ES-15 vs Toshiba DR-5

[FKrueger]

Haven't seen much on a Toshiba DR-5, alot on the 4, I have a Panasonic ES-15 which I am about to return due to inferior picture quality as noted through out this site, at least compared to the Ilo R04's I had been using. I had seen where Lordsmurf had mentioned in one post not to get the DR-5, any thoughts as to why? Is it better than the ES-15? The Panasonic had poor tape to dvd quality, and poor CQ in the 2hr mode, as noted thru out this forum. I feel even the Philips 75 does that I have does better than the Panasonic. I ask about the Toshiba and the Panasonic recorders because they are my choices thru a club I'm in that will rebate most of the cost.

[trhouse]

Here is what Lordsmurf said about the Toshiba,

If you get the Toshiba, it cannot be the DR4 or DR5, is needs to be one of the higher end ones. Toshiba has a lot of copy protection quirks, seeing it were none exists.

on this thread,
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=305161

Here are other opinions.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=296016&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[MeekloBraca]

I have the ES25 and I think its a great machine. The recording quality is awesome up to about the 3 hour mode. The 4 hour mode leeves a lot to be desired.

Ive read the Ilo r04's are good but dont have Fr mode or 3 hour mode? Unnacceptable.

[samijubal]

I use a D-R4 every day. There are no copy protection problems. The picture quality is far superior to any other recorder I've used. You can get a new D-R4 on ebay for $100, a used one for $40-70.

[FKrueger]

Unfortuneately, thru this club I'm in, my choices are limited to Coby, Toshiba DR-5, DRW-2, Panasonic ES-15 and Pioneer DVR-310S. After having 3 hacked Ilos, giving me no macrovision problems, and giving me a 3 hr mode, with a 3 hr mode that was better than the ES-15's 2hr mode. Sadly all the Ilo's are dead, the longest life was just over a year, the other 2 under 6mos . I want to stay with the LSI chips if possible. Sadly I have an ES-20 which seems cleaner than the ES-15 as well. I tried a Liteon 1107, it didn't reliably finalize out of the box, no wonder BestBuy had 4 open box returns. Thanks for the links TRhouse, I didn't find them the other day, I'm going for the DR-5

[samijubal]

The D-R4 has 3 hour recording, I don't know if the D-R5 does or not. If you're trying to record copy protected material, you'll have problems. I meant there's no false protection problems.

[MeekloBraca]

What are the current DVD Recorders that have LSI Chipsets?
`

[FKrueger]

I have 2 hacked apex's for my backups. Which I am doing less of because of getting the movies off cable. The R-5 does supposedly have a 3hr mode, I saw that info on Toshiba's site. Here is the only reference to an LSI list I can find. I also found a comment that the Panasonic ES-20 has the LSI, too bad it has the lines from the fan. Update on the fan lines, I upgraded my svideo cable to a higher quality shielded cable, (which didn't take much as I was using the cheapies that came with the machine) and am seeing alot less of those lines in the dark areas.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?p=1323553&highlight=lsi+logic+dvd+recorder+gallery#1323553