Sony medical grade machine for capture?

[admin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ramrod

Sorry again for another PM, i missed out on the other SVHS unit, so im back looking at others. I stumbled across this.
<link removed>
is that good? its a medical grade machine, used for hospitals etc lol. does it look decent or should i wait out for another SVHS/miniDV deck by JVC?

thanks,

NOTE: I've attached the PDF to this post, instead of linking to it at that other non-Sony site. Premium Members can attached certain common files to posts, as needed.

Also please keep technical posts in the forums, not PMs.

Now about the VCR...

I have to be honest with you -- I don't really know about this specific machine. However, I do have some general knowledge about medical VCRs:

• First starters, these tend to be very worn -- many thousands of hours of use. Sometimes you'll find decks like this have damaged heads, because the same tapes were used over and over again, destroying the tape AND damaging the VCR heads.
• The people using these were not video gearheads, so the VCR was often treated poorly, handled more roughly than a studio, video lab or broadcaster would have done on their own S-VHS machines.
• Personally, I'm afraid of the environment it was in -- hospitals feel more nasty than junkyards.The photo in that PDF is pretty gross, too.

The unit was primarily designed for freeze-frame and recording, perfecting playback wasn't as much of a consideration as it was for the machines from JVC or Panasonic that you'll usually see me suggesting.

There's a chance this is a beautiful deck that will play your tapes back very nicely. Hard to say.

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[lordsmurf]

And here's a second opinion for you!

I don't know his exact video background, but he often has good information and insight into the various VCRs available out there.

Quote:

I totally agree with all your points, especially the gross environment: you seriously don't want something that spent years in a hospital sitting in your living room- yuck! Also, exotic Sony VHS or SVHS vcrs are generally a very poor risk second hand: Sony had an infuriating habit of reinventing the wheel every year they released a new high-end series or medical/industrial model (no parts in common with previous models or the volume-selling consumer lines, one-off flimsy power supplies that are now impossible to repair or replace). The same caveat applies to the otherwise-attractive Mitsubishi BVO pro and medical series: the power supply replacement costs nearly $300, and no one has the part anymore. Getting a $4000 VCR for pennies on the dollar seems attractive until you discover its beat to death and can't be serviced. It also behooves one to remember, these machines were not priced at $4000 based on intrinsic value or high quality- they were priced at $4000 because clueless hospital purchasing agents were stupid enough to approve such prices, and private medical offices would buy them as just another tax deduction. Most of these were no more than tarted up versions of the consumer line in a ruggedized cabinet, with the most expensive versions being optimized for hard use in still/slowmotion mode as you suggested in your earlier reply to the question.

Overall I would avoid medical-themed VCRs for DVD transfer work. The gold standard remains the Pansonic AG-1980 and/or JVC-9600 type of SVHS model.

[ramrod]

ohhh lucky i ran it by you first before i went ahead and bid on this, i was THAT tempted since i was stupid enough to miss out on the other one by staring at my fish for like an hour lol. and this medical svhs player was the only other one there which seemed ok. So thanks for the background info and alternate opinions, saved me potentially wasting alot of money. Im just going to have to wait until i see another one available in Australia.
Importing from america + shipping + voltage transformers are in total too expensive imo.