stupid question but my dad keeps asking me so I need help - Blu-ray Forum

phatrat1982 · 01-14-2010, 03:40 AM

Ok he is not real old only barely 53 but he is old fashion type guy. He loves his HDTV's and like the picture quality but he swears VHS still looks good enough for him. My question is kinda simple. Well maybe not so simple people just say no and move on but anyways. Keep in mind HE thinks VHS still looks good, so my question is, if we hooked up his VCR to his HDTV, it's a 42" set, would the picture be as good as it is on his CRT SDTV? Or would it look so much worse he would not like it? Most of his tapes are all Full Screen anyways and the ones he has are mostly movies he does not think are worth upgrading to DVD and he has yet to buy a single Blu Ray for himself, mostly lack of movies that interest him.

So um I want to know is there a way to make the VHS look at least as 'good' as it foes on the normal tv or will the HDTV upscale it or do something to it to make it look worse? Will it make it look better? He has a really high quality VCR, it was an $800 VCR in the 90's so it's top of the line in quality and puts out an impressive picture for VHS, looks like garbage to me but he says it's no different than DVD to him. He currently has it in the spare bedroom hooked up to an old tv but wants it in the living room so he can enjoy his old movies on his TV, but he wants to know if it will look really bad before he does it. Truthfully he is scared since it is old school stuff it might somehow hurt his TV, anyways he won't hook it up until someone can assure him it will not hurt his TV and it will not look worse than what he is used to.

I can not test out TV on SD OTA channels because where we live we are too far away, but our old tv we just replaced even the SD channels looked watchable on the TV but this is a larger set and I don't know if that makes a big difference or not. it's a 1080p set will that make it better or worse? I did notice that on Directv SD channels look better now on the new tv than they did on the old one but DVD's look worse.

Steve · 01-14-2010, 03:51 AM

Well.......

Hooking the VCR up to his HDTV won't hurt anything, per se. There are a couple of things to consider though. One, the TV IS going to upscale and deinterlace the image to 1080p. There's no getting around that, and I have my doubts on how good it's going to look. Whether he admits it or not, VHS tapes aren't equal to DVD in picture quality, which is 480p, or in audio quality. That's why DVD took over and VHS died. He does realize you can't get these any more, right?

Two, as you pointed out the VHS tapes are full screen. You can set the TV to display them properly which means there will be black columns on either side of the screen, or if you want to be tricky and make it look bad, you can set the TV to stretch the picture to fill the entire screen. One thing to consider here, you didn't mention whether the TV is an LCD or plasma. If it's an LCD it won't hurt it to play the tapes with the black columns. On the 'better' plasmas it really won't hurt anything either. However, if it's a cheapo plasma, and if he's really going to be watching these old tapes like they're going out of style (pun intended), then there's the risk of burning the black columns onto the screen. Granted, this would take some pretty sever abuse to do, but it's a possibility.

Anyway, it's not going to break the TV or anything just to hook the VCR up and see what it looks like. You might as well do it and let him see for himself what it's going to look like.

HiDefRev · 01-14-2010, 07:10 AM

Well, I'm 56 years old, and you can tell him that I said " Get with the program, Sonny " !!!

Seriously, I don't have any VHS or BETA tapes any more due to the fact that they look terrible on HDTVs. I switched to DVD several years ago, and to Blu-Ray almost 2 years ago. Though I am now retired, I try to keep up with current technology. I feel that you're only as old as you think !!

EvilGav · 01-14-2010, 09:49 AM

I wish people would stop insisting on calling DVD's 480p. DVD's can hold and transmit up to 700 lines of data, far in excess of 480p which is more akin to S-VCD than DVD.

As for playing VHS on a 1080p screen, it will look dreadful. VHS can, at best, resolve to around 250 lines, which even at it's best was always a little flat on the best CRT TV's. Upscaling that to a 1080p image will make it look even worse.

Steve · 01-14-2010, 10:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilGav

I wish people would stop insisting on calling DVD's 480p. DVD's can hold and transmit up to 700 lines of data, far in excess of 480p which is more akin to S-VCD than DVD.

As for playing VHS on a 1080p screen, it will look dreadful. VHS can, at best, resolve to around 250 lines, which even at it's best was always a little flat on the best CRT TV's. Upscaling that to a 1080p image will make it look even worse.

Perhaps you would be so kind as to provide a list of movies on DVD that were recorded in 700 resolution.

Blu_balls · 01-14-2010, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EvilGav

I wish people would stop insisting on calling DVD's 480p. DVD's can hold and transmit up to 700 lines of data, far in excess of 480p which is more akin to S-VCD than DVD.

As for playing VHS on a 1080p screen, it will look dreadful. VHS can, at best, resolve to around 250 lines, which even at it's best was always a little flat on the best CRT TV's. Upscaling that to a 1080p image will make it look even worse.

I believe DVD's output only 480p. They may be "capable" of more, but they aren't used for more than that due to standard tv resolutions. All video data for DVDs is either 720x576 or 720x480 for PAL or NTSC respectively. And to be HD, 700 lines is not enough anyway. Newer DVD players can up convert a DVD image to 720p, but that's using a computer to convert it, not just the disc providing the information.

Beta Man · 01-14-2010, 12:49 PM

Not sure in regards to VHS, but I find DVDs look better on a good standard Def. CRT than they do on a Plasma or LCD....... I just find the color reproduction to be better........

That being said, if he thinks the VHS tapes he has look "good enough" any change in the PQ wouldn't be enough (either positive or negative) to cause him to enjoy them any less........ so I think he should connect his VHS to his new T.V. and enjoy!

bhampton · 01-14-2010, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatrat1982

Ok he is not real old only barely 53 but he is old fashion type guy. He loves his HDTV's and like the picture quality but he swears VHS still looks good enough for him.

Ha,... That's as far as I got. Give him all your VHS tapes and find someone else to watch movies with.

-Brian

Edit- I do believe that CRTs were and are the best of all display technologies but I don't still use one.

BJMRamage · 01-14-2010, 04:08 PM

buy a Bluray of a movie he likes and has on VHS.
start the VHS then watch the BD. If he's fine with VHS, great, he has what he wants. If he sees the difference, on his TV with a movie he has. well, he can slowly upgrade or not and just buy new movies he might like on BD.

RedHot · 01-14-2010, 04:23 PM

Fathers day is about 6 months away, so take his VHS tapes and get them converted over to DVD for him. The PQ may not be any better, but the DVD will last longer than the tape. That is also a way to get him to switch over for anything new he may want to watch.

SpaceDog · 01-14-2010, 05:41 PM

Given that blu-ray is at a manageable price point, I'd say skip DVD altogether and blow him away with his favorite movie on blu-ray (or at least his favorite among those that are available). He'll eat his words.

Mordir · 01-14-2010, 05:55 PM

How big of a VHS collection does he have? DVD's are so cheap these days you could probably start replacing them for him since he still likes the movies enough to watch them on VHS. Sure it's still not bluray quality but DVD destroys VHS.

kevinbr100 · 01-14-2010, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bhampton

Ha,... That's as far as I got. Give him all your VHS tapes and find someone else to watch movies with.

-Brian

Edit- I do believe that CRTs were and are the best of all display technologies but I don't still use one.

you know what it is. he doesnt want to give up his vhs because his secret stash of porn is all on vhs tapes

Blu-ray Fanatic · 01-14-2010, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phatrat1982

Ok he is not real old only barely 53 but he is old fashion type guy. He loves his HDTV's and like the picture quality but he swears VHS still looks good enough for him. My question is kinda simple. Well maybe not so simple people just say no and move on but anyways. Keep in mind HE thinks VHS still looks good, so my question is, if we hooked up his VCR to his HDTV, it's a 42" set, would the picture be as good as it is on his CRT SDTV? Or would it look so much worse he would not like it? Most of his tapes are all Full Screen anyways and the ones he has are mostly movies he does not think are worth upgrading to DVD and he has yet to buy a single Blu Ray for himself, mostly lack of movies that interest him.

So um I want to know is there a way to make the VHS look at least as 'good' as it foes on the normal tv or will the HDTV upscale it or do something to it to make it look worse? Will it make it look better? He has a really high quality VCR, it was an $800 VCR in the 90's so it's top of the line in quality and puts out an impressive picture for VHS, looks like garbage to me but he says it's no different than DVD to him. He currently has it in the spare bedroom hooked up to an old tv but wants it in the living room so he can enjoy his old movies on his TV, but he wants to know if it will look really bad before he does it. Truthfully he is scared since it is old school stuff it might somehow hurt his TV, anyways he won't hook it up until someone can assure him it will not hurt his TV and it will not look worse than what he is used to.

I can not test out TV on SD OTA channels because where we live we are too far away, but our old tv we just replaced even the SD channels looked watchable on the TV but this is a larger set and I don't know if that makes a big difference or not. it's a 1080p set will that make it better or worse? I did notice that on Directv SD channels look better now on the new tv than they did on the old one but DVD's look worse.

He needs to get with the program. VHS is dead technology just like HD-DVD.

BluLuzzo · 01-14-2010, 05:58 PM

wow, i've heard many people having a hard time converting from DVD to Blu... but i have yet to heard people still fight for VHS rights... good luck phatrat1982..

I converted my bro to blu, but my dad will not be convinced that blu is that superior to DVD..

ghebert · 01-14-2010, 06:08 PM

Here's what you do...any movie he has on VHS that you have on Blu-Ray (if none I'm sure you can rent) bring it along with your player, have him watch a favorite scene of that movie on VHS on his HDTV, then play that same movie on Blu-Ray and let him make his decision on whether he still likes VHS or not. Don't be surprised if he starts crying when he sees how terrible VHS looks on his HDTV as it will magnify imperfections not visible on a standard def CRT display.

seeweda · 01-14-2010, 06:28 PM

My thought is why not just hook it up and see if it looks better to him or not? It takes all of 60 secs to disconnect and reconnect a VCR to a TV. It really doesn't matter what everyone else thinks it just matters on how it looks to your dad.

phatrat1982 · 01-19-2010, 10:49 AM

ok well it's mostly old movies that aren't on DVD yet or movies he doesn't care enough about PQ to upgrade and the rest are either low budget movies never coming to DVD/Blu Ray, or VHS tapes recorded from church confrences he has gone to, so several of them are never going to be available on anything else. he knows that Blu Ray is better and so is DVD, we have over 200 DVD's and over 50 Blu rays now, but he still has lots of stuff on VHS that either won't be on DVD/Blu Ray EVER or stuff that is, to him, not worth the repurchase.

He says vhs is 'good enough" for his old tv, but not as good as DVD, to be fair he does not watch DVD's on his old tv anymore and he always had a combo player. Also he still records shows from his church channels on tv and non of those are close to DVD quality anyways, since they are all filmed on tape anyways.

So anyways I guess the truth is it won't hurt anything then so that should be good enough. I really do not appreciate the insults and sure wish there was a mod around here to keep people civil.

I know it's not a big deal to some people but he had questions I did not have the answers to. I am not as new to HD as he is but I threw my VCR away after I got my first DVD player and never looked back so I know VHS looks like ass to me but he still likes it, maybe for nostalgia I don't know even still like I said he has TONS of tapes that ARE NOT on DVD and will never be, mostly tapes from his church and their services and church tv stations.

alphadec · 01-19-2010, 11:36 AM

did u say VHS. ???

VHS Like cassettes . ?

yes I remember those if he cannot see the difference from vhs and even HDTV...... then he got something wrong wit his eyes!, take him to a doctor ASAP!

Chaco · 01-19-2010, 04:39 PM

am i the only one here??

but my VHS tapes back in the 90s used to fungi on them if laid horizontally...

take a look and if they have it, tell him is junk and get the new movies on DVD at least, but preferably on BD

01-14-2010, 03:40 AM	#1
phatrat1982 Banned Member since:Jul 2009 Location:I move around too much to keep this accurate Blu-ray reviews:1	stupid question but my dad keeps asking me so I need help Ok he is not real old only barely 53 but he is old fashion type guy. He loves his HDTV's and like the picture quality but he swears VHS still looks good enough for him. My question is kinda simple. Well maybe not so simple people just say no and move on but anyways. Keep in mind HE thinks VHS still looks good, so my question is, if we hooked up his VCR to his HDTV, it's a 42" set, would the picture be as good as it is on his CRT SDTV? Or would it look so much worse he would not like it? Most of his tapes are all Full Screen anyways and the ones he has are mostly movies he does not think are worth upgrading to DVD and he has yet to buy a single Blu Ray for himself, mostly lack of movies that interest him. So um I want to know is there a way to make the VHS look at least as 'good' as it foes on the normal tv or will the HDTV upscale it or do something to it to make it look worse? Will it make it look better? He has a really high quality VCR, it was an $800 VCR in the 90's so it's top of the line in quality and puts out an impressive picture for VHS, looks like garbage to me but he says it's no different than DVD to him. He currently has it in the spare bedroom hooked up to an old tv but wants it in the living room so he can enjoy his old movies on his TV, but he wants to know if it will look really bad before he does it. Truthfully he is scared since it is old school stuff it might somehow hurt his TV, anyways he won't hook it up until someone can assure him it will not hurt his TV and it will not look worse than what he is used to. I can not test out TV on SD OTA channels because where we live we are too far away, but our old tv we just replaced even the SD channels looked watchable on the TV but this is a larger set and I don't know if that makes a big difference or not. it's a 1080p set will that make it better or worse? I did notice that on Directv SD channels look better now on the new tv than they did on the old one but DVD's look worse.

01-14-2010, 07:10 AM	#3
HiDefRev Active Member Member since:Sep 2009 Location:State of Relativity Blu-ray collection:35	Dad Well, I'm 56 years old, and you can tell him that I said " *Get with the program, Sonny* " !!! Seriously, I don't have any VHS or BETA tapes any more due to the fact that they look terrible on HDTVs. I switched to DVD several years ago, and to Blu-Ray almost 2 years ago. Though I am now retired, I try to keep up with current technology. I feel that you're only as old as you think !!

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01-14-2010, 03:51 AM	#2
Steve Blu-ray Knight Top ranked HT gallery Top contributor Member since:May 2008 Location:Anna, TX 4K collection:128 Blu-ray collection:416 Trading Score:41	Well....... Hooking the VCR up to his HDTV won't hurt anything, per se. There are a couple of things to consider though. One, the TV IS going to upscale and deinterlace the image to 1080p. There's no getting around that, and I have my doubts on how good it's going to look. Whether he admits it or not, VHS tapes aren't equal to DVD in picture quality, which is 480p, or in audio quality. That's why DVD took over and VHS died. He does realize you can't get these any more, right? Two, as you pointed out the VHS tapes are full screen. You can set the TV to display them properly which means there will be black columns on either side of the screen, or if you want to be tricky and make it look bad, you can set the TV to stretch the picture to fill the entire screen. One thing to consider here, you didn't mention whether the TV is an LCD or plasma. If it's an LCD it won't hurt it to play the tapes with the black columns. On the 'better' plasmas it really won't hurt anything either. However, if it's a cheapo plasma, and if he's really going to be watching these old tapes like they're going out of style (pun intended), then there's the risk of burning the black columns onto the screen. Granted, this would take some pretty sever abuse to do, but it's a possibility. Anyway, it's not going to break the TV or anything just to hook the VCR up and see what it looks like. You might as well do it and let him see for himself what it's going to look like.

01-14-2010, 09:49 AM	#4
EvilGav Member Member since:Jul 2009 Blu-ray collection:32	I wish people would stop insisting on calling DVD's 480p. DVD's can hold and transmit up to 700 lines of data, far in excess of 480p which is more akin to S-VCD than DVD. As for playing VHS on a 1080p screen, it will look dreadful. VHS can, at best, resolve to around 250 lines, which even at it's best was always a little flat on the best CRT TV's. Upscaling that to a 1080p image will make it look even worse.

01-14-2010, 12:49 PM	#7
Beta Man Moderator Top contributor Member since:Jan 2008 Location:Juuuuuuuust A Bit Outside.... Home Theater Gallery:4 Blu-ray collection:268 Blu-ray reviews: 18 Trading Score:25	Not sure in regards to VHS, but I find DVDs look better on a good standard Def. CRT than they do on a Plasma or LCD....... I just find the color reproduction to be better........ That being said, if he thinks the VHS tapes he has look "good enough" any change in the PQ wouldn't be enough (either positive or negative) to cause him to enjoy them any less........ so I think he should connect his VHS to his new T.V. and enjoy!

01-14-2010, 04:08 PM	#9
BJMRamage Blu-ray Guru Member since:Dec 2009 Location:MD Blu-ray collection:74 Digital collection:6 iTunes collection:722 Blu-ray reviews: 34 Trading Score:119	buy a Bluray of a movie he likes and has on VHS. start the VHS then watch the BD. If he's fine with VHS, great, he has what he wants. If he sees the difference, on his TV with a movie he has. well, he can slowly upgrade or not and just buy new movies he might like on BD.

01-14-2010, 04:23 PM	#10
RedHot Junior Member Member since:Jan 2009	Fathers day is about 6 months away, so take his VHS tapes and get them converted over to DVD for him. The PQ may not be any better, but the DVD will last longer than the tape. That is also a way to get him to switch over for anything new he may want to watch.

01-14-2010, 05:41 PM	#11
SpaceDog Blu-ray Samurai Member since:Jun 2007 Location:Raleigh, NC Blu-ray collection:116	Given that blu-ray is at a manageable price point, I'd say skip DVD altogether and blow him away with his favorite movie on blu-ray (or at least his favorite among those that are available). He'll eat his words.

01-14-2010, 05:55 PM	#12
Mordir Active Member Top contributor Member since:Aug 2009 Blu-ray collection:58	How big of a VHS collection does he have? DVD's are so cheap these days you could probably start replacing them for him since he still likes the movies enough to watch them on VHS. Sure it's still not bluray quality but DVD destroys VHS.

01-14-2010, 05:58 PM	#15
BluLuzzo Member Member since:Sep 2008 Blu-ray collection:99 Blu-ray reviews:1 Trading Score:2	wow, i've heard many people having a hard time converting from DVD to Blu... but i have yet to heard people still fight for VHS rights... good luck phatrat1982.. I converted my bro to blu, but my dad will not be convinced that blu is that superior to DVD..

01-14-2010, 06:08 PM	#16
ghebert Active Member Member since:Oct 2008 4K collection:299 Blu-ray collection:616 Blu-ray reviews: 2	Here's what you do...any movie he has on VHS that you have on Blu-Ray (if none I'm sure you can rent) bring it along with your player, have him watch a favorite scene of that movie on VHS on his HDTV, then play that same movie on Blu-Ray and let him make his decision on whether he still likes VHS or not. Don't be surprised if he starts crying when he sees how terrible VHS looks on his HDTV as it will magnify imperfections not visible on a standard def CRT display.

01-14-2010, 06:28 PM	#17
seeweda Special Member Member since:Jun 2009 Blu-ray collection:302 Trading Score:6	My thought is why not just hook it up and see if it looks better to him or not? It takes all of 60 secs to disconnect and reconnect a VCR to a TV. It really doesn't matter what everyone else thinks it just matters on how it looks to your dad.

01-19-2010, 10:49 AM	#18
phatrat1982 Banned Member since:Jul 2009 Location:I move around too much to keep this accurate Blu-ray reviews:1	ok well it's mostly old movies that aren't on DVD yet or movies he doesn't care enough about PQ to upgrade and the rest are either low budget movies never coming to DVD/Blu Ray, or VHS tapes recorded from church confrences he has gone to, so several of them are never going to be available on anything else. he knows that Blu Ray is better and so is DVD, we have over 200 DVD's and over 50 Blu rays now, but he still has lots of stuff on VHS that either won't be on DVD/Blu Ray EVER or stuff that is, to him, not worth the repurchase. He says vhs is 'good enough" for his old tv, but not as good as DVD, to be fair he does not watch DVD's on his old tv anymore and he always had a combo player. Also he still records shows from his church channels on tv and non of those are close to DVD quality anyways, since they are all filmed on tape anyways. So anyways I guess the truth is it won't hurt anything then so that should be good enough. I really do not appreciate the insults and sure wish there was a mod around here to keep people civil. I know it's not a big deal to some people but he had questions I did not have the answers to. I am not as new to HD as he is but I threw my VCR away after I got my first DVD player and never looked back so I know VHS looks like ass to me but he still likes it, maybe for nostalgia I don't know even still like I said he has TONS of tapes that ARE NOT on DVD and will never be, mostly tapes from his church and their services and church tv stations.

01-19-2010, 11:36 AM	#19
alphadec Expert Member Top contributor Member since:Jul 2007 Location:Norway Home Theater Gallery:6 4K collection:21 Blu-ray collection:672 DVD collection:23 Prime collection:2 Blu-ray reviews:44	did u say VHS. ??? VHS Like cassettes . ? yes I remember those if he cannot see the difference from vhs and even HDTV...... then he got something wrong wit his eyes!, take him to a doctor ASAP!

01-19-2010, 04:39 PM	#20
Chaco Member Member since:Nov 2008 Home Theater Gallery:8 Blu-ray collection:102 Blu-ray reviews: 3	am i the only one here?? but my VHS tapes back in the 90s used to fungi on them if laid horizontally... take a look and if they have it, tell him is junk and get the new movies on DVD at least, but preferably on BD

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