[Church AV Guy]

Somewhere aroung May 20th, I purchased the EH75 that stevethebrain was selling. It came at a nearly perfect time, as my EH55 had a HDD failure, and just replacing the HDD was unsuccessful, so I had to ship it from California, all the way to MICKINCT. I put the EH75 in the spot where the EH55 had been, and used it for the two and a half weeks that it took to get my repaired machine back. I then removed itr from my entertainment system, and but the EH55 back.


After testing all the connections out, I realized that I had content on the EH75 I wanted to save, so I just ran a power cord to it and connected a composite video cable, running the other end to the front panel input of my EH55. When I turned it on, it didn't work! Well, sort of anyway. It wasn't useable. It would come on, and then in about a minute and a half, turn itself off. There was no error message, it would just power down. I powered it up several times, and this happened every time, and was VERY repeatable, to within a few seconds.


I wondered why it had worked perfectly while it was in my enteratinment center, but not now. thinking that i had to send yet another DVD recorder to MICKINCT, and wondering why my luck with DVD recorders had been so poor lately, I decided to open the case and see if there was anything obvious--what did I have to lose? Still, this is a bit like a driver who really knows next to nothing about cars. When his vehicle dies while he's driving, he opens the hood and looks in to see what's up, even though he would't know or be able to detect an obvious fault.


Okay, so I remove the seven screws and take the cover off. then I startd to laugh. Apparently, when stevethebrain packed the recorder for shipment (and it was packed very well) he used styrofoam peanuts for the majority of the packing material. Some had managed to get into the VHS door of the EH75 during shipment, when the box had been jostled around. When I removed it from my entertainment center to put my EH55 back, I briefly set it down on its side--its RIGHT side. This allowed one of the bits of styrofoam to fall from the left side of the machine where the VHS deck is, to the right side of the machine. When Iplugged it in and turned it on, that peanut got lodged in the cooling fan and jamed it. I removed it, and turned the machine on, and TA-DA, it now workes properly again. You would think that there would be an error code or something to suggest a bad fan, but there was nothing at all.


What I thought might be an expensive repair was really, absolutley nothing. I wonder what MICKINCT would have thought, had I sent it to him?

 

[jjeff]

Congrats on your "repair"

what are the odds of that happening

If you see a EH-59 return let me know, I really should have picked up the one 6?? months ago at J&R but really wanted one from B&H, at this point I'd take one(return that is) from any legitimate dealer, my feeling is they really aren't that long for this world and I haven't seen a local Craigslist(or pawn shop) HDD Panasonic in well over a year

 

[Church AV Guy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend/0_100#post_22122045


Congrats on your "repair"

what are the odds of that happening

If you see a EH-59 return let me know, I really should have picked up the one 6?? months ago at J&R but really wanted one from B&H, at this point I'd take one(return that is) from any legitimate dealer, my feeling is they really aren't that long for this world and I haven't seen a local Craigslist(or pawn shop) HDD Panasonic in well over a year

 
It wasn't much of a repair. What are the odds? I have no idea. It was a combination of a styrofoam peanut getting throught the VHS door, my putting it on its side, and the luck of airflow. Like I said, it worked fine for two and a half weeks prior to this. (Now that I think about it, I was darn lucky I didn't shove a tape into that VHS drive. There was more then one styrofoam peanut in there.) I wasn't even aware that the EH75 had any sensing circuitry that would be able to detect a stuck fan. Very few of my other electronic devices have such a detector. At the time, I asked what your aversion to J&R was. I like B&H, but not mroe than J&R, so why the preference, and why to such an extent that you would refuse to purchase a used item from J&R? I am just a little confused. Do you know something about them that I don't? If I see another one, I'll be sure to alert you. J&R is listing the 513 and 515 as discontinued, not just out of stock. They only have the EH59 as a DVD recorder with an HDD. B&H now has free shipping for the EH69. BTW, The content that was in the EH57s HDD: I successfully copied it to DVD media. The jammed fan had no lasting effects.

 

[jjeff]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Church AV Guy  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend#post_22122908


I asked what your aversion to J&R was. I like B&H, but not mroe than J&R, so why the preference, and why to such an extent that you would refuse to purchase a used item from J&R? I am just a little confused. Do you know something about them that I don't?If I see another one, I'll be sure to alert you.

No real aversion to J&R, just that I prefer to limit the number of companies that I give my CC # to. Since I've already set up a account at B&H it was my preferred company, if the same was true for J&R I would have preferred to order from them. At this point it's kind of any port in the storm though, again it's not that I don't have any HDD DVDRs left but I've kind of given up on finding one used and the EH-59 is really a nice option for one that will probably last for many years.

 

[mickinct]

[. I wonder what MICKINCT would have thought, had I sent it to him?

[/quote] THE first thing I do when I get any machine in to repair , is to take the cover off to inspect it before I turn it on. I've seen peanuts in the vcr side of dvd recorders so it nothing new to me. Good job Luke for finding the peanut, good luck with your new toy.

 

[Church AV Guy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend/0_100#post_22123093



No real aversion to J&R, just that I prefer to limit the number of companies that I give my CC # to. Since I've already set up a account at B&H it was my preferred company, if the same was true for J&R I would have preferred to order from them. At this point it's kind of any port in the storm though, again it's not that I don't have any HDD DVDRs left but I've kind of given up on finding one used and the EH-59 is really a nice option for one that will probably last for many years.

 
That explains it. Now I understand. Probably a good policy as well.

 

[Church AV Guy]

MICKINCT, I guess what I was wondering was, if you would have laughed with you saw it, and what you would have charged for styrofoam removal.

 

[mickinct]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Church AV Guy  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend#post_22124877


MICKINCT, I guess what I was wondering was, if you would have laughed with you saw it, and what you would have charged for styrofoam removal.

NO CHARGE ..... JUST return ship chrg. i'm easy.

 

[tonypeter]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend#post_22123093


No real aversion to J&R, just that I prefer to limit the number of companies that I give my CC # to.

At J&R you can use Amazon Payments (and probaly PayPal). I've done it to buy a MAG 515 refurb recently. This way if you have an Amazon account already you don't give them your data.

A suggestion to everybody who still wants a Panasonic EH-59/69, get it now. There are only a couple Assian sites still listing these as current/available models, and maybe another couple European sites. That's down from several six to 12 months ago.

 

[jjeff]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tonypeter  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend/0_100#post_22125609


At J&R you can use Amazon Payments (and probaly PayPal). I've done it to buy a MAG 515 refurb recently. This way if you have an Amazon account already you don't give them your data.

A suggestion to everybody who still wants a Panasonic EH-59/69, get it now. There are only a couple Assian sites still listing these as current/available models, and maybe another couple European sites. That's down from several six to 12 months ago.

Thanks tonypeter, I do have a Amazon account(along with SMS and maybe 2 other companies) so if I could somehow use Amazon for payment I'd feel more comfortable ordering from J&R. When you say "use Amazon payments" do you mean directly ordering from Amazon(I know J&R sells new EH-59s on Amazon) but my guess is for ordering a customer return I may need to order from the J&R website, using "Amazon payments" do you order from Amazon's website or could it be J&Rs?

Again I really agree about the EH-59/69s future, like the Panasonic HDD BDRs I don't expect to see them around much longer, and for sure no updated replacements

I'm already starting to see the disappearance of easily available DVD media

stores that use to carry a few spindles seem to be dropping them and the ones that do don't seem to have the sales like they used to

 

[Church AV Guy]



Quote:
Originally Posted by tonypeter  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend/0_100#post_22125609


At J&R you can use Amazon Payments (and probaly PayPal). I've done it to buy a MAG 515 refurb recently. This way if you have an Amazon account already you don't give them your data.

A suggestion to everybody who still wants a Panasonic EH-59/69, get it now. There are only a couple Assian sites still listing these as current/available models, and maybe another couple European sites. That's down from several six to 12 months ago.

This is distressing, but hardly surprising news. The EH59/69 models have been available for FAR longer than any other DVD recorder that Panasonic ever made. They show no signes of ebing further upgraded to a newer model, so when these are gone, Panasonic will be done with this type of machine. They have BluRay recorders in various places, but they will likely NEVER be availble in the US, even as gray market.

As they break, I assume that replacement parts will soon be exhausted, so even repair will impossible. I assume very few of those repairs will be as simple as a styrofoam peanut removal.

 

[tonypeter]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff  /t/1415088/funny-story-from-this-weekend#post_22125644


Thanks tonypeter, I do have a Amazon account(along with SMS and maybe 2 other companies) so if I could somehow use Amazon for payment I'd feel more comfortable ordering from J&R. When you say "use Amazon payments" do you mean directly ordering from Amazon(I know J&R sells new EH-59s on Amazon) but my guess is for ordering a customer return I may need to order from the J&R website, using "Amazon payments" do you order from Amazon's website or could it be J&Rs?

Amazon Payment(s) is an option to pay through one's Amazon account (with credit card on file with Amazon) for a purchase from J&R at J&R site. It is offered by J&R and they will not have your CC info, they will get the money from Amazon. It works like the PayPal.