Would any of you pay to *rent* an ADVC-100 or other device?

[MrMungus]

Someone was just asking if they should buy an ADVC-100 or a camcorder since they have only a few tapes they want to convert. So that got me to wondering if people would be interested in renting these units in cases where they don't want to buy a new piece of hardware that's going to sit around unused (perhaps for years). Thinking they could rent it for a week, do all their capturing, then do their authoring afterwards. I know a few places do rent out DVD recorders so this would be similar to that.

Thoughts?

[briandugas]

I could see a use for renting just for trying a product before commiting to it. I know many people are buying online these days, and sometimes it's not worth returning a product because of shipping and restocking fees. Being able to rent a product would allow someone to test it before making the ultimate commitment. Of course you can always just buy from your local store and return if you don't like, but renting could be a valid alternative.

[Tommyknocker]

Absolutely. Although I have no intentions of renting a AVDC-100 (my Pyro A/V Link has me covered), I could drop some cash to rent a TBC for a week or so, to ensure my own movies get transferred to my computer on a clean signal.

[budz]

I'd like to rent a betamax vcr to convert some family footage to dvd. Yes I still have betamax tapes. Finding parts to repair a betamax are hard to come by because Sony no longer makes betamax. Ebay has some betamax vcr's but they're expensive. So I wouldn't mind renting one if it was available.

[EricB]

Well, if you are trying to do this for profit, you are very limited to the people that know what an AVDC-100 unit is, and have a computer and knowledge to apply it.

I think it would be much more viable to rent a standalone DVD recorder.

[vhelp]

I'm w/ EricB on this.

Too many unknowledgable people. In fact, they wouldn't even know to
begin looking for these kinds of places. Plus, w/ the cost of capture cards,
and DV devices, not to mention those CAM's w/ passthrough, ..but mostly
those devices that are soo cheap. :P

-vhelp

[MrMungus]

I'm w/ EricB on this.

Too many unknowledgable people. In fact, they wouldn't even know to
begin looking for these kinds of places. Plus, w/ the cost of capture cards,
and DV devices, not to mention those CAM's w/ passthrough, ..but mostly
those devices that are soo cheap. :P

-vhelp

Yeah. Not to mention that I'd be having to teach them how to use it if they don't know how.

[budz]

I struck gold and found a local video shop to rent me a betamax vcr for $15.00 a week. I'll be busy capturing w/my advc-100!

[energy80s]

Why not just buy the product. Use it for a few weeks and then sell it on. You will take a bit of a price hit, but it would probably be less than a rental charge and you won't have to find a rental store!