Panasonic AG-7300

[gfish]

I had meant to get a good VCR for exporting video onto for some time. The only working VCR we have is 16 years old, and while it works, the quality is somewhat lacking. The film contest Intersections was made for accepted entries on S-VHS, and xmurf talked me into using it. That was my first experience with S-VHS and studio quality equipment. I loved it. Solid, expensive, professional tools ... excite me.

I've been pining away for one ever since, and two days ago I bought one on ebay. (Merry xmas to me!) Today I picked it up in person to save on shipping. It turns out to be part of a lot that I bid on at the most recent UW Surplus auction. Heh.

So, yay, I have a massive studio deck! Seen here and, for a slightly more dramatic angle, here. After years (well, 18 months) of crappy VGA->NTSC->VHS exports, I can now go directly from DV to S-VHS. Midgard Studios, onward and upward!

Comments

Curious...

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

Why does the S-VHS deck allow you to do direct DV->S-VHS when you couldn't do DV->VHS (and had to instead do VGA->NTSC->VHS)? I understand S-VHS is better quality, etc.

Anyhow, how much of a profit is that guy making who is buying S-VHS decks at UW auctions and reselling on ebay?

[gfish.livejournal.com]

Whoops, yeah, I only recently gained the ability to do DV->VHS. (Switched motherboards between my Linux and Windows workstations, putting the rather faster XP-1800 board I won last year into the Windows box.) Still not used to having that option.

I paid $235 for the single deck. He paid something like $750 for a pallet of 11 decks and other random gear. So if he can sell them all for similiar amounts he'll do pretty well. Makes me wish I had been willing to seriously bid for them, though I suspect he'd have gone much higher.