Video Editing Stations

[galenrog]

Found a few of these at one of the local charity stores. They are
Video editing machines in various stages of disrepair. Anyone know anything about these? They want $400 for three machines.

 

[element47.5]

Ahahahahaha...I used to sell those, new. They were $60-70K each, VPR-2Bs in console. I sold them used, too, they were about $16K-$17K then. Then $12K. Then $7500. Then they could not be owned and be reliable items that didn't need fixing every few days. AMPEX used fair amounts of gold on their edge and some of their signal connectors. Those machines are tanks, they are very, very well built. I have no way to estimate the amount of PMs contained, but there should be 3 nice sets of heavy casters, and all those reels are aluminum, as well the chassis for the machine (eg; die-cast) I would put it this way:

If those machines are worth 100 PC's to you and you would pay $4 each for those PCs, then go for it. I don't think $400 is a deal that stops me in my tracks or anything. They are 100% worthless as machines.

 

[galenrog]

Thanks for the details. I am considering making an offer of $50 for all three once they have taken up floor space for a few weeks. I pulled out one of the waveform monitors and noticed some gold plated connector pins. Since all the monitors are all CRT type, and old at that, I am assuming that they need a lot of work to be operational. Also, the TV station that owned these had them in storage for several years.

 

[element47.5]

"Work" or "not work" is not especially the question. The vectorscope and waveform monitor are measuring devices for NTSC video....15750 Hz (OK, OK, 15734.xyzabc) horizontal frequency, 30 Hz field rate, 3.58 MHz color subcarrier, analog, 1 volt peak to-peak video...this video standard is simply not used any more except perhaps in CCTV security systems, and those guys don't care about such fine measurements. Frankly, they (the scopes) quite probably work, Tektronix gear being very, very reliable. Still, they don't even fetch $5 bids on ebay. Tek gear was the industry standard for 25 years. The picture monitors....urgggh, believe me, I have dealt with many many of them over the years and they made cruddy pictures 10 years ago.

Should you turn on the waveform and vectorscope outside their housing just for giggles, be aware that there is ~2200-2500 volts completely exposed on the side.

The switchbox is possibly usable; but it will force you to use BNC (twist-on) connectors. The casters and the powerstrips inside are usable. There may an audio monitor amp inside that could be used for something or other...

But as usual, the effort to use these things and to make the req'd connections is roughly equal to the sub-minimum-wage you'd collect doing something else.

Trust me, I have been down this road many, many times with literally dozens of these things. The slogan I best remember from people who were trying to sell them is:

"We used the lift gate to get them onto the truck. We didn't use the lift gate to get them off the truck."

 

[galenrog]

Used to repair similar monitors before I retired from the military (1993). I know a few people a few hours north who may want them. Mostly I would consider them to be scrap, with a few recoverable parts, such as the casters. If someone comes along and pays them what they want, God bless them. I think that an offer around $50 for all three would get me a bit of upside, with a lot of fun tearing them apart.

 

[denim]

element47.r- love the quote "We used the lift gate to get them onto the truck. We didn't use the lift gate to get them off the truck." Hilarious.

As far as the price for things like this goes I usually offer to haul it away for free. After it sits around for a few weeks/months/years many people will gladly accept this offer. I pay very little, if anything, for escrap. Granted, what I get for free is not always high grade stuff.

Dennis

 

[element47.5]

Oh I can assure you that the edge connectors on every one of those boards in both of those card cages are gold fingered, probably mil-spec gold, (AMPEX was a mil-type co) and they go from top to bottom. Same with the edge connectors inside the machine. There are also teeny internal coax connectors that are gold plated. Inside those Tek scopes are unusual terminal strips that are silver soldered---in the manual they caution you to be super careful when soldering them. The question is, what's the sum total? And I say not much. That's all I'm sayin'.

I have sat and stared at many dozens of these things, thinking about what the hell they could be adapted for. I sold broadcast-grade gear back then and had clients in Burbank and Hollywood who were among the largest tape duplicators in town and many of them had thirty or fifty of them, not to mention NBC Burbank must have had 200 of them. There was a time, nearly two decades, from say 1978 thru 1995-1997 when if you were watching a taped TV program, somewhere the reels would be turning on one of those pigs playing the show. If you were an affiliate station who signed a deal to play "I Love Lucy" or "Love Boat" or any of the others, you were sent a pallet of 1" tapes. (these are called type "C") Honestly, I could never ponder how they could be cut down or adapted into anything that was particularly worth the effort and the metalwork. And, I had a computer refurb business at the time where I had all manner of carts to wheel stuff around on, and I had no problem with ugly "rolling stock".