hunterjwizard
Member
Hi folks,
I've been set up for a while with equipment to digitize VHS tapes by way of a capture box. I've had 2 VCRs in collection for some time saved explicitly for this purpose. A cheap one from a thrift store that I'm surprised worked at all, and what I thought was an expensive one. Yesterday I pulled out the cheap one to capture some tapes my sister brought me, and discovered that sometime in the past 6 months it just died on me(no idea, was working last time I packed it away, go figure).
After spending the morning tearing apart my garage, I found my allegedly "expensive" VCR which I had carefully packed away for just such an occasion. It is a Go Video GV3070X, a dual-deck VCR with a lot of neat features. Now, back in the year 2000 or so I remember seeing this thing listed in a catalog for $500, so I had sincerely thought it was a very high-quality product(normal VCRs of around the same vintage were not $250+). I recall being extremely excited when I found it at a garage sale for $5 and very lovingly packed it away wrapped in plastic and packing peanuts when I put it away in the garage some 15 years ago. After spending the day capturing at less than ideal(varying all the way to "crappy") quality, I discovered one of the decks is in horrible condition.
So, before I dump a bunch of money into getting this thing serviced/repaired, I want to know: is it worth it? Is this a quality product worth repairing, or would I be better off putting the money towards a higher quality single-deck VCR? I don't do much of this sort of capturing so one way or the other my price-ceiling tops out at about $150. I'd really love to find an old broadcast-grade VCR but sincerely doubt I can touch one for that price. I've also heard(from this forum, in fact) that SVHS would be better, but I'm also not dealing with SVHS source so not sure its worth it.
Anyway, any advice is much appreciated.
I've been set up for a while with equipment to digitize VHS tapes by way of a capture box. I've had 2 VCRs in collection for some time saved explicitly for this purpose. A cheap one from a thrift store that I'm surprised worked at all, and what I thought was an expensive one. Yesterday I pulled out the cheap one to capture some tapes my sister brought me, and discovered that sometime in the past 6 months it just died on me(no idea, was working last time I packed it away, go figure).
After spending the morning tearing apart my garage, I found my allegedly "expensive" VCR which I had carefully packed away for just such an occasion. It is a Go Video GV3070X, a dual-deck VCR with a lot of neat features. Now, back in the year 2000 or so I remember seeing this thing listed in a catalog for $500, so I had sincerely thought it was a very high-quality product(normal VCRs of around the same vintage were not $250+). I recall being extremely excited when I found it at a garage sale for $5 and very lovingly packed it away wrapped in plastic and packing peanuts when I put it away in the garage some 15 years ago. After spending the day capturing at less than ideal(varying all the way to "crappy") quality, I discovered one of the decks is in horrible condition.
So, before I dump a bunch of money into getting this thing serviced/repaired, I want to know: is it worth it? Is this a quality product worth repairing, or would I be better off putting the money towards a higher quality single-deck VCR? I don't do much of this sort of capturing so one way or the other my price-ceiling tops out at about $150. I'd really love to find an old broadcast-grade VCR but sincerely doubt I can touch one for that price. I've also heard(from this forum, in fact) that SVHS would be better, but I'm also not dealing with SVHS source so not sure its worth it.
Anyway, any advice is much appreciated.
