Wanted Pansonic AG-1980

[coffeeboy]

I am in hopes of finding a good AG-1980 for under $600 if possible. My goal is to purchase one, transfer my 20 hours of VHS-C to digital, and then sell it since I would have no use for it anymore.

[mbassiouny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coffeeboy

I am in hopes of finding a good AG-1980 for under $600 if possible. My goal is to purchase one, transfer my 20 hours of VHS-C to digital, and then sell it since I would have no use for it anymore.

Tl;dr: for 20 hours of tapes, just hire someone with the equipement (like the digitalfaq team)
http://www.digitalfaq.com/services/video-transfer.htm
make sure to pick someone who really knows what they are doing, I have soon "professional" people using low quality capture cards with TBC-3000 and good VCR, or using high quality hardware and doing crap at capturing (software wise)/encoding

20 hours of VHS-C, is very short. Even if you find a good unit for this price, you will spend time looking for it, wait for shipping, open the box when it arrives, handle it with care to resell later, wait few days/weeks/months to be able to resell it again, etc. Also, you will spend 600$ for the device, then you will need a full frame TBC 2k$ (or maybe you have one?), a good capture card, and more importantly there is a huge learning curve for the capturing software/settings/compression, etc, some A/B testing + adjustments depending on proc amp settings, all these need to be done, it takes time, trust me. These are not plug and go equipment, like charging your phone.

It is worth the effort (and money) if you want to do it for the sake of doing it/learning and/or if you have a LOT of tapes, like 50+, otherwise it is too much trouble worth and it's better to hire a pro.

[coffeeboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbassiouny

Tl;dr: for 20 hours of tapes, just hire someone with the equipement (like the digitalfaq team)
http://www.digitalfaq.com/services/video-transfer.htm

I tried contacting them several weeks ago through the only email I could find with the subject line they request, but never heard back.

I want some quality but for how much these will probably be viewed, I am not going to be real picky. I messed around with it a couple years ago with a Panasonic AG-2560 VHS VCR and a Panasonic DMR-EA18 DVD recorder with satisfactory results. When I recently decided to start again I decided that DVD is probably dying and should just record to a USB thumb drive. I started recording to my computer and thumb drive just to have the VCR die. Now I am just looking to start all of this over and do it correctly or have a service, as you said, do it for me. If there is a better way to contact this service or you have a good quality service to refer me too let me know.

[mbassiouny]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coffeeboy

I tried contacting them several weeks ago through the only email I could find with the subject line they request, but never heard back.

They are/he is pretty busy, don't know about the email but I would suggest PMing Lordsmurf

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/members/lordsmurf.html

Getting a reply can take few hours, few days or maybe a couple weeks, it really depends on how much requests he receives as he gets a lot of PMs/forum threads, etc + TBC/VCRs to refurb, he has some orders from august that are not shipped yet because it takes him time to test VCRs/TBCs carefully before sending them.

They are a bit slow, can take few weeks to digitize your tapes and send them back, but at least they spare you the hassle technical issues +buying the equipment and having to resell it.

Or if you don't care much about quality and you can easily be please with something watchable you might try to find any reasonably good JVC VCR that fits your budget, and just do a quick digitization at home.

Good luck!

[lordsmurf]

AG-1980 under $600? Nope. At least not one that works.

@mbassiouny: My backup is just a handful of items that needed a bit more work, didn't pass final inspection. Unlike eBay/etc, I don't just toss stuff in a box, call it good. It needs to meet my expectations, so it meets yours. When I list gear, it's generally available immediately. It's when I get PMs asking about what I have in the pipeline, or somebody wants a custom capture item/setup, that's when it can take a bit of time. I give ETAs, but sometimes it blows past that. Backlogs are generally due to health, other issues outside my control.

[mbassiouny]

Quote:

AG-1980 under $600? Nope. At least not one that works.

yeah, maybe 600$ for it from ebay + another 600$ for refurbing it (you, deter, tgrant, etc)...

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I don't just toss stuff in a box, call it good.

@lordsmurf, I know that why I said:

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because it takes him time to test VCRs/TBCs carefully before sending them.

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Backlogs are generally due to health, other issues outside my control

understandable, get well soon and take care of yourself! I am not complaining, just telling him simply to expect some delay, if he's fine with delays, then no prob! Also, if I might ask, what health issues do you have? hope it's nothing serious...