Doesn't matter how well you pack it, they manage to trash it. If those bas-turds send me a bill for broker fees for this they can stick it where the sun don't shine
FedEx especially. I've had one U-Matic and two Betacam editing decks destroyed by FedEx. Two of those were packed decently, but the third (one of the Betacams) was double-boxed in very strong cardboard boxes with about 3" of pool noodles on all six sides space between boxes. I managed to get the U-Matic and one Betacam working, but there was still physical damage to the faceplates that I could not repair. The other Betacam (the one less-well packed) had a warped transport, and became a parts unit.
I use styrofoam, bubble wrap in the first box, then I place that box in another box all the while adding addition cardboard to the sides, too, bottom, and corners.
UPS always busts packages sent to me! I don't know how they stay in business. You would think you would get better care for the outrageous price they charge to ship stuff nowadays.
60 feet... of bubble wrap... and it still wasn't protected. I would also lay blame along the stream of how it was handled while still in the UK. None the less, all mail/package transport companies really need to do a better job at handling expensive/delicate items and employees/managers caught ignoring company protocol should be axed. Hopefully all the bent and broken parts can be fixed. Looking forward to seeing the series of vids covering this beast!
Pisses me off man, I boughr a nice denon tuner, it was fomded like a damn taco, lime the box was in between the roll door and the slam closed it with the tuner in between. Paid only $20. But still.
Just looking at the quality of that cardboard I can tell you it was not adequately packaged. At minimum for something like this you need virgin double walled cardboard, double boxed. The fill should be styrofoam or some other high density foam; things like bubble wrap and peanuts are not suitable due to the weight. This is the bare minimum. It's better if you put the interior box into a wooden crate instead of double boxing with cardboard.
@@12voltvids which is pointless, bubble wrap doesn't protect heavy objects. You need foam in place or styrofoam or some other high density foam. Bubble wrap is mostly air, it's low density. I ship stuff like this all the time with no damage.
Heh, the couriers are the least of your worries. The (fully automated) sorting facilities are so much harder on things. The line runs at 40km/h - when it stops, it stops hard - all of the packages slam into each other at speed. The diverters divert packages into chutes - basically a free-fall. If you aren't completely comfortable with throwing a package from chest height down a flight of concrete stairs, you've under-packaged it.
Ah yes. Very interesting! This is the exact kind of shipping damage I've had to work with many times. Let me see if I can make any guesses that come true: That horrible sound during threading is the worm drive gear (which is driven by the motor by a tooth gear) is missing a tooth or has a big crack (not because of shipping, so happens). As for the reel trouble, if it's not just that it's bent from rough use (not shipping), it could be several things such as: that it's dragging a reel brake due to a shrunken piece of solenoid damping rubber or a return stop in the brake linkage... or something else causing high low or intermittent tension... something in the tape path is stiff or frozen, (return path stabilizer or guide bar not deployed). Could even be a tension sensor isn't calibrated or a bad motor. Chassis bending can cause betacam tansion detectors to go out of alignment! But I'll guess it's not a pinch roller almost eating the tape, not just extra drag because it's dirty, NOT a general alignment problem or rotation detection. The way these machines can get bent up is really something. Usually the cassette alignment/ cassette loader is the most vulnerable to shipping. Then comes the cassette chasis (reels, brakes+) vs the main transport chassis. If those are out of alignment you have to look as just how the rest of the machine is bent to try and find which way the forces were likely to bend the frame around the tape mechanism and go from there. I've got this one deck that is slightly 's' shaped along it's length from shipping. That cracked the main board the cards plug into. I've got another that needed a new front panel (the metal frame of it, not just the plastic), another that had multi axis chassis mis-alignment, another with a broken cassette loader, and the best was the DVW 500 with the super nice after market electro-luminescant dot matrix panel that had a crack in the glass envelope that just barely missed the important parts. The 'worst' one had one of it's feet broken and turned into a cardboard punch-die, that punched a perfect sharp edged round circle out of several layers of cardboard, and then pushed the foot up into the deck, bending up the frame and power supply. (That would have taken hundreds of pounds of force on the deck, when I saw that I knew I was in for it!) I fixed all the issues those had, but there's a growing pile of front panels and bezels that were destroyed. And there's a lot of crude bending I did to get some them working.
I believe the shipping companies use the packages as soccer balls in their lunch break. Unless packages are double boxed in really strong boxes, you can expect damage. I've had several items damaged in shipping. It sucks !!
Couriers are required to have some form of reimbursement or compensation. May cost 10, 20, bux extra. Last Feb' I got "new for old replacement" + four figure cash + next item no cost. Took three months and a boatload of emails, but it was worth it. Get copy of the paperwork forwarded to you if you are the recipient. Read the t's & c's. Know your rites. Request photos from each individual handler. Don't be Trucking Lazy, Assume Nothing.
So im going to buck the trend here and not post about couriers 😂. Am i right in noticing that the supply side tension arm isn't returning to the home position and the tape is completely missing it? That would probably bring up a reel trouble code. Also, i can be almost certain that the gear on the loading motor has split causing the noise, same thing happened on my DVW-A500p.
I often have it too. Thin cardboard alone is not enough. Some people may not be able to do the packaging, so if you can't do it after consulting with them, you can decline the offer.There are plenty of handle parts, so it's okay.
It seems that the plastic handles for the bottom panel pull hooks or latches inside - the left one frees when you pull it, but the right one is stuck because the handle is broken off. Just a thought, as I've never owned such a machine. The operating manual reads that _it can play Betacam SX cassettes, Betacam SP cassettes, or UVW cassettes_. What are UVW cassettes? Do they mean original Betacam ferric tapes? Also, the manual does not specify 50 or 60 Hz video formats, so is this a multi-system machine? Were all Betacam machines multi-system?
I miss this type of brutally robust equipment even if postal services have proven they have the powers to damage it (they could crush a diamond wrapped in a thousand layers of silk if shipping it merely across the street.) There's a trend in news gathering these days to use MoJo (Mobile Journalism) kits, which are smartphones or consumer video cameras paired with streamer equipment for audio and lighting. It's cheap but delicate like porcelain and lacks tons of necessary features. Outdoor footage shot at 1/800 s shutter speed because there are no ND filters, noisy video compressed to death, audio issues. It's all becoming amateur hour. Real ENG equipment was a different world. 😢
I see news segments shot for OTA TV at 30p with high shutter all the time, the slightest movement is a stutter-fest. Do pro ENG teams actually shoot on smartphones? What a disgrace!
1:11 That looks like those thin soft cardboard boxes that easily gets damaged. Need to use much stronger boxes for such heavy stuff. That box is only suited as the inner box in a "box in box" solution. Packing heavy stuff for shipping isn't easy, you need to pack it thinking that it should survive a drop to the floor.
Bubble wrap isn't strong enough for heavy stuff like this. Did you ever see items like this packed in bubble wrap when it came from the factory? Styrofoam or what it's called is suited for stuff like this.
It's a shame it got dropped like that. If you can get it working it will be interesting to see the picture quality when playing SP tapes as opposed to SX tapes. My DigiBeta plays SP tapes, but I notice the playback quality doesn't seem to be quite as good as when played on a dedicated SP player.
Tell me about it. Years ago I sold a crt monitor for 40 bucks to a guy across the country. Not only did they break the tube they broke the wooden crate it was packed it.
Electronics, I double box with with bumpers on corners of the inside box. Sad I have to do that , because you are right USPS , Fedex UPS. They all suck at their job
@GNX87 Not in my area. They are always on time, and most of the time, it comes early. 3pm at the latest. Fedex and UPS, so many delays and packages arrive 7-9p in the evening.
I was surprised it accepted a consumer Betamax tape. I expected it to just spit it straight out. I wonder if it would output an analogue BetacamSP tape via its SDI outputs.
Check that the tape spindles are free to move, and that the drive belt has not perished, google indicates that error F4 is caused by a tape spool not turning, possibly caused by a tape jam. The service manual text is "tape jam detected", do with that as you will.
as a regular user of international mail, your experience of heavy items taking damage is normal sadly. Japan sends me things in cardboard boxes that are double the thickness of the one you got yours shipped in. And even those usually get trashed.
I just hate how they handle stuff, It's like they don't get paid much, So they just play kickball with people's package, They won't give a refund to you..because of there careless
We prefer to NOT get anything from FedEx at work... we're a pinball distributor and we'll REGULARLY get machines that they'd destroyed by running the forklift through the boxes. Usually about half of the boxes are damaged and of those at least one of the machines inside will be destroyed. We'll refuse the shipments and get our money back, but that doesn't deter them at all... they just keep doing it. We've have to call the manufacturers and request that they don't use FedEx because of this.. but they still do. Sometimes things are cheaper for a reason.
You said it was "packed well" in the opening of the video, but then go on to show a thin-walled cardboard box. That is NOT good packing. To start with, a heavy unit like this will not survive shipping in a thin-wall cardboard box. It doesn't matter what packing materials are inside the box or how the item is wrapped, it won't survive and 4" of bubble wrap isn't the answer (as evidenced here otherwise it wouldn't have been damaged). I ship heavy amplifiers all around the world and to date I have never had one arrive damaged. The reality is that the freight handlers are ROUGH on things, that's a given and it will never change. Most people don't understand just how rough they are, and don't pack things the way they need to in order to survive that treatment. When I send amplifiers, most go inside a wooden crate made of 3/4" or 1" plywood, and they are surrounded by a 4" thick layer of polystyrene panel on all six sides. Then there is a second layer of 1/2" plywood and another 2" of polystyrene panel. Essentially a box inside a box and both of them packed tight with polystyrene panel which does not allow the amp to shift around or get anywhere near the edge of the outer box. The rule is that any package which is going to make it undamaged needs to be able to withstand a fall from 8 feet onto concrete. If it won't withstand that then it's not packed properly, end of story.
Yeah I agree, the cardboard is clearly cheap and flimsy, an item like this needs strong thick 3 ply cardboard ideally, the one used looked a weak single walled box...
Heavy unit hard board box and polystyrene blocks to corners a minimum as shock absorbers as original packing ,bubble wrap poor for heavy items as it compresses on impacts, interesting but £107 carriage mad!
I manage a shipping department and deal with shipping/receiving heavy old professional audio/video tape machines and IT equipment similar to the one in the video. I completely agree that the packaging was inadequate. Bubble wrap on its own can actually add some stress/flex points with really heavy items if some areas of bubbles pop or if the person packing it did an uneven job. These old professional audio/video tape machines come with much more heavy duty original boxes and large hard foam corners that support the chassis normally. I shipped a Sony Digital Betacam recently and the box was reinforced heavy duty cardboard. With really delicate or larger heavy electronics the only way to ship with a better chance of no damage is to freight ship using a half or full skid/pallet to ensure even more chance to keep what we're shipping upright and without chance of being dropped by a worker or crushed in another stack of boxes typical to standard shipping heavy things. Recently I received an Overland Tandberg 80 LTO tape library that is 116lbs and we decided to freight ship that one shrink wrapped to a half pallet with additional hardboard shipping corners to add some extra protection. I've received heavy items in plywood creates also. I do think most standard couriers are too rough, I receive a lot of boxes for smaller things like multi-bay hard drives and LTO tape stock and many have been crushed causing some damage to retail packaging in my many years of sample size.
Concur. Shipped internationally for close to forty years and this would have required at least a triple-wall shipping box with polystyrene inserts. I saw the damage being done to wooden crates being pushed off a lorry in the Middle East with the tail lift left in the raised position.
sending things with the post or mail is terrible and they are never at fault the never did anything wrong and when you call customer service about it you get to hear sorry nothing we can do about that .... something needs to be done to the way fed-ex ups and other mail services handle oackages especially how expensive shipping is these days .... it is just horrible
And again, I would say that you don't have much to complain about, you have received your package. In France the UPS service is just crap. I stopped with them because I am no longer even able to collect my package when I am not present during the passage. The website is just absolute shit, the goal: no contact possible. We walk you around for 15 days so that you can't ask for a new passage and presto, the package goes back to the seller. You lose everything and UPS pockets TWO deliveries! Isn't life beautiful? And when you are not a professional, they know that you will not file a complaint because it is not profitable. They're just big assholes: this needs to be known to as many people as possible!
Sheeze the memories... !!! I spent my Broadcast engineering years 1990s bench servicing the Sony VTR range at the TV Station i work at 1", D2 & the Betacams all the way to DigiBeta HD... & cringe nope unclip the lid!!!!! I even cared for the SX ENG 30 odd cameras (SX tape = "TARGET tape" on account the cassette was bright yellow)! And overnight the entire tape world ended & we went to Raid array digitizing the whole Library, News & Adverts.... for the last couple decades and to complete my career i was made redundant the other day....so one month left & out the door after 29yrs, dumped like the gear we stopped using. Aint life great! Oh Capstan & pinch roller clean? Brake band trouble on the takeup spooler?
Yes I have 1 target tape. Not exactly what you want to be handing if say you are covering s war zone. Remember the movie patriot games with the bright yellow jeep.
@@12voltvids precisely... i watched tons upon tons of tapes systematically removed & dumped probably back then to landfill! Many movies were supplied on the likes of D2 ... or Digi large cassette ... I think back then sheer number of Sony VTR machines .. they were like virtually like Confetti there were 1000s of the machines (including the Odetics modified for robotic control) & the Sony training courses to work on overhaul of a machine. Sony had the market & it was times of plenty because folks watched TV & the adverts earned huge money.... especially during headline News... all gone now, viewers look for their own stuff on their Device ie mobile. It's been a great career but it's over & i think i will play around with vacuum tubes now at home & make the odd HiFi amp .... looking forward to not doing shift work! at 65!
@@peteb2 I hear you. I left the repair business after only 20 years in 03 and made the move to the phone company. Been there 19 now, only doing a few more. Next year I hit 20 years and will be able to keep my discount, so once I get there I will be hanging around looking for a package like everyone else. There was one last year but it didn't apply to my crew. Once I go there will be even more time to tinker around with the old vintage gear. Sony definitely had the market for the pro stuff, and king Beta ruled. The home gear may not have had t he suscess they had hope for, but they took the failed betamax and tooled it up to betacam, then SP, then DBC, SX, HD ect right through the end of tape. For what those pro machines cost I'f sure they didn't see betamax as a failure because of what became of the professional format.
Betacam SX and MPEG IMX were targeted at the ENG market as a digital replacement for Betacam SP and high capacity alternative to Digital Betacam respectively, but as they went head to head with DVCAM and DVC-PRO, they had little chance to get established. ENG went with DVCAM or DVC-PRO and EFP stuck with Digital Betacam. Even the aging D1 and D2 seemed to outlive Betacam SX and MPEG IMX. I don't know why Sony tried to shower the market in formats like they did.
The big advantage of beta sx was the mpg2 4:2:2 colorspace. Full broadcast quality. Dvcam and dv pro were both 4:1:1 color space so basically half the color resolution. The beta sx camera i have looks beautiful.
The big advantage of digibeta and even beta sx was backwards compatability. Digibeta and beta sx players would play analog tapes. Sx for example could use an sp tape. This was a huge advantage because tv stations already had a huge inventory of tapes. Digibeta was 10 bit 4.2.2 color space sx 4.2.2 8 bit but high bit rate mpg2. Dvcpro like dvcam was a different tape meaning new hardware to play. Beta had that compatability advantage and thats why it stuck around so long.
hi i am in the uk note i allways getting betacam decks offered to me all the time i can bet this is a deck i turned down or the video 99 man as well he turns down alot of gear as well i have 40 plus betacam decks that still are working pal deck for you would be ace i have a akai mg14d i am working on bad power unit trans coils are bad some fool plug the deck in the the 240v in to a 117v deck
You're kind of strange. Why would you expect a shipping company to deliver you a package that is NOT broken? They always deliver broken ones and all of sudden you want the opposite.
Actually this is only the second device that has had shipping damage. I get stull every week and ship back and usps and Canada post have been great. The only time I have had stuff damaged or not show up is with FedEx and ups.
