U-Maitc Low band - Player, needed & advice

[mike-]

Hi

Im working with digitalizing some old u-matic tapes for a local news paper and former local tv station engineer/reporter. The paper bought everything from the local-station when it closed shop. The tv station operated from 86 to approx 2002-3 i believe. But we have three dead U-matic machines, the 5800 ps, 5040 and 5850p, I´m wondering, do anyone here have any clues to anyone capable of either repairing one of these (they all eat tape or otherwise have other issues probably related to the mechanical mechanism), and or where we can buy or rent one? Worth noting the tv station used Amiga´s for a great while, even have some footage of that. Which is already digitalized.

[mike-]

Bump.

[mike-]

Uggghhh UMATIC....

I had a similar trying to source a BETACAMSP player recently.
You can try craigslist or EBAY.

But buyer beware. Mi BETACAMSP deck died within 3 days.

Thanks. Yeah i found some listings on ebay, and some in the UK via shops. Coming to 550 GBP and 750 GBP respectively. The 750 one was the same make as the most promising one we got... :S

All we need is one to work, while we digitalize the remaining tapes. But seeing that sending it off the US for repairs would cost just as much as a new one with some guarantee of functionality i´ll leave it up to the bosses.  

Im quite worried this could be an issue with the control circuit boards with probably dried up caps causing some sort of timing glitch though rather then a mechanical one, i dont know which would be preferable, maybe i should take one home and replace the caps and see what happens. According to my boss though they had this problem back when it was in use due to wear on the mechanics..