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Tough choice - ILO DVDR04 $60 or ILO DVDR05/MU $98?

Discussion in 'DVD recorders' started by pinkpank, Sep 29, 2005.

  1. pinkpank

    pinkpank Member

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    Since I'm homebound watching the baby for 2 months, I decided to buy one of the new "cheapo" <$100 DVD recorders. After a few moments of research and despite my dislike of WalMart's policies, I looked to see if they had the fabled "DVDR04" still for sale. Voila, the on-shelf demo was an 04, and I got it for $60. Works pretty well, even though the (mono) tuner is kinda cheesy.

    In a rare moment of luck, the only "boxed" ILO they still had was a DVDR05, which happened to be the mystical "MU" model. But this one was at list price, $98. So I bought both.

    After reading about these for a week now, I'm glad I have the MU, not the ZU. But I'm not certain whether I should keep this R05 (CyberHome 1600) MU model or if the R04 isn't the better unit in the long run . . . . opinions? The price is close enough so that it doesn't matter. And I don't do anything "mission critical" with these, so I don't need them to last 5 years or play every single type of media file. I do, however, need region free settings, which are available on both.

    What's better? 1600/R05 "MU" or the R04?

    IMHO, I like the R04s standard width, solid "feel", nicer remote (I don't use universals) and cheap price. Yet I like the 1600/R05s tiny size for it's own reasons. What's an OCD mind to do? :)

    TIA
     
  2. catfreak

    catfreak Active member

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     Well, let's see ... LiteOn has lots of on-line support and is the #1 selling set top DVD recorder AND Cyberhome has virtually no support and is problematic.

     The R04 is a rebadged LiteOn and the R05 a rebadged Cyberhome.

                   The choice is crystal clear

         Congrats on your new famoly member and happy burning!
     
  3. pinkpank

    pinkpank Member

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    Hey, thanks.

    The thing that made me hesitate was that the 1600MU was supposed to be a much better unit than the 1600ZU (the latter is the one that gave the CyberHome 1600s a bad name, I think, while the former MU model has a much better chipset and/or recorder?!?).

    Of course, since last week we've found three more new in box DVDR04s, so it makes more sense to have the same unit across my entire family - since I'm the one that supports all of them. :)
     
  4. KimTx

    KimTx Guest

    "What's better? 1600/R05 "MU" or the R04?"

    I've had both of these machines. The 05-MU I took it back the next day after I got it. It was very unstable. It couldn't even find the disc most of the time. It kept giving me "no disc" errors. I wish it had worked because I did like it, it had some great features. So I took it back and got the 04 model. They just happened to have 1 in stock. I haven't had any problems with it yet, except once when I went to record, it got hung and wouldn't start recording. After unplugging it, it worked fine again and that same disc still recorded. It's been really stable so far though.

     

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