AG-1980P and HR-S9500U service suggestions?
 

I recently had the incredible fortune of acquiring both a Panasonic AG-1980P and a JVC HR-S9500U for an absolute steal ($160 for both). They are each in nearly pristine condition, and came complete with manuals and remotes. Reportedly they had been used for cutting together some video footage years ago, but have been just sitting on a shelf since then.

I opened each up and gently blew out what little dust there was. Everything looks (to my untrained eyes) nice and clean. Rollers are not degrading, no dirt buildup, no visible cap issues, etc. I powered each up and played a couple of tapes, both commercial and home video, and the output looks and sounds good.

All that said, I'd like to make sure they're up to the task of transferring tapes. I know time can take its toll on electronics, even if stored well, and that not every problem is readily apparent. I also know enough to not try to service these myself (especially the AG-1980P). Are there recommended tests I can do to see if service is required? What recommendations are there for service providers? (I have seen here that TGrant is no longer recommended, but perhaps Deter or aramkolt are trusted.)

Thanks!

That was quite a steal indeed if they are in good shape physically. Certain caps will have definitely gone bad on the AG1980 and there are some mechanical issues that they almost all will have as well. I personally would not use an AG1980 that hasn't been refurbished for anything that I wouldn't want to chance being eaten or if the best capture quality is desired.

As for the HR-S9500, bypassing the dynamic drum is what I'd consider the minimum you'd want to do to that for reliability purposes, but that one is probably safe to actually play back a tape as *MOST* issues you'll run into with that won't actually eat the tape you're testing. I still would recommend testing that with tapes that you don't care if they do get eaten or stuck inside though. The risk you run with dynamic drum disabling yourself is damaging the ribbon cable coming off of the drum - I'll admit I've done that before back when I was first starting out and it's not a good feeling because the VCR is basically unusable after that without a different head drum.

I'd be willing to refurbish both together at a discount if you're interested, just PM me. Turnaround time I'd say is usually 1-2 weeks or so from receiving.

I can't exactly speak to exactly what the other refurbishers do, but I know for sure I replace many more electrical components on the AG1980's for a lower price and shorter turnaround time. This is based on examples I've seen that the others have refurbished before me that later broke and I re-refurbished.

Yeah, it was an incredible deal. I've picked up a few other JVC decks in good shape, but these are even better. I'll PM you.