To replace or repair that is the question?

[Malcolm]

Had to buy an new VCR recently, and thought I'd found a bargain Sony - last
year's top of the range model (SLVSE820, very similar to current 830),
ex-display I think with a couple of irrelevant case scratches, but a good
price. However I'm very disappointed with it, and nothing to do with it's
exdisplay status. For example:

Fast forward/back so fast it's impossible to stop the tape with any accuracy,
but index search so slow it's virtually unusable;

very poor at recognising when the auto tracking needs to make adjustments and
the only way to make it try again is to eject and reinsert the tape;

very rarely picks up the hifi soundtrack on my old recordings and when it does,
it tends to keep switching between hifi and linear every few seconds;

very insensitive and fiddly remote buttons, especially for the tape transport
controls;

one recording I made on it appears to have the tracking so far out it is
impossible to play (although other recordings have been OK).

In short the worst VCR I have ever owned in 20 odd years. It's going to go back
of course, but if the is the best that one of the best manufacturers in the
world can produce these days, I'm wondering whether should repair the
Mitsubishi HS853V that broke on me during Xmas instead of looking for a
different replacement. The fault is that part of the mechanism that
loads/unloads the cassette has snapped. Trouble is it's an obscure model and
spares, even for common parts are difficult to find and it wasn't that
wonderful a machine anyway.

Or I could even have a go at my older Mitsubishi HSM55 which was an excellent
machine and still in use for those rare occasions where I need to record 2
things at the same time. Problems with it is that the heads are pretty old and
worn, it won't eject tapes without poking fingers through the slot to give it
some help and it can chew tapes, especially if you try and use reverse picture
search. Doesn't have videoplus or PDC of course, but at least it has the very
useful feature of recording date, time and channel for a few seconds over he
start of each recording. Don't think any machine on the market will do that
these days.

Any thoughts on which option I should go with?


Malcolm (Fantrace).

Be happy.

 

[LASERandDVDfan]

Any thoughts on which option I should go with?

Well, first off, the new VCR you bought is just that: new. These days, new
VCRs are made very cheaply because there is simply no interest in the consumer
level to buy a VCR that would demand a higher retail price. Now, it is also
possible that the VCR you bought could also have been defective, which isn't
very farfetched when you think about how cheaply VCRs are made these days.

You could try to get both your Mitsubishi decks repaired, but definitely try to
get your HSM55 worked on. A set of replacement video heads could still be
acquired and it would be in definite need of a thorough tape path cleaning,
thorough relube, and replacement of all rubber parts including the idler tire
and maybe even the pinch roller.

Another thing you could do is take your new VCR back to the place of purchase
and exchange it, either for the same model if any are still available or for an
equivalent model. Also try different brands, but only consider Sony, Toshiba,
JVC, and Mitsubishi. IMO, these are very marginal choices for a new VCR now,
but they are better than the other stuff that's out there right now. This is
particularly true when you compare either of the four mentioned brands with
something that was churned out from Funai.

Or, as been suggested before, go around and look for repair shops that sell
reconditioned used VCRs.

Good luck. - Reinhart

 

[nospam]

Recently I purchased a Sony DVD / VCR dual deck and was extremely
disappointed with it for most of the reasons you stated. Definitely not
worth the $170 price tag. Ended up taking it back and buying a cheap Funai /
Symphonic dual deck from Sam's for $80 which IMO is a much better unit all
around.

Funny thing is I bought the Sony dual deck for my new 24" Sony Wega TV which
I love. Beautiful picture... so I'm surprised their dual deck unit was such
a piece of trash.

"Malcolm" <fantrace@aol.comantispam> wrote in message
news:20040116101033.24654.00000061@mb-m16.aol.com...

Had to buy an new VCR recently, and thought I'd found a bargain Sony -
last
year's top of the range model (SLVSE820, very similar to current 830),
ex-display I think with a couple of irrelevant case scratches, but a good
price. However I'm very disappointed with it, and nothing to do with it's
exdisplay status. For example:

 

[James Sweet]

"nospam" <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:100jbvka7j37jf6@corp.supernews.com...

Recently I purchased a Sony DVD / VCR dual deck and was extremely
disappointed with it for most of the reasons you stated. Definitely not
worth the $170 price tag. Ended up taking it back and buying a cheap Funai
/
Symphonic dual deck from Sam's for $80 which IMO is a much better unit all
around.

Funny thing is I bought the Sony dual deck for my new 24" Sony Wega TV
which
I love. Beautiful picture... so I'm surprised their dual deck unit was
such
a piece of trash.

IIRC Sony doesn't manufacture any dual units, they're outsourced from other
companies and rebadged. Wouldn't suprise me if some of the other low end
Sony stuff is the same way.

 

[gothika]

On 16 Jan 2004 15:10:33 GMT, fantrace@aol.comantispam (Malcolm) wrote:

SONY= Crapola.
They've been riding on their rep for a very long time.
Sony depends on the skill of the
salespersons at the local electronic retail outlets to bamboozle
unsuspecting consumers into paying to much for way to little.
Search the consumer reports for the better models of Panasonic or JVC
and go with them.(There are other brands that produce good machines,
problem I've found is in the actual manufacturing quality.
With some of the other brands you'll sometimes get a good unit, others
a lemon.)
Otherwise it's just as well to go to Wal-Mart and buy a inexpensive
Emerson. I buy the bottom end Emerson hifi model for about 49 bucks or
even 42 on sale and get about a year to a year and a half before the
motors crap out.

Had to buy an new VCR recently, and thought I'd found a bargain Sony - last
year's top of the range model (SLVSE820, very similar to current 830),
ex-display I think with a couple of irrelevant case scratches, but a good
price. However I'm very disappointed with it, and nothing to do with it's
exdisplay status. For example:

Fast forward/back so fast it's impossible to stop the tape with any accuracy,
but index search so slow it's virtually unusable;

very poor at recognising when the auto tracking needs to make adjustments and
the only way to make it try again is to eject and reinsert the tape;

very rarely picks up the hifi soundtrack on my old recordings and when it does,
it tends to keep switching between hifi and linear every few seconds;

very insensitive and fiddly remote buttons, especially for the tape transport
controls;

one recording I made on it appears to have the tracking so far out it is
impossible to play (although other recordings have been OK).

In short the worst VCR I have ever owned in 20 odd years. It's going to go back
of course, but if the is the best that one of the best manufacturers in the
world can produce these days, I'm wondering whether should repair the
Mitsubishi HS853V that broke on me during Xmas instead of looking for a
different replacement. The fault is that part of the mechanism that
loads/unloads the cassette has snapped. Trouble is it's an obscure model and
spares, even for common parts are difficult to find and it wasn't that
wonderful a machine anyway.

Or I could even have a go at my older Mitsubishi HSM55 which was an excellent
machine and still in use for those rare occasions where I need to record 2
things at the same time. Problems with it is that the heads are pretty old and
worn, it won't eject tapes without poking fingers through the slot to give it
some help and it can chew tapes, especially if you try and use reverse picture
search. Doesn't have videoplus or PDC of course, but at least it has the very
useful feature of recording date, time and channel for a few seconds over he
start of each recording. Don't think any machine on the market will do that
these days.

Any thoughts on which option I should go with?


Malcolm (Fantrace).

Be happy.