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  1. Member
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    oldfart13 - I have a subscription to JVC's service manual database until January 2012. Let me know if you need any JVC manuals.
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  2. Do you have the JVC SR-W7U or SR-W320 manuals?
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    SR-W7U all I get is some technical bulletin when I search for the manual on my subscription account. No results for 320... let me call them. I called them a couple weeks ago about other models that weren't showing up, and they were supposed to send them to me (never did).

    For $127 a year you'd think their library would be 100% complete. Some weekend I'm gonna download everything I can find because I'm certainly not renewing next January when it expires

    On that note, anyone who needs a manual, any PayPal donations towards offsetting the cost of that subscription are appreciated (paypal account - jbd5010@gmail.com). Of course don't feel obligated, I've gotten plenty of free help from this forum myself so I'm happy to return the favor

    I've posted a bunch of the manuals over at DigitalFAQ at the link LS provided.
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  4. JLG/JLG, you should probably take victoriabears' advice and return the vcr for a refund. Unless it magically starts working perfectly, you way overpaid for a beat-up harvest from some studio rack. The JVC WVHS machines are amazing and unique, for certain applications they are unmatched, but they are not totally optimized for regular VHS/SVHS and not really worth the high price people demand for a mint example. If you make a connection with a forum member or someone in Japan that nets you a clean unit for around $500, it may be worth it if you have money to burn on an experiment. But the WVHS vcrs should be considered as supplemental alternatives to a JVC SR-V10U, 9911, Pannasonic AG1980, or DVHS: one WVHS deck does not necessarily replace those old warhorses for all purposes. (BTW the hifi audio breakdown in your AG1980 was a common problem with some production runs, if your Panasonic is otherwise in great shape look into having it repaired. A service bulletin was issued for this problem and I've seen it bundled into most AG1980 service manual downloads: LordSmurf may have it in his archives.)

    Since you already have the W5U in your hands, I can understand the desire to try and make it work for you, but adding more repair $$$ to an already excessive $800 outlay could still result in an unpredictable, flaky VCR. The W5U and W7U were fragile one-off statement pieces for wealthy Japanese consumers and some commercial studio tasks: they were never mass-produced, not meant to be shipped casually, and are virtually unknown to JVC North America (for awhile there robjv1 was keeping me posted on his difficult quest to get his "bad" one repaired at reasonable cost). With $800 to play with, you might be better off waiting for a better WVHS opportunity to come along. Open a "not as described" case with eBay and ask to return the VCR. eBay changes sides almost yearly between buyers and sellers, lately they've been holding sellers to the fire and forcing refunds for any buyer complaint whatsoever: if the seller refuses, eBay will really rip into them and turn over rocks to get your money back. If you paid with PayPal a refund is almost guaranteed. Think about it while you still have the option to return.
    Last edited by orsetto; 22nd Feb 2011 at 13:59.
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  5. I agree with Orsetto as well. If it's not something simple, you're probably going to be up the creek for finding parts for this deck. I would do the same thing in your position -- I might feel differently if I had any sort of skill at repairing them or if I knew someone that could; but I don't and I don't. Just bank your money and wait for a good one. $400 - $500 should be the going rate these days.
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  6. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    I always did agree somewhat with the, even inflated, "Buy It Now" prices because they always did serve a purpose - to solve a problem. Personally, I still believe it's good business, even for a somewhat higher price, if a purchase was a quality/immediate solution.

    In this case, sadly, the "Buy It Now" method was abused by the Seller and I don't see why you won't get support from eBaY in this case if you contest.

    But no matter how "shady" any merchant may seem, on top of delivering as promised, as long as they also accept any returned merchandise you can never knock them. So personally, I would test their business integrity once again at this point.

    I too say haggle to get your money back. If it were me, I'd do it for the principle and precedent more than the money here.

    I too agree with Orsetto.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  7. I like the "Buy It Now" model for convenience, but it's frustrating the way it has replaced auctions entirely in certain categories. For items that are ubiquitous it is a great supplement to the auctions.

    For rare items though, my worry is that a lot uninformed people who use other Buy-It-Now listings for comparison when setting their prices will eventually dump their equipment in the trash, figuring it's not worth anything, when it's just not worth the insanely high price they are putting on it and would sell at auction. Lots of great stuff may end up lost in time.
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  8. The misguided or abusive use of "Buy It Now" is not entirely the fault of sellers: eBay itself is pushing the practice for its own demented purposes. The driving force is the idiots on Wall Street who nowadays just cannot let a thriving business alone: God forbid they don't post enormous month-to-month or year-to-year gains. eBay has been in Wall Streets crosshairs for a few years now: its a mature business that owns the online aution segment, its as big as its ever gonna get and serves its purpose as well as can be expected. But the MBA morons running the stock market are not happy with that: they've been downgrading eBay for "not being Amazon". So instead of being content to be the 800lb gorilla of the online auction field, eBay is tying itself in knots trying to hold onto its auction legacy while simultaneously aping Amazon's "look and feel". As a result, the interface has gotten worse and seller policies have gotten ridiculous: eBay high-pressures all sellers now to either start at a 99 cent opening auction or choose Buy It Now. Most of those with high end vintage items are not going to chance a 99 cent auction, so they go with "Buy It Now", perpetuating the new Amazon-like non-auction trend. eBay thus becomes a pale clone of Amazon, with none of the advantages, and skewed toward inflated pricing because "amateur" sellers can't risk a dead loss on their items. And we wonder how we got into a recession- its the Street, folks.

    Fortunately most "amateur" sellers will lower their Buy It Now prices as unsold listings are renewed, or eventually bite the bullet and pay eBay's discouragingly high insertion fee for a realistic opening-bid auction (such as $399 for a good SR-W5U). You can still find good buys on eBay, it just takes longer and requires patience as sellers blunder thru frustrating listing/pricing options.
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  9. Oh yeah, NO question about that. eBay has had it's foot on the gas with the Buy It Now model for a few years now -- it results in more money for them when the price is inflated, they pick up the higher % of the final value fee that way. Sellers are certainly highly encouraged to follow that path. I still make a point of selling everything at auction, sometimes at a loss, but usually I find that even with a minimal starting price --- most things sell in an acceptable range, even without a reserve.
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    On the reserve note... to me, "reserve not met" = "might as well just make it Buy It Now."

    Personally I usually avoid reserve auctions because they're really just auctions with a hidden starting price...
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  11. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jbd5010 View Post
    On the reserve note... to me, "reserve not met" = "might as well just make it Buy It Now."

    Personally I usually avoid reserve auctions because they're really just auctions with a hidden starting price.
    Happened to me a couple of times over the years. I win an auction, then OOPS - "Reserve not Met". Very annoying.

    To me, a "Reserve" price signals a more greedy mindset than a "Buy It Now" price.

    A "Buy It Now" price is business - assuming it's not abused, it's a service that skims the market to convenience that buyer who wants it now without the burden of an auction setting.

    A "Reserve" price is still a valid strategy - only sell if Bid Price >= Wanted Price. But it signals a lack of acceptance for true market conditions in many ways and attempts to trigger the price up. Even if the very forces of supply and demand still show that the item is worth less, they still goose out. This is somewhat cowardly to me.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  12. Yeah, I usually take a reserve to mean "I don't really want to part with this item, so expect some sentimental dollars to be added to the price". I don't usually bother, because more often then not, the reserve price is way out of an acceptable range. When used correctly there is nothing wrong with it inherently though.
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  13. Member hech54's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by PuzZLeR View Post
    I win an auction, then OOPS - "Reserve not Met". Very annoying.
    Umm...when you bid on an item with a reserve price....it tells you "Reserve not yet met"....it never tells you or makes you think you won the item or that you are winning the item.
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  14. Member PuzZLeR's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by hech54 View Post
    Originally Posted by PuzZLeR View Post
    I win an auction, then OOPS - "Reserve not Met". Very annoying.
    Umm...when you bid on an item with a reserve price....it tells you "Reserve not yet met"....it never tells you or makes you think you won the item or that you are winning the item.
    Yes, now I remember.

    It happened a couple of times - I would place my bid sometimes in the last minute, thinking I'm sure to win, then BAM! - "Reserve Not (Yet) Met". Then I'd see myself as the highest bidder in the end of the auction seconds later - yes I did still, in a way, "win" the auction, but don't get the item.

    That's what I meant - sorry I confused it. It's been, like I said, over the "years" so I didn't remember exactly how it happened.

    But I remember how frustrating it was - back then, years ago, I remember you would see every bidder's nick and their max bid. It was very annoying when you beat them all at your price only to not get the item because the Seller is a coward.

    Then you would get all this spam afterwards from tons of other sellers hawk-watching the auction looking to sell you other stuff - even as a private sale away from eBaY. This is why eBaY now hides nicks from bidders.
    I hate VHS. I always did.
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  15. >This is the closet think I could find in the SR-W5U secition, might be worth a shot -- http://www.jvcservice.com/Service/JP...br=PQ46419-1-2

    This is a no go. It's not a cleaning tape, but rather some little rubber (?) circle so I'm still in need of a SR-W5U head cleaning tape.

    Don't know how much the tape would do, but cleaning it manually doesn't seem to be doing the trick. For whatever reason, it isn't outputting normal audio. Tapes that are hi-fi sound fine, but anything mono either plays dead silent or with nothing but a low interference type of sound.
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  16. Yeah, to be honest I don't think the cleaning tape is going to make any difference as long as you cleaned the heads well manually. It certainly sounds like something in the electronics.

    Oddly enough, that's the opposite of the problem my first deck was having. I would get no-hi audio (or a rather low, interference sound) but if I switched to the linear track it was fine.

    If you want -- you can have one of mine, I have a couple of them -- but since they were acquired used, I can make no guarantees as to how many times they've been used.
    Last edited by robjv1; 18th Mar 2011 at 17:25.
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  17. Member
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    Someone needs photos of sr-w5u cleaning tape? Today I received HR-W5 (japanese edition of sr-w5u) in mint condition with all docs, remote and cleaning tape in original box. I need to digitize some few tapes and I can sell it for some speculative price (buyer pays for EMS shipping)
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  18. I concur with everything that is written on this thread about the SR-W5U and SR-W7U. I would not pay more than $300 for a unit on eBay because there is a 95% chance you will have to have it repaired. And I know of what I speak: Over the past few years, my company has purchased 5-6 of these units on eBay. Only ONE worked correctly right off the bat, and wouldn't you know it--it was a refurb unit.

    Beware any seller who claims their unit is working 100% or "perfect"--ha ha--that was advertised for all the units we purchased as well. All of our decks except the refurb one arrived with a problem that was not specified in the eBay ad. One unit was DOA. One automatically ejected the first tape we tried and then the door would not close. Another has severe dropouts during playback--I'm guessing the heads are bad or need serious cleaning. One even had a full size DV (not VHS) tape jammed inside of it! All of our units are beautiful physically, but unfortunately, that seems to have no correlation to the internal condition.

    I think that the reason so many of these units on eBay are in good shape physically, but damaged internally, is that the units are hard and expensive to get fixed. We want to have our units repaired but no local shops will touch them. You MUST send them to JVC HQ in either CA or GA. So the shipping cost alone will be a pain (they're heavy). And after what robjv has posted about his experiences, I haven't been in a hurry to try this. It sounds like a long-term hobby--maybe when I win the lottery!

    NEVER buy one that says "no returns accepted"! (cough...we did) We were able to obtain partial refunds in some cases, but in most of them, the sellers just flat-out lied to us about the condition of the deck and stuck by their ads. He swore it wasn't DOA when he had it or a tape wasn't stuck in it when it was sent...uh huh.

    All of the sellers who sold these units to us were not video pros or too knowledgeable about the unit. They were average trading shops or general sellers who researched the going price for these decks...and frankly, that price has been driven up by all the "this machine is the BEST EVER!" posts on this board. I think many sellers of these units take advantage of the buzz here.

    And despite what has been written on these boards, I do not think that the SR-W5U or the SR-W7U is some heaven-sent machine that completely blows the other JVCs out of the water. For my money, the picture is not substantially different from what is output by a good working HR-S9000 series VCR. It's a great VCR when it's working, yes, but worth all this effort and $$$? I don't know. I like our refurb unit, but am equally happy with our HR-S9911 and HR-S9800 (and Panny). Just IMHO.

    I have never had such consistent problems with any other VCRs we have purchased on eBay. That is why, after this happened again with the 5th or 6th unit we bought, we started to believe that these units are just cursed!

    Bottom line, I will never again pay hundreds of dollars for one of these units on eBay. If you do, it is almost guaranteed that you will wind up paying a repair bill in order to get it working correctly. We have learned our lesson here. (As has the poster in this thread, sadly!)
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  19. Member
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    Strange thoughts. You pay 300$ for sr-w5u machines and want to get them in working condition? It's unreal for that price even if the seller says that it's new and never used. My machine is in a pristine condition and works like a charm. I even have user manual and ads from those times (in japanese )!

    Now I searching for info about entering in service menu. I think that there's the hour meter in the service menu and anybody can easily check how many hours it has been used.

    If I will have the news I'll back with the info.
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  20. Originally Posted by moxiecat View Post
    One even had a full size DV (not VHS) tape jammed inside of it!
    What in the world? haha.

    I think you give a lot of good advice, it's especially important who you buy these types of decks from.

    I bought my first one on eBay and it was a predictable disaster -- the person who sold it to me had no idea what it was and had acquired it from a TV studio in Seattle, Washington. He shipped it very poorly as well (there were packing peanuts in the deck when I got it). I figured I could get a great deal from buying from someone without any knowledge about it, but in the end that just got me burned. It's sitting in my closet now.

    The next deck I bought was from a very well respected member on this board with whom I corresponded with and guess what? It worked perfectly, as he knew everything about it's feature set and used it on a regular basis. Plus he double boxed it and shipped this twenty pound monster with plenty of bubble wrap.

    The third deck I bought (as a backup) I did get via eBay, but from a seller that also frequents these boards, responded to all of my many questions in depth, and offered a 30 day no questions asked refund policy, and even was nice enough so send a bunch of extras my way, such as the technical manual and a bunch of cables. It also works flawlessly.

    As rare as these decks are (which makes them hard to fix) and as incredibly packed in as the electronics are inside (which makes them very heavy and easily broken during shipping), don't buy one of these decks from someone who has no idea what they are and refuses to make an effort to ship them correctly.

    Don't buy them without a return policy either, make sure they have confidence that the equipment works well. offering no return policy on one of these is just like saying "I have no idea how it works".

    Just FYI: with shipping, I paid $554 for the first one, $750 for the second one, and $727 for the third one, all between September 2008 and February 2010.
    Last edited by robjv1; 2nd Apr 2011 at 15:38.
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  21. Originally Posted by deadhead_ View Post
    Now I searching for info about entering in service menu. I think that there's the hour meter in the service menu and anybody can easily check how many hours it has been used.

    If I will have the news I'll back with the info.
    Yeah, that would be great. I'd actually like to have a peek at that.
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  22. Originally Posted by deadhead_ View Post
    Strange thoughts. You pay 300$ for sr-w5u machines and want to get them in working condition? It's unreal for that price even if the seller says that it's new and never used.
    Say there is a listing for a SR-W5U unit that the seller says "works perfect, beautiful condition" (as many of them do). The bidding starts at $100 and by the end, you have the winning bid, which just happens to be $300.

    Well, this unit "works perfect, beautiful condition" no matter WHAT the ending price is (unless the seller did a buy it now or whatever). The condition of the machine does not change just because the price ended up being $300. (Or $200, or $800, depending on the final bid.) The unit could be brand new and wind up selling for $150 if only a few people bid on it.

    But what I am saying is, it's a good idea to factor in that the unit may wind up being DOUBLE what you pay for it on eBay after repairs--which you can reasonably expect. If you can get a unit that works fine for $300, that's great. But if you pay $500, $600 (like the poster in this thread did) and it DOESN'T work, AND is "no returns accepted"...then you may not be too happy.

    Are there units that come 100% fine and working? Sure. But we have experience now with 6 of these suckers, all purchased from different people on eBay, all saying their units "worked fine"--and all except one need repairs--so you do the math. It is just more likely that a flawed unit will show up at your door than the reverse. I'm glad you have a great unit, but that definitely wasn't the norm for us.

    Our units ranged from $450-$700. Some of our machines that were damaged got partial refunds that brought the price down to $300-$400. That is how I got my figure--it wasn't pulled out of thin air. I believe robjv has a ballpark estimate for a repair cost--around $700, wasn't it?
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  23. Originally Posted by moxiecat View Post
    I believe robjv has a ballpark estimate for a repair cost--around $700, wasn't it?
    Yeah, that is about what they quoted me for the specific deck I sent in, although I am not 100% of the extent of the problems with it (some of the problems may have specifically impacted the WVHS performance, which I could never get to work at all (but didn't care about) and not the VHS/SVHS performance, which worked somewhat).

    JVC did not provide me with much as far as what needed to be repaired (I know a board replacement was part of it) and I was not able to get any contact information, so I couldn't let them know what I wanted done with it. It was basically "here you go, repair it" sort of situation and then waiting while they gathered parts. Eventually they sent it back, as there were no parts available to repair it.

    I don't think I've mentioned this in public before, although I've discussed it with a few members privately, but I always suspected that one of their engineers is a member on here and didn't appreciate a comment I made regarding their service center charging more than I expected, as they quickly sent it back to me with a printout of a post I had made in the restoration forum (!)

    Then again, they also didn't charge me the customary $50 fee just for looking at it, so perhaps the printout of the post was a way of saying why they waived the $50 fee (a friendly discount!), since they were not able to locate parts for repair.

    I was able to repair it somewhat on my own with some soldering, but it was always flaky, so in my closet it sits.

    I will say though, that in a fully working condition, these decks are hard to beat as far as performance, especially using commercial tapes. The picture quality is somewhat sharper out of the box than the other JVC SVHS decks, but whether that is a good or bad thing is all up to the users perception. Where it really shines for me is transport stability -- it's got easily the best tracking performance on any deck I've tried. Plus the hi-fi sound noise suppression is great if you work with a lot of tapes that otherwise play noisily in other decks.

    Those are what I see as the major benefits of having a deck like this and I would agree that it does tend to get over-hyped as well, due to it's rarity. It's linear (mono) audio track is a little less sucky than most of the other JVC decks I've tried, but I still find it subpar. It's not perfect for sure and I still keep my JVC SR-V101US and a Panasonic VCR nearby for tapes that just don't play as well in it, but on the whole it's made a fine all-purpose deck for me. I just wish people would learn how to ship and describe them properly.
    Last edited by robjv1; 2nd Apr 2011 at 23:40.
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  24. On another note -- one deck I'd like to get my hands on just for fun is the precursor to the JVC SR-W5/W5U and JVC SR-W7/W7U decks, the JVC SR-320U, which at least as described by the JVC-SRW5U manual was a much more expensive deck and one where they didn't have to cut so many corners to get the price down. How it differs from the other two performance wise, I have no idea -- I've never seen one for sale stateside.
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  25. Video Restorer lordsmurf's Avatar
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    Moxie brings up several good points.

    My best used gear has always come from known professionals.
    Of course, sometimes it's hard to know who is or isn't a professional when you're also not one.
    A recent post of mine is related: How to tell that a media "professional" is a clueless twit
    I've walked away from deals when the person was clearly lying and/or unqualified to assess condition.

    And rob, yes, there are several engineers and techs here, from LSI, Panasonic, JVC and LiteOn.
    However, I've not seen them active in a couple of years now.
    I do PM them from time to time, here and elsewhere, and they do generally respond.
    Last edited by lordsmurf; 3rd Apr 2011 at 00:39.
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  26. Originally Posted by lordsmurf View Post
    Moxie brings up several good points.

    My best used gear has always come from known professionals.
    Of course, sometimes it's hard to know who is or isn't a professional when you're also not one.
    A recent post of mine is related: How to tell that a media "professional" is a clueless twit
    I've walked away from deals when the person was clearly lying and/or unqualified to assess condition.

    And rob, yes, there are several engineers and techs here, from LSI, Panasonic, JVC and LiteOn.
    However, I've not seen them active in a couple of years now.
    I do PM them from time to time, here and elsewhere, and they do generally respond.
    ^ That's an awesome article there and a good thread, I love it!

    Normally where I get burned is chasing after something that is rare -- because you feel that pressure that if you don't buy it now, you'll miss an opportunity to ever acquire it. I've learned the hard way though, it's usually better just to wait it out until you find something and someone you have some confidence in.
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  27. How to you go about successfully getting a partial refund on Ebay? I've never had to try before, but I'm too the point of escalating since the unit is useless for a lot of tapes (seemingly ones in mono) since it's not outputting any sound or there's just a very low sound like a radio is on but not tuned to a station.
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  28. Member
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    Originally Posted by JLG/JLG View Post
    How to you go about successfully getting a partial refund on Ebay?
    First of all. You tried to use HIFI AUDIO and AUDIO SELECT buttons? Set the Balance adjust knob to 12 hours position adn try to use the AUDIO buttons. If you see levels changes on Sound Level indicator so the deck reads the soundtrack. Then you need to check your cables and iutput of the deck. Try to attach the audio output of the deck to your amplifier, receiver etc.
    You can also try to use headphones (mini plug on the front with volume adjustment knob) to check if there's a problem with deck. If you will get the sound you shall check your PC capture setup.

    Headphones will be the fastest way.

    Let us know what you get

    PS: About refund. If you got buggy mcahine and it was described as fully working you can open a dispute in eBay/PayPal and ask the seller return full/some amonunt of your cash. In your case you can send the machine back and get the full refund.
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  29. JLG,

    I've always negotiated partial refunds with the seller just between the two of us. In other words, while the communication goes through eBay, no dispute resolution or anything formal needs to be open. Basically, if you get the unit and there is a discrepancy between what the seller described in the ad and what you see, you "Contact Seller" and tell them about the problem.

    One caveat: This usually only works if the listing is NOT "no returns accepted." If the listing is "no returns accepted," the seller has no reason to negotiate with you or offer any refund at all. But if he does accept returns, he may be more open to providing a partial refund as long as you can prove what you're saying. That way, he doesn't get a unit back that is damaged or have to deal with the unit at all anymore.

    You explain to the seller the problem and ask how he wishes to remedy it. Wait till he gets back to you to see if you're dealing with a good, responsive person who wants to help or someone who has no interest. If they want to help, they will probably ask you to take pictures of the damage or the problem. Do that and send the pics to them (be very clear and honest). If they haven't already brought up potential remedies, this is when you can suggest a partial refund. Then it is up to you to negotiate with them as to what refund they are willing to give and what you personally think is fair.

    You can usually tell if you're dealing with someone who will be honest with you. Although sometimes--with our units that were DOA or didn't play properly--I believe the seller KNEW the units weren't working. In that case, both guys JUMPED at the chance to give quite a large partial refund! (Very suspicious, in retrospect.
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  30. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by robjv1 View Post
    Originally Posted by moxiecat View Post
    One even had a full size DV (not VHS) tape jammed inside of it!
    What in the world? haha.

    I think you give a lot of good advice, it's especially important who you buy these types of decks from.

    I bought my first one on eBay and it was a predictable disaster -- the person who sold it to me had no idea what it was and had acquired it from a TV studio in Seattle, Washington. He shipped it very poorly as well (there were packing peanuts in the deck when I got it). I figured I could get a great deal from buying from someone without any knowledge about it, but in the end that just got me burned. It's sitting in my closet now.

    The next deck I bought was from a very well respected member on this board with whom I corresponded with and guess what? It worked perfectly, as he knew everything about it's feature set and used it on a regular basis. Plus he double boxed it and shipped this twenty pound monster with plenty of bubble wrap.
    I once bought a moderately high-end deck (not one of these, though), that would probably not have needed repairs -- as such -- but which was messed up by stupid packing. Styro peanuts can be DEADLY for any good electronics (like a deck) that don't happen to be hermetically sealed. They can pulverize into small chips or even powder. I had to spend around $80. (this was some years ago) to have all that crap cleaned out of the inside of the deck. This should be Packing & Shipping 101 for anyone who is not an idiot: If you must for some reason use styro peanuts, seal the item in a closed plastic bag first. Much better yet, use soft foam sections (like those used to line commercial grade equipment cases for expensive gear), or wrapped in layers of bubble wrap. Boxes can get dropped or roughly handled in transit. How many times have you gotten a box delivered that had crush areas, where you could see into the box ? So double-boxing with some protection between the boxes is the smart play, well worth a few extra bucks if the item is important. A well-packed item should not be able to move around much inside the inner box, either !
    When in Las Vegas, don't miss the Pinball Hall of Fame Museum http://www.pinballmuseum.org/ -- with over 150 tables from 6+ decades of this quintessentially American art form.
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