No market for S-VHS

[dr.ido]

I got $100 for my Panasonic AG-7750 when I sold it a few months ago. I let it go when I realised I'd probably put less than 10 hours on it since I got it (used). The buyer had tapes he wanted to transfer - which is probably the only (non collector) market for these now.

I'd originally bought it capture my VHS collection, but lost interest in the project when I found existing downloads for most it. Even playing back tapes recorded on a crappy $99 funai VCR they looked better than when played on decent consumer VCRs.

[Chip Chester]

I was introduced to the 7750 back when it first came out ($5000). I was tangentially involved in a project to send personalized political tapes to individual potential donors. Create the video, mass duplicate them, then cut in personalized intros and closes to the mass-dubbed tapes, using 7750's and Amiga computers. They stood up well.

Fast-forward a few years and I needed good-performing, timecode-capable, RS-422-controlled decks, also with good manual shuttle/jog capabilities. I had maybe five workstations worth, at two decks per workstation, going for 6 or 8 years. Worst failure experienced was one of them got a little weak on rewind. No electronic issues at all. None of them ever ate a tape -- and I was given some pretty cheap tape to work with sometimes. Better reliability than my BVW-75s and BVU-800 -- and those things are built like tanks.

Now I could do the customization project on my phone. And I haven't turned on any of those decks in two years.

Chip

[yamahaha]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I'd never trash pro-quality gear like that!...Unless it was broken and even then I'd make sure it was not a simple fix first. He could probably get 50-300$ a piece for them if they work well and are desirable models.
Also why WASTE any quality item that still works!?....That is one thing I hate about my generation, we needlessly trash anything that is not the latest and greatest, or new and perfect unless it can be sold for a 3-6 digit price...I'd call it heartlessly utilitarian, but many of my generation even trash stuff that it would be in their best interest financially to fix...So it seems like a dumb rich kid thing.

As a college electrical engineering student I consider S-VHS superior (for non HD content) to any digital format. I had a VERY hard time telling the difference between live analog cable and S-VHS recording of it. There were only three reasons I stopped archiving favorite cable shows on S-VHS: the tapes are bulky, DVD-Rs are cheap in bulk, and our cable started showing more and more digital compression artifacts which reduced the quality advantage of recording in analog (ie not adding those artifacts during recording)...

I still look for cheap S-VHS decks when I'm at thrift stores, and save any models I don't already have 1-4 examples of (I just don't see many any more).

Why don't you stop shopping at thrift stores then and buy out these old guys with gear they bought new 30 years ago?

[Chip Chester]

When TV went HD, there was a local station with a semi trailer half-full of BetaSP machines. Not for sale, though, due to some accounting thing that prevented it.

Years before that, I recall personally pushing two perfectly good, updated Quad machines off the back of a truck into the dump/scrapyard. We got about $120 for the pair. No market in the pro world, even if free.

There was also a complete Ikegami EC-35 camera system that went to the junk dealer who cleaned out the rest of the warehouse. I found it for sale in his store, for about $500, travel cases included.

The fact is, businesses who use this stuff can't afford to keep things around like a museum. Maybe an example or two for lobby decoration, but that's it. Square footage costs money.

Chip

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by yamahaha

Why don't you stop shopping at thrift stores then and buy out these old guys with gear they bought new 30 years ago?

I don't know any of those guys...Or if I do I don't know they have that gear.
I'll never stop checking the thrifts...At least the good ones, like the ones here.
I collect nearly any type AV related gear made from the 20's-70's and some newer stuff, and I've found all kinds of good cheap electronics going all the way back to 30's radio consoles at the thrifts. Also I'm a massive cheap skate if I can find a lower price on something I want then that is what I'll pay.

If he has to part with those machines, and can't find a buyer he could always donate them to a thrift and give them a chance to live on.

[yamahaha]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I don't know any of those guys...Or if I do I don't know they have that gear.
I'll never stop checking the thrifts...At least the good ones, like the ones here.
I collect nearly any type AV related gear made from the 20's-70's and some newer stuff, and I've found all kinds of good cheap electronics going all the way back to 30's radio consoles at the thrifts. Also I'm a massive cheap skate if I can find a lower price on something I want then that is what I'll pay.

If he has to part with those machines, and can't find a buyer he could always donate them to a thrift and give them a chance to live on.

There you go. But you were saying before how this stuff needs to be saved. Save the whales, save the children, save the VCR ... just so long as someone else's time/money/intellect does the saving.

While I am calling you out a bit here I am not doing it to pick on you. Simply making a point.

As others have mentioned, taking up floor space costs money. Even if someone were to buy all the cool and formerly expensive gadgets of yesteryear you probably wouldn't even buy a ticket to visit the museum. So besides a few private parties who will have personal fun there is no market.

Personally I like old gadgets and I like servicing them to see how they work. But if there is no day to day use for the stuff I must resist. Even when free or the house starts looking like the dump.

[Electronic M]

I understand YOU won't buy it, You are only looking for big profit...

I do buy stuff like this, but I keep my search local since there is plenty of local stuff to be had, and shipping on one thing could eat the budget of the next. Also just because I'm not knocking on every door looking for them does not mean I'm not looking. I've got 6 S-VHS machines, and while I'd like to find and compare some other brands and models on the cheap, is it worth my time to tear heaven and earth apart broadening my search for something that already has representation in my collection?...
There are a wide variety of things that I'd like to have or get more of, but if I tried to find every single one of each thing still in existence then I'd need to buy at least one warehouse to store it all. I get enough as it is by letting the stuff find me. I try to save as much as I can even if it is only for parts.
I only go out of my way when I don't have an example of something, want it bad enough, and don't think one will just come to me.

I have been to many museums, including the early television museum in Ohio...If I've heard of a good museum and am in the area then I visit it.

To use something vintage day to day you have to MAKE a use for it.
My AV rack consists of the following video gear: S-VHS, Betamax, U-matic, EIAJ VTRs, Hi8 professional VTR, CED selectavision video discplayer, Laserdisc, DVD decks, DVR, DTV box (for when cable is out), and a computer used to play videos streamed or downloaded from the net...My audio rack consists of a record player, 2 reel-to-reel players (one quadrophonic), 2 8-track decks (one quadrophonic the other dolby), a cassette deck, CD/SACD player, reverbs, equalizer, 3 different amps (including a quadraphonic tube OTL I designed and built mostly out of parts from my junk piles).
And while about half of my video gear, and an eighth of my audio gear gets used much less than daily the rest gets plenty of use. And while I could just digitize all my media and dump most of my gear that would ruin a good portion of the enjoyment I get out of my media, my gear, and mark the death of my soul as an engineer.

I use a 1940's Silvertone radio on weekdays when I get home before my favorite talk show host is done with his show, for about 5 years now over 90% of my TV watching hours are spent in front a 1964 Silvertone round screen color TV, and a 1971 tube/solid state hybrid Zenith (I like the SD on CRT better than anything shown on a flat panel), me and a friend exchange reel tapes of our favorite records, and the list goes on and on. I use the S-VHS units mainly for watching tapes I made on them, 0.50$ movies/shows from the thrifts, and occasionally when I'm going on vacation and can't record all the shows I want on my newer equipment.

Old equipment is only useless when it breaks or you find an excuse to stop using it...If you want to use it bad enough you WILL find a purpose to use it.

[Ed in Tx]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

... 2 reel-to-reel players (one quadrophonic), 2 8-track decks (one quadrophonic the other dolby), a cassette deck, CD/SACD player...

Ah ha! What about HDCD? You missed something!

If you have an Oppo player, HDCD is covered.



I have two working S-VHS VCRs left - a JVC HR-S5900U and a Mitsubishi HS-U790. The JVC also does the S-VHS ET recordings on standard VHS tapes. The high grade tapes like Fuji HG proved to work well. Some of the other standard VHS not so good, noisy picture. Especially if you used EP record speed.
HR-S5900U JVC



Mitsubishi HS-U790




I have two other JVCs that are editing machines with the controller for them, but they each need a major overhaul and I have no need to do that.

[yamahaha]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

I understand YOU won't buy it, You are only looking for big profit...

Thats right ... old VHS equipment is where I go looking for profits.
Its OK. No need for the peeing contest. You win. I am not even pulling mine out.

[Electronic M]

I'm not trying to get into or be in a pissing contest...

To be fair you did start your first post by saying that you are a picker...

Also I'm not advising you to buy them, I'm just trying to say that you should not advise the guy that has them to junk them (in my post you quoted in your comment in post #18).

My reply to your 'calling me out' was me interpreting your post as implying that I'm some dork with a computer in a room somewhere that has never seen or worked with, of bought such equipment and has no intention of doing so....And breaking that implied false image of me.

Sorry if I've hurt your feelings...

@ ED: Yah, HDCD, miniDisc, and Digital Compact Cassette (DCC) are all on my audio want list...Although I've got some odd formats I did not list in storage such as magnetic wire recorders, what I believe is an industrial Muntz 4-track cartridge player, and a few other things. I'd like to own every recording format one day....

I've got a JVC HR-S3500U that looks almost the same as yours, and about three other JVC modes. I also have a NEC unit with an interesting video noise reduction feature.

[Chip Chester]

Electronic M wrote: "I'd like to own every recording format one day...."

Then you'll need one of these, which is just like mine...
http://museumofmagneticsoundrecordin...tml#MailAVoice

But back to the video world. I had a couple M-II machines for a specific, long-term client. They eventually moved on to DigiBeta, so I was thinking the M-II machines would wind up at a science museum for kids to take apart, or something like that. A few years later, I got a call out of the blue from an outfit that was digitizing their whole library. Ended up getting nearly a grand each for them, and they sent factory boxes to ship them in. That was a nice surprise.

Not expecting the same for the 7750s, though.

Chip

[dieseljeep]

Originally Posted by yamahaha

Thats right ... old VHS equipment is where I go looking for profits.
Its OK. No need for the peeing contest. You win. I am not even pulling mine out.

The regular members of the website are preserving the technology of years gone by.
Maybe, this isn't the place for you. You only have six posts and your telling people, they're doing it all wrong.

[yamahaha]

Originally Posted by dieseljeep

The regular members of the website are preserving the technology of years gone by.
Maybe, this isn't the place for you. You only have six posts and your telling people, they're doing it all wrong.

You are telling me what I am saying then arguing with it. Cant help you with that.

[ChrisW6ATV]

Originally Posted by Ed in Tx

Never saw a commercial S-VHS pre-recorded movie or anything else myself.

There were some, and one mail-order company (Super Source Video) specialized in Super-VHS prerecorded tapes in the late 1980s. They had ads in the back of Video magazine and others.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Chip Chester

Electronic M wrote: "I'd like to own every recording format one day...."

Then you'll need one of these, which is just like mine...
http://museumofmagneticsoundrecordin...tml#MailAVoice

Chip

Wilcox's recordio line had a similar system only the discs were rigid and grooved and the record/play head also played normal records....I used to own one, but since I had no discs and need to downsize when I moved where I now live, I sold it.