New S-VHS Player

[mark23]

Hello

I have been archiving some VHS and S-VHS tapes however my deck has now started giving me some issues. The deck i have is a Panasonic S-VHS AG-7350 recorder. Before that I used an AG-1970 deck, however it is acting very strangely as well. Both of these were bought on e-bay so i question their history. Anyone know of a good place to buy a good refurbished deck? I assume there aren't that many new decks being sold. The only ones i have seen look to be very cheap and lack true SVHS playback.

I have also looked into repairing the decks I have, but I have been given estimates and repairs would be as much as another used deck.

Thanks
Mark

[JVRaines]

eBay gives you the easiest access to the most used equipment, but of course it is a gamble. If you read a lot of posts and ask a lot of questions, you can develop a feel for the good machines and good sellers. My strategy is to look for decks with little use and not otherwise abused, then get them serviced locally to bring them into top shape.

[robjv1]

Yeah, eBay still seems to be the most popular place to unload these decks. My advice would be to ask lots of questions of the sellers -- good, specific ones and see if they can answer them. If they have no idea what you're talking about, then they likely have no idea what condition the deck is really in, which makes it more of a gamble.

Since you're likely to buy a SVHS deck with a TBC -- ask if the TBC is functioning and performs well with the tapes they've used it with. Ask how the deck plays SP, LP and EP/SLP tapes. Ask if the hi-fi audio is functioning on the VCR, etc.