stupid question but my dad keeps asking me so I need help

[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.

[Steve]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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!

[Hammie]

We have a few VHS home videos of the kids and watching them on my 50" plasma hurts. Granted I will never get rid of them (I'm in process of burning them to DVD), but the quality of super low.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

VHS was meant to be viewed on a screen no bigger than 21". Anything bigger than that begins to pixelate the image.

DVD begins to pixelate badly on screens larger than 30".

Blu-ray has yet to prove itself having a limitation in a home theatre setting as people with 150" screens are still able to see every freckle and hair without distortion.

To give your father an idea about what his VHS tapes will look like on his HDTV, bring hime to a computer. Load a photoshop type program. Open an image file with a resolution of 640x480. Then, using the program options, select a magnification of 500%. That will give him a clear example of what his VHS image will become.

As for the damage question? No... the VCR will not cause damage to his TV. The only thing it will damage is his eyes (from the bad quality) and his pride (for having been so stubborn about such a lacklustre format).

[Clark Kent]

If he is so intent on VHS, tell him they now have combo Blu-ray/VHS players.

[fdm]

For the record, I still tape a few TV shows onto S-VHS for time-shifting purposes. They are good enough to watch, but yeah they are no substitute for the real thing (a decent quality DVD or a Blu-Ray). I don't save them once I watch them 99% of the time. And they look reasonable on a 60" widescreen TV. I'd say go for it, perfection is nice but not necessary. His VHS tapes should be fine for what he wants.

Then toss in a DVD or BD and he'll start coming around.

(What I tape from is SD c-band courtesy of a 4dtv rig that's been really flakey as of late, and seemingly getting moreso by the day - PQ is okay, but the digital feeds that have been provided are not necessarily state of the art anymore; thinking direct tv or dishnet is in my future, but I still think I will be fine with S-VHS for time-shifting what little I watch on TV.)

[bhampton]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[Blu-ray Fanatic]

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.

[Mordir]

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.

[BluLuzzo]

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]

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]

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.