NTSC-J D-VHS VCR potential FireWire issue?
 

Alright, so just a few days ago I ended up selling off my Victor HM-DHX1 NTSC-J D-VHS VCR to someone after they accepted a counter-offer I had sent them on eBay. This user received the unit yesterday and is currently telling me

"I'm currently testing a recording I made on a hm-dh30000u through component and everything seems to be well. The issue I am running into is it won't talk to my tuner over firewire properly."

I responded to the user, saying:

"Hello there and thanks for messaging me. I didn't have a tuner with a firewire connection, what I tested the unit with was a PC with an aftermarket firewire card and an older PC with firewire built into the motherboard. I had to go digging through some forum posts to figure out that I had to install a different driver for the firewire connection to get through, and after that I was using Vegas Movie Studio 13 Platinum to do a direct capture from firewire. I was using this unit primarily as a copier until I upgraded to a full system (I figured digital transferring would look good enough, but I was proven wrong), and as such I didn't use firewire for displaying on tuners, only via PC. In regards to actually getting the unit to display via a receiver/tuner, I'm not exactly sure, I'd imagine there shouldn't be a problem, I doubt it's due to it being a different region, but I'll see what I can dig up for you. I peruse around on several forums with people that would probably know more about this specific issue than me.

Sorry to hear you're having this issue, let me know if there's anything else I can do."

I got a reply back stating:

"I mean I'm hoping to find a fix to the issue with the tuner because otherwise I don't really have a way to record to a d-vhs tape at the moment. Just let me know if you can find a solution. Thanks."

I stated in the listing that commercially released films on D-VHS would not be able to be played back due to region locking, but this buyer sounds like he's saying he has a blank D-VHS tape trying to record with.

So, here are my questions:

1. I don't know what kind of "Tuner" this guy is talking about, he hasn't mentioned what brand it is or whether it's an AV receiver or not. I'd assume that's what he's getting at, so I'll ask him about this the next time around.

2. Are blank D-VHS tapes also region locked between PAL, NTSC-U and NTSC-J? I can't imagine that being the problem, but it's a start.

3. Like I said in response to this buyer the first time, I doubt that the VCR being a different NTSC region has anything to do with the FireWire connection not going through, but please let me know if I'm wrong. Plus it could also be some weird issue between the receiver and such.

In conclusion, I sold this unit with the knowledge that the way I used it was working. I did not have a receiver with a firewire connection to attempt an operation such as this at the time I sold the unit and still don't have one, the buyer did also not send me any correspondence asking about this specific function prior to payment and shipment.

Here is a link to the original listing for further reference: https://www.ebay.com/itm/154669290317

Thanks.

UPDATE:

Well that was fast, wasn't it?

In any case, the buyer has since told me, yes, within the last 5 minutes, that he has spoken to a user known as d-theaterdoctor and that he determined that there may have been bad capacitors in the unit. I am not an expert on the electronics of VCRs and therefore don't know how to reply to this:

"I just talked to Andrew Warren, aka d-theaterdoctor, he says the player should be able to talk to the tuner, he has one of these as well, and most likely the caps are bad in it. I just want to get your opinion on that diagnosis. Thanks."

It is possible that some of the caps could have been bad, I don't know, I ordered it second hand from Japan for $200 about a year ago and before that I was even less familiar with these things, so I had pretty much no idea how they worked then either, all I cared about when I got this unit was that I could potentially use the FireWire for digital transfers, that was before I figured out how to get better transfers via a full workflow.

I'm not exactly sure what to say at this point. All I can really say is, as before, I sent the unit in working condition fit for how I used it.

I don't understand the end-game here. Is the buyer trying to angle for a partial refund? Full refund? Just more info? He does seem nice now, but realize that could change.

eBay is the general population. The general population is full of morons, assholes, etc. Which is why I never sell video gear on eBay. That and 15% fees. I don't need the hassle of user error. I choose to sell to more educated video users, aka on this forum.

Seriously, why would you record onto D-VHS tape at all? WTF? It's 2022, not 2002.

1. As a forum user, I'd ask that, attempt to troubleshoot gear. As an eBay seller, hell no, not your job to troubleshoot his other random gear. He bought, you sent, and done. You're not his personal video tech support.
2. Content is region locked, not blank consumer media.
3. NTSC vs NTSC-J has nothing to do with Firewire.

I have no idea who "Andrew Warren aka d-theaterdoctor" is. Means nothing to me. No idea if he refers to AVS, Reddit, eBay, etc. Google search shows nothing for that users, and an optometrist for the real name.

The determination of a bad cap is nonsense here. You have to test a cap to verify, not something that can be online. Yes, bad caps have certain infamous outcomes (Panasonic AG-1980P has many, TBC-1000 ghosting, etc), but it's still jusy online guessing. Educated guessing, but guessing. Now then, bad caps on a JVC deck? I seriously doubt that is a caps issue.

BTW, NTSC-J has different IRE. So everything looks too bright, wrong black level.

This was a mistake in your listing: "I can only guarantee that the unit is functional as of the time I am selling it." No, you cannot guarantee this. All you can guarantee is the basic functions that you user: play, FF, REW, stop, eject, ability to chance menu settings. Otherwise buyers assume (ass-u-me) that unknown tested aspects of the unit work. There is an expectation for a unit to work fully as a used listing, but a non-core obsolete function is questionable.

That's the gamble buyers take on eBay -- and why eBay is not buying, but gambling.

^ Reading back over my own post here, I do seem very unfriendly. But eBay isn't a friendly place these days. Be careful. Too often, buyers try to leverage sellers, and sellers BS. What I'm reading here is user error, maybe buyer's remorse, and you may get the deck back because the buyer sucks. Be prepared for it.

If I get it back I'll just sell it here then, i should have just done that in the first place and listened to you all along, but he agreed to pay the price I counter-offered ($150), which I think is generous because I paid $200 for it when I bought it initially and other people are selling the same unit for over $500 on eBay. I've had good luck selling stuff on eBay as of late, I've sold over $1,000 worth of stuff in just the last 90 days, but if this goes south I'm just through. I'll put it up for sale here if it doesn't get destroyed in the mail. Should I even attempt to retort at him what you've said about this person not existing and that I'm on to him or just accept defeat? He hasn't messaged me back yet.

No, don't do that. There's a minority % chance that he's just honestly seeking more info, instead of being a sadly-too-typical crappy eBay buyer. See where it goes. I just would not waste a lot of time on this. Nothing you do will change the ultimate outcome, so why waste the time? Brief answers, and go on about your day.

Selling the deck here may work, or may not. Somewhat niche, not suggested for standard workflows. But at only $200 or so, bargain for a curious video enthusiast.

The trick to eBay success is to avoid selling stuff that is functional. Not that it will arrive damaged (though it will is packed poorly), but because user error is far more of an issue. If you can make good money with random objects around there house, awesome, do it. But keep this scenario in mind, it will happen again if you list lots of items that "do stuff".

Probably won't respond until tomorrow, it's almost 10:30 in my time zone. I did message him one last time stating that I couldn't have possibly checked for such a circumstance, said I was a layman in terms of real internals of VCRs, asked if there was anything else I could do. I didn't bring up anything about this "d-theaterdoctor" or anything else, but if he insists on keeping this up I'll bring up the fact that he'd actually have to check the caps and not just get a random guess from someone. If all goes well this guy will have been just someone looking for info, if not then we'll take it from there.

Re-read my above post, I edited it, added some thoughts.

Need to mention: My advice in this thread wouldn't necessarily be for anybody. You're not trying to BS somebody, lie by omission, weasel out of a situation. You're not an asshat. You've seen my packaging, and know how to pack gear safely. You tried to honestly sell something, gave as much info as you could think of, and yet you may get the shaft. This is why eBay can suck.

Also, FYI, pay attention to IRS changes after Jan 1, 2022.
Read this: https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center...ur-1099-k.html
You'll get a 1099 from eBay, for any sales totaling more than $600. Which you apparently already did. You'll be taxed for the gains on the sales. And you cannot claim a loss for garage sale type sales. So you need to keep as much documentation as possible, or you'll be in for a nasty surprise in Jan 2023 (for 2022 tax year). This BS was sneaked into the 3rd stimulus bill last year. There's always a chance it will get altered or repealed before April 15, 2023, so monitor the situation. As it stands now, casual sellers cleaning out the house are now "small businesses" and your taxes got far more complicated.

I'm not sure where the buyer lives, but here in the US and up until probably 2010ish it was mandated by the FCC that every cable company should provide a customer with a firewire port on their cable boxes for recording at least the clear channels to a digital recorder, I remember when that got turned over and (don't remember the dates and details) and the cable companies were no longer required to fulfill that requirement, With a matter of a firmware upgrade over cable and the firewire port became useless. If this is the case he needs to hear from his cable company to see if he is able to record from the firewire port or not.

I don't buy that capacitors ********* it's been tiring lately over the internet, every problem is tight to capacitors even when it is a mechanical problem.

Yes, irritating. The lemmings/sheeple learned a new word.

This will pass. Give it time. They'll move on to other nonsense eventually. Been there, done that. Cleaning VCR heads, gold DVDs, Monster cables, Sharpie markers, "DVD rot", etc. All BS based on half-read or intentionally distorted information. The people uttering "caps! caps! caps!" probably have zero idea what a cap looks like, does, etc.

That's what I got from the OP too.

In the US there were (are?) also a handful of firewire-enabled ATSC HDTV tuners, like the Samsung SIR-T165 (see https://youtu.be/4LsFxs6FyPo). Maybe the buyer is trying to make one of those work? It's something along these lines, I bet.