Frankly, I don't know. It is the only DVD recorder I have (so far). The ES10 is 2005, the ES15/25/35... are 2006. Does being newer make it better? IDK.
@@ConsumerDV The ES20 isn't a good model, and it is an ISL version and has barely any TBC on it. I've gone through 2 ES20's because of compactor issues. Newer isn't better. Stick with the ES10/ES15.
I just got on one of these to digitize some old VHS C tapes, I also am making some VHS C tapes of my own with my new camcorder. How do you utilize TBC with this unit? Is it DVD only that benefits from TBC?
From my experiments I figured that the DVD/VHS Common outputs bypass the TBC, while the Video Priority outputs go through the TBC (see the image at 00:47). When you play a tape, you can use either of these outputs. Naturally, I use the Priority S-video output. Also, if you copy on a DVD, the unit uses the TBC as well.
I'm going to be running this through an external TBC (Retrotink 4K). The TBC on looks great here though. I wonder why the DVD Priority out has the digital garbage at the top.
Does Retrotink have a TBC? The output is not perfect but considering how bad it looks without a TBC I think it is quite acceptable, also about 5% on the edges would be hidden in the overscan area of an old-school TV.
This depends on the format you are capturing into. If you record to DVD, you get DVD quality, which is at best around 9 Mbit/s MPEG-2 4:2:0 interlaced SD. I capture into Cineform at around 60-90 Mbit/s with 4:2:2 color subsampling. Truth to be told, DVD quality is usually enough, you lose quality elsewhere, like you image is unstable or has wrong aspect ratio or wrong scanning type or crushed blacks or blown out highlights, tons of other things can degrade your video.
Different people will give you different answers :) To me, DVD is good enough for good quality VHS. The more noise or other high-frequency artifacts your recording has, the more bitrate you need to preserve all this information, which you may not need at the first place, but it is either preserving it or your picture breaks into macroblocks. Also, some people do not like that DVD uses 4:2:0 color subsampling, not 4:2:2. I think it is good enough if you do not plan to edit it.
Congrats! Are you going to record to discs? I still have a half-used 100-pack of DVD-R discs from more than a decade ago. But I burned my DVDs on a computer. I also burned quite a few AVCHD discs.
