://www.ebay.com/itm/313756119564
"This unit is comparable to the datavideo TBC-1000, AVT-8710, and TvOne TBC in its ability to correct a noisy signal to broadcast quality for capturing. In some instances, it outperforms the other three."

This is a boilerplate sentence I found in several other crap listings. Seems like it is the same old seller I mentioned in a previous comment on this thread, but he is back with a new account just registered this month and 0 reviews. buyer beware.
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  #48  
11-19-2021, 05:40 AM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mbassiouny View Post
Adding to the list:

- Keywest BV: https://www.ebay.com/itm/313756119564
"This unit is comparable to the datavideo TBC-1000, AVT-8710, and TvOne TBC in its ability to correct a noisy signal to broadcast quality for capturing. In some instances, it outperforms the other three."

This is a boilerplate sentence I found in several other crap listings. Seems like it is the same old seller I mentioned in a previous comment on this thread, but he is back with a new account just registered this month and 0 reviews. buyer beware.
Yep.

And I'm 99% sure I know where these came from. This know-nothing lying seller probably acquired the units from a recycler I know -- something I was offered early on. It was "lights tested" gear. So he has 4 BVTBC units, from the Voodoo rack. But that model is crap. So even it it "works", it doesn't work whatsoever. The base model BVTBC has horrible noise, especially on the s-video, and chipset flaws that makes a black Cypress/AVT-8710 look likes it's behaving. It's seriously so miserable that you're better off taking your chances without a TBC -- that's bad!

The seller is just an opportunist that is a complete video know-nothing.

Odds are (1) the seller gets returns, or (2) the buyer doesn't realize the problem until after 30 days has passed, an extreme problem with eBay video gear buying when you're a newbie to video. So you're stuck with an expensive paperweight.

Don't be a sucker.

Quote:
Originally Posted by mbassiouny View Post
but in fact AVT-8710 and 1T-TBC are actually the same TBC in different outer chassis...
Just as a point of reference, AVT-8710 (actually CTB-100G), and 1T-TBC (and variants), are not 100% identical. Both are Cypress, and based on the same core chipsets. So both good and bad units exist -- and the bad are far more prevalent. But for basic usage (in/out TBC + proc amp), yes, functionally identical. The 1T board is a bit more complex, more chips, more (useless) features, more I/O.

Something to point out now, in case some snarky SOB eBayer wants to scream "NOT THE SAME!" Because it's very obvious that eBay sellers see the info at this site. (NOTE: I'm all for selling good units. What I'm against is selling crap, lying, and return hassles. It's anti-consumer. Unfortunately, for video gear, that's essentially what eBay has become. Junk swap meet, but at non-junk prices.)

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  #49  
01-23-2022, 08:31 AM
mbassiouny mbassiouny is offline
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https://www.ebay.com/itm/353871466869
Oh god...

Quote:
Just as a point of reference, AVT-8710 (actually CTB-100G), and 1T-TBC (and variants), are not 100% identical.
Speaking of the CTB-100G, are these fine to use without using the genlock? (i.e do they behave identical to a ctb-100 without genlock)?
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  #50  
01-26-2022, 02:22 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Made an offer on that TBC3000 lol. He told me he declined a $2200 offer. No thanks.

Seems like people see those refurb 1000s listed at $2700 and think that's the new standard.
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  #51  
01-26-2022, 02:27 PM
mbassiouny mbassiouny is offline
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Made an offer on that TBC3000 lol. He told me he declined a $2200 offer. No thanks.
Actually it is a good thing your offer was declined. It was for the best I don't know how badly you need it, but this unit is not even worth that $2200.

Quote:
Seems like people see those refurb 1000s listed at $2700 and think that's the new standard.
These are listed, not sold. The reason you still see them is because even a refurbed unit at 2.7K is overpriced.
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  #52  
01-26-2022, 02:37 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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I made a $1500 offer. I'd probably go $2k on it. But not higher considering i'd be immediately sending out for refurb. But, someone will buy it. So might just have to accept these inflated prices.
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  #53  
01-26-2022, 03:14 PM
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lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
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Originally Posted by nicholasserra View Post
I made a $1500 offer. I'd probably go $2k on it. But not higher considering i'd be immediately sending out for refurb. But, someone will buy it. So might just have to accept these inflated prices.
You don't want that unit. It's not simply a matter of price, but of the 3000 gen. That's extremely likely not a desired unit. And so it won't perform at all like your existing.

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  #54  
01-26-2022, 03:18 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
You don't want that unit. It's not simply a matter of price, but of the 3000 gen. That's extremely likely not a desired unit. And so it won't perform at all like your existing.
Can you elaborate? You're saying this TBC3000 is different than the TBC3000 you were trying to get ahold of?
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  #55  
01-26-2022, 03:43 PM
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Originally Posted by nicholasserra View Post
Can you elaborate? You're saying this TBC3000 is different than the TBC3000 you were trying to get ahold of?
It's primarily a transparency issue, but not just. From our conversations over the years, I know you want the best final lower-production 4th gen 3000. (I used to refer to it as 3rd, but it's actually 4th, new information in the last 6 months.) So that's what I was trying to procure for your, via buyback, one of my previous refurbs, but he dithered, didn't finish his projects yet. Those are what I use for myself. Earlier versions can be quite decent, but not as often, and still transparency concerns.

What you see on eBay is a recycler idiot reselling some dodgy old unit that looks like it was used to hold up a table. A scratched-up unit is a bad tell-tale sign. Cosmetics "don't matter", but cosmetics also tell you how it was treated over time. That unit isn't in good shape. As I often say, most eBay sellers wouldn't know a TBC from a toaster, and this is not any different in this exact situation. All the seller knows is that Google show him I sold a refurb'd unit for $4K some months ago, so his must be the same, right? (Of course not. Hell no.)

All of those items that seller has are random crap from estate sales, storage locker auctions, etc. Have you ever seem how dumb the people on Storage Wars are? That's not an act. I've dealt with many of these folks, often from them contacting me. (The google the item, finding me -- aka "asking the experts" like they do on Storage Wars, or "asking a buddy" like Pawn Stars. On Pawn Stars, they act smart, but it's clearly after crash-course research before filming, they're not that wise on all things they sell.)

Many of these people are money-grubbing a-holes that don't care about your video capture well-being. A member here was recently ripped off by a lying eBay seller. I shared some info with him, as I knew the true lineage of that exact unit, and how it was always known to be bad. The sellers involved were shysters, not pleasant folks to deal with after initial contacts.

That's who you're dealing with on eBay 95%+ of the time for this sort of gear. It's not like when I go there to buy an action figure, and the seller is often somebody from within that community.

It's sad reality that we have to deal with as analog video capturers. Be careful.

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  #56  
01-26-2022, 04:33 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
It's primarily a transparency issue, but not just. From our conversations over the years, I know you want the best final lower-production 4th gen 3000. (I used to refer to it as 3rd, but it's actually 4th, new information in the last 6 months.)
Are you saying you can tell from this listing that this unit is in an undesirable serial number range? Damn. Your TBC guide can't come soon enough. Seriously.

Quote:
Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
What you see on eBay is a recycler idiot reselling some dodgy old unit that looks like it was used to hold up a table.
I operate under the assumption that any equipment I buy from ebay or anywhere now is estate sale junk. So I know if I buy this, it's going to need testing and probably a full rebuild.

That being said, even if the unit is beat up and not perfect, if i'm going to find someone to recap/rebuild/test, does it matter that much, assuming I can get a deal?

Unfortunately this is literally the only rack datavideo unit with proc amp for sale right now. They show up on ebay maybe once a year, and double the price each time.

So i'm at the point where i'm saying fuck it and doing what i have to do to get the gear, knowing i'll need to spend more to have it rebuilt.

Really hoping this "better generation" kind of info on the runs of the datavideo units is in your upcoming guide. Gonna save us all a lot of headache.
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  #57  
01-26-2022, 04:37 PM
mbassiouny mbassiouny is offline
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Originally Posted by nicholasserra View Post
Unfortunately this is literally the only rack datavideo unit with proc amp for sale right now. They show up on ebay maybe once a year, and double the price each time.
not really, I saw one sold for 150$ (yes 150!) 4 months ago. another one from a UK seller for 1500GBP (might be PAL only? can't tell) but was sold for lower (best offer accepted). So they do more or less appear, not frequently, but not once a year neither.
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  #58  
01-26-2022, 04:41 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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Please link me to the $150 sale lol, I need to see it for myself so I can feel worse.
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  #59  
01-26-2022, 04:43 PM
mbassiouny mbassiouny is offline
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Originally Posted by nicholasserra View Post
Please link me to the $150 sale lol, I need to see it for myself so I can feel worse.
I don't want you to feel worse I felt that already, I kept opening the link few times with poker face.
The link is dead anyway.

If you really want to feel worse I still have a link for a green avt sold for 40$ on ebay
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  #60  
01-27-2022, 10:30 PM
nicholasserra nicholasserra is offline
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That 3000 sold for $2500 lol. So, next one will probably be listed for $3500.
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