I was shocked a few years ago. I bought an unopened pre-SE Star Wars Trilogy box set on ebay for, like, $25. I do have a VCR (And a Beta player that I've never used because I don't have any tapes for it), but I mostly collect VHS for the fun of it, having them on a shelf more for decoration. I did watch the first Star Wars VHS, though.
VHS tapes generally won't look very good on LCD or OLED TVs because they have limited color depth and contrast compared to modern TVs. This can make the image appear washed out and dull. Also, modern TVs are designed to display high-definition content, so they often have features like sharpness enhancement and motion smoothing that make the imperfections of VHS more noticeable. Additionally, most VHS tapes are formatted to a 4:3 aspect ratio and are meant to be displayed on old CRT TVs. The TV in this video you posted stretches the video to fit the widescreen (16:9) aspect ratio of your LCD TV. Some TVs can compensate for this by using the zoom function to better display the 4:3 image by adding black bars on either side of the image to stop the weird stretching effect. While VHS looks great on CRT TVs, it was never designed to work on LCD or OLED TVs, so its color saturation and brightness will look off. VHS also has a low video resolution compared to modern Blu-ray and streaming services. This was fine for CRT TVs, which are more forgiving when it comes to displaying low-resolution imagery. It also helps that CRT TVs have a lower resolution display. Modern TVs are not nearly as capable of displaying low-resolution imagery because they have a fixed number of pixels. CRT TVs don't have pixels but scan lines that work similarly to pixels but are still very different. Think of a CRT TV as a film projector screen. Whatever resolution you pump into it, the CRT TV will display cleanly and accurately. Until you hit its upper limit of around 480/525i resolution limit. That's because the scan lines of a CRT TV are determined by how tightly the electron beam can be focused and how quickly it can be deflected. So, depending on the resolution of the source it's receiving, it can display fewer or more lines. (Note: There is still a finite lower and upper-end limit.) CRT TVs receive analog signals, which are continuous waveforms. Unlike digital signals, which are limited to discrete steps, this allows for smooth transitions between resolutions. VHS tapes actually have a digital resolution below standard definition. Typically, we consider 640x480p "Progressive" (Or "I" for interlaced video) as standard definition in the modern digital world. But VHS is actually closer to 480 x 333 digitally. A CRT TV can display this with no problem. It will look clean and sharp. But modern TVs need help with this. That's because they must use onboard processors to reconfigure those 480 x 333i interlaced images into a 1920 x 1080p progressive image to display correctly on a modern HDTV. Or even more for 4K TVs. So, modern TVs, instead of rendering only the required resolution like an old CRT TV, have to resort to pixel doubling to fill out the fixed 2,073,600 pixels that make up your display. Unused pixels start to display the same imagery as the pixel next to them. This is also referred to as upscaling. So you upscaled a 333i video source to 1080p but still managed to add no further detail in clarity or sharpness. It's still going to be a native 333 interlaced video-just scaled so your TV can display the image as best it can. So, the image will look worse on your HDTV than a CRT displaying the same image. Modern HDTVs are explicitly designed for HD content. The lowest resolution they can generally handle decently enough is 640 x 480 progressive (p) video like from DVDs. 🙂
That's why I use a avihd connector adapter and gold plated RYW cords to make the vhs look like dvd quality at least besides I know vhs ain't going to be modern led oled specs you know that going in and I don't really care I can't tell the subtle differences anyway cause I like the classic movies in any format..
I still have an old VCR including a lot of VHS tapes in my movie collection too since I used to grow up with collecting and watching VHS movies myself!
Lmao dude I’ve been watching my old Star Wars AND TMNT tapes on an old tube tv with built in VCR - the nostalgia is unreal and honestly I think the video plays better than a stream (no its not HD) but when I watch something digital I can see the pixels that make up the screen, and there’s always tons of weird shadows and darkness with jagged lines of different shades of grey. The VHS, meanwhile, is smooth.
@@Warp2090 my problem with my crt is that it will go from light to dark when watching movies but not when I play games. I thought it was the vcr but it does it on all of the vcrs that I own.
@@matthewp9740 There are still TV repair men around. I had my Tandy CGA monitor fixed a few years ago for only $35 USD. I was supper happy that it didn't cost much to fix. But you may be able to find a CRT TV for that price if you look around.
Noice... fun fnact even blu ray vcr combo units exist for those in love with the combos exclusively vs seperate ocmponents or just anybody amused by that trivia. See 2009 model year panasonic bdv70? Iirc thatvis the modek of it.
Remember this your vhs tapes can't go out like phone does plus it don't lock up at all like internet does everything proven vhs tapes are never to old to which in your house now days
Great video vhs tapes more free whiching in your house now days then Disney plus is everything proven vhs tapes keeps you moving more than internet does like getting up and down putting vhs in your VCR player and putting them up broken vhs tapes more fixbel with Scotch tape it starts playing again with out no problem's plus people keep there mode switch clean out like they should people will never have playing problem's at all with their VCR players everything proven online how clean out a mode switch in a VCR player if you don't know what a mode switch is
