Amazon 3rd-party VCR buying: Anticipation to devastation
 

I ordered a shiny JVC SR-V10u from a seller on Amazon. Just under $200 - great deal. Said it was refurbished, completely tested, and working perfectly.

It took longer than expected, but the seller called me and explained the delay. No worries there. I just hate waiting once I pull the trigger to buy :mad4:

So it arrived today. I happily brought it inside and opened the box :smack::

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1491942860

Oh nos! The unit was packaged well, in a strong box with plenty of bubble wrap and packing paper. Bubble wrap in two layers, the first layer taped around the machine. Had FRAGILE stickers all over it. However, the box is beat up badly. It looks like FedEx hammered it around. Crushed corners and a big slice down the back. :depressed:

I just contacted the seller and am waiting for his reply.

The inside is spotless, with fresh grease on all the appropriate parts. The felt pads and belts look brand new. Everything inside looks absolutely perfect. I don't think I'll plug it in for a test just yet. It looks like it was exactly as advertised by the seller.

I received a photo printed on canvas yesterday, and the box was smashed up and soaked in some kind of oil. I guess it's not my week for deliveries!

Not all is lost.
I may be able to use it, cobble it together with one of my decks with an issue.
Try to get a full refund, then send it here. As is, the machine is 100% useless scrap.

Let me rebuild you a machine for $200, using both our parts. With the right parts, I can also refurb and repair JVC. :)

The transport and just about everything else does look pretty perfect.. still. It's probably 99% face-plate damage.

I don't know where that brass looking screw came from on the left side. heh.

The seller put in a claim with FedEx. He's wanting it shipped back and is waiting for the claim to go through.

Let me see how this plays out.. we may be able to work out a deal.

The faceplate parts I'd need look to be intact in your photo -- the tape face guard and (probably) the black spring that holds it. The rest of it, including the boards, do look fine. My issue is internal mechanicals are not 100%. I think it's a head issue, due to oxide shedding incident. It's never acted the same since then. The transport was aligned flawlessly; yours will probably need EP/SLP alignment too. I really liked this deck, but I'm willing to take parts to do a repair and refurb on my end, and make these two decks a whole.

Work with the seller to keep it. Neither he nor you can do anything with it, but I can. What I don't want to happen is to see yet another JVC decks in the trash or recycle. I can fix this.

Would you like another photo from any certain angle, or showing specific details?

If other angles show more problems, then yes. I need nothing from the case, aside from the faceplate that is pictured intact. This case is fine. As long as the internal mainboard is fine, including heads, then I should be fine. I could probably disassemble and transplant the heads, but I don't want to.

Just FYI, I've had this happen myself (but different model). The controller boards were damaged, front totally smashed to bits. Literally, little bits, 50+ of them. The seller refunded, said to keep it. I put it in the attic. Perhaps, maybe, I'll someday come across another for-parts unit from that model line.

He can submit a claim based on photos and info. They do NOT need the unit itself. They also have no need for broken stuff, and they'll just toss it in a dumpster. He can save himself the shipping. You can even offer to reimburse him for shipping ($30?), to keep it. The claim should pay for the item -- or more, depending on his insurance/valuation.

Do whatever you can to keep this.

An SR-V10U in good condition is sadly not that common anymore. And those are great JVC decks, with different transports than the 9000s. Sometimes I prefer it to the AG-1980 or HR-S9800, as some tapes just work better on it.

I worked out a deal with the seller. I was starting to become nervous, as he told me he hadn't heard back from FedEx after a week.

I ended up with a refund of all but $80.

I decided to bring the machine to my studio/lab-of-doom and try it out.

I verified there were no more parts floating around inside, and plugged it in. No smoke! That was encouraging.

Hooked up a TV and went through the menus - so far so good.

Popped in one of my test tapes and sure enough, it didn't load all the way. The guide rollers moved smoothly until about halfway through the path, then stopped, and the tape smoothly ejected. I tried it again, and gently nudged a roller, and it loaded fine. After 4 loads, it now loads perfectly each time.

FF/RW, everything works great. It plays back beautifully. I've uploaded a short clip. This was captured through a USB3HDCAP using VirtualDub. I deinterlaced (in VD) so it would be pretty on the web site. I then converted to mpg in Premiere. That's all the processing that has been done.

I didn't bother capturing audio on this. The tape is well used and has been eaten in the past. Some areas of audio are perfect, some are really garbled. Another tape plays back perfectly in sweet Hi-Fi, so I'm pretty happy.

I think this deck is a winner. Visually (TV output), it's a good bit better than my SR-V101us. Audio seems better, though that's very subjective.

The only drawback to using this this way is having to reach inside the unit to turn TBC on/off, and to eject the tape :)

I ordered another SR-V10u for only $100 shipped. Says the tape ejects 3 seconds after loading. I can certainly use that front end on this one.

I may have a great SR-V10u for $180 :)

I don't know how anyone puts up with that level of motion trailing from DNR, but that's me.

Are those CGI birds?

@BeerOnABeach: Let me know what you are or are not needing anymore. I have a JVC jig remote, and can troubleshoot bad decks. Can usually fix them, too. I have a JVC SR-V10. The internals are screwy, but the front bezel/fascia is fine. It's still possible to make a new good deck from parts of two.

@msgohan: What's the refresh rate of your monitor? I don't see any trails.

I don't see any trailing, or I don't know what to look for.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_Migration

It's an amazing movie. They raised some of the birds from birth and trained them to fly alongside ultralights, para-gliders and other craft. The producers say none of the birds are CGI - only some shots of the earth from space.

Perhaps the worst web site ever created:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/wingedmigration/home.html

Wow.. I need a magnifying glass to see anything :)

Thank you. I don't really know yet. I'll be receiving the other deck on Friday or maybe Monday and will see what I can do.

I see some trailing or slight ghosting, Play it frame by frame in Virtualdub to pinpoint it. If you do so, you'll see that it's originally film fps speeded up to 25fps with a duplicate frame every 5th frame to bring it up to 29.97fps.

The attached mp4 removes duplicates and plays at the original film speed 23.976fps.

Thanks very much! It's a slow process, but I'm learning, thanks to you and the other pros on this forum.

-- merged --

I received the aforementioned 2nd SR-V10U today. The seller had mentioned the tape ejects after about 3 seconds.

I popped the cover and plugged it in, and loaded a tape. Noticed the drum wasn't spinning, so I gently nudged it with my finger. It spun up right away. I let it idle for a while to warm up, and now the tape loads, plays, FF/RW and ejects just fine.

The drum assembly does have a whine. Sounds like the motor is laboring. I can check the tape tension, but that's about it for me.

Is there anything else I can check? I'm not sure if the lower/upper is a single unit on this. I'll get it up to my shop and dig in.

Other than that, this seems to be in pristine condition, other than some scratches on the top cover. It smells new inside :)

You now have 3 units, correct?
And at least 1 have no faceplate, so totally useless?

Take a walk on the wild side: swap the drums from the units. I did this with the SR-V101 recently, and it's working very nicely. Better than expected, in fact.

Then you can see if it's the drum or something else.

I have 2 SR-V10Us now. And yeah - one has a face plate hanging half off, and no working manual buttons except Power :)

@Lordsmurf - I think I can use the good "front end" on the other SR-V10. Let me try that and I can send you the face plate you need. I can keep the rest of the unit as a backup.

I brought the noisy one up to my studio and did a FF/RW all the way through. No more drum motor noise. I'm guessing it sat idle for a long while and stiffened up. The roller guides were slow to move when I first tried it - like the other one they only moved about halfway before stuttering into position. Now it seems to be working perfectly. Same image and sound as the other one.

I also picked up a HR-S7800u that works great. I'm getting really lucky on EBay, with the exception of the smashed unit in the OP. The smashing was unlucky, though I'm very lucky it still works fine.

My AVT-8710 was $171.00 shipped - it's an all black one with no issues.
My SR-V101us was $199.00 shipped.
This "new" SR-V10u was $100.00 shipped.
The first SR-V10u was $200.00 shipped.
The HR-S7800u was $76.00 shipped.

I have an AG-1980 on the way - $191.00 shipped, and $30 for a remote. Let's see if that one works or not! It should be here later today or tomorrow. Knocking on wood. That will be the last purchase for quite a while.

Why have I bought so many? I didn't think they would all work well. It would be a good idea to do a thorough cleaning and lubrication on all of these, though they all work perfectly - for now.

http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/atta...1&d=1493067144

Swapped the front end to the "new" SR-V10u and it works great.

@Lordsmurf - Exactly what did you need? Do you just need the little purple faceplate or the LED display behind it as well?

I need a working drum (working heads), and the tape door with its spring.
I think my head are shot.
I can live without the door, but it'd be best to fix it.

Ok, I get it. I saw you wrote "faceplate" before, and somehow was thinking that's all you needed.

I have the door, with the spring. I'll need to check it to see if there is any damage. I don't recall seeing any.

The machine works beautifully. Transport seems a little stiff, but it loads every time now. Probably needs some grease. I've ordered lithium grease, machine oil and a oil pen/needle. And a ton of other stuff. This hobby does add up!

Just unpacked the Panny AG-1980. Looks and smells brand new, very bright display, loads/plays/FF/RW/ejects perfectly. Unreal. Will take to the studio in a bit for testing.

This forum rocks. I'm so glad I came here and studied up before buying VCRs. This AG-1980 rocks. The video output is so close to the JVCs that it's hard to tell a difference without doing a side by side. Maybe it's a little less vibrant.

The audio handling is far better, IMHO. My test tape has terrible audio, and the AG-1980 handled it perfectly, with a little tracking adjustment. My JVCs can't do it. I played it back using VirtualDub on my PC speakers and it blew me away. Wow.

The deck is in perfect shape. A slight circular scuff on the top of the case, and that's it. They cleaned the front very well, but missed a ton of dust in the back by the connectors. I'm guessing this machine didn't see much use at all, and just sat on a shelf for a long time. EBay has been good to me.

I can see why you guys like the Panny so much.