DMR-ES20 as a passthrough

[AmigaFanBoy]

I've had the DMR-ES10, DMR-ES15 and and DX77 recommend as good for passthrough. There are several DMR-ES## models available like ES20, ES55 and ES35. Are ES10, ES15 and DX77 the only recommend models? Thank you

[LMotlow]

The tbc circuitry in the ES20 is so weak, it's useless. I had an ES20 for years as a decent recorder for pristine VHS tapes (if you didn't mind the usual VHS defects in a DVD) but it was never able to muster effective line tbc performance. To record VHS with it I had to use a tbc-equipped VCR.

[themaster1]

I'm not fan of the DMR ESXX series (i had an ES50), decent TBC but wrong levels and you can't correct them),
Try to put your hands on a sony rdr hxd 870-970-1070 (only the hdd size change) You will have a functional TBC, proc amp controls (levels, brightness, color, Y/C noise reduction) for the price it's much better. If you can have one for like under 60$ got for it . Did i forget the HQ+ recording option ? (15000 mbits mpeg2)

[Brad]

More words and some screenshots indicating poor jitter correction of DMR-ES20: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/319420-Who-uses-a-DVD-recorder-as-a-line-TBC-and-w...e7#post2487757

The DMR-ES25 is equivalent to ES15 with added HDMI output. https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/383020-In-depth-TBC-comparison-with-bad-VHS-%28video-samples%29

[AmigaFanBoy]

The sony rdr hxd 870-970-1070 models sound interesting. Unfortunately, all listings are from Europe. Was there an equivalent sold in the US or Canada?

[oln]

Toshiba RD-XS models, Pioneer DVR-X30 , Sony RDR-HXX50 , Sony RDR-GXX (and higher second number) all use similar same NEC-Made chipsets that provide some correction of horizontal instability. There was some updates to the chipset along the way, not sure how big change it was, only used some of the older models. Not quite as capable as the panasonic though.

The ES35 is a VCR/DVD recorder combo (from the same generation as the ES15 I think), seen some captures that would suggest they have some correction capability for the internal VCR (albeit it's connected via composite) but I don't know how they stack up to the standalone recorders.

The ES20 was an oddball model using LSI Logic-hardware rather than being based around Panasonics own chipset like other models.

I think most EH and EX models can also correct to a degree, at least for PAL, though they're not as capable as the ES10 (other than possibly the EH50 which is from the same generation). I have an EH57 personally, on some very very very bad tapes the ES10 can do better, but otherwise there isn't a large difference. I do have the same experience as themaster1 with them getting the levels wrong (and clipping brights) (I'm in PAL territory). The NTSC ES10 and ES15 have some always-on noise reduction/posterization issues instead from what I've read, don't know about the later NTSC Panasonics.