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Misremembering VHS or VHS didn't look nearly as bad as people now claim it did
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I have one the last models of VCR/DVD combos made before the production of VCRs were stopped. It actually has HDMI output. VHS image quality through HDMI on an HDTV is soft as you would expect a standard definition format would look on an HDTV. But it also looks far better than you would expect and is perfectly watchable. -
Just making a personal annotation, it's not directed at the context of your post.Leave a comment:
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This is actually about remembering the format in its correct historical context and not comically exaggerating its limitations. VHS picture quality obviously doesn't compare to Blu-Ray on a modern HDTV. But a good quality VHS tape on nice picture tube TV looked perfectly fine for the time.Leave a comment:
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My problem with VHS, and why I started buying laser discs then DVDs and then Blu-Ray, is more about aspect ratio than quality. Once I discovered that movies were shown, for the most part, in the wrong aspect ratio and were either presented pan and scan or "formatted to fit your TV"--which they still do unfortunately--it drove me crazy. Then of course you get into the open-matte problem, one notable example is Pee-Wee's Big Adventure when you can see the bike chain coming up through the bottom of his bag, which shows MORE of a movie than the director intended. That's when you see stuff like boom mics and tracks.
I cannot and will not jump on the VHS nostalgia bandwagon though. Movies in HD in the correct aspect ratio just make me happy. I remember watching Eraserhead on VHS and not being able to see half of the movie. When I finally saw it on the big screen (and now on my remastered DVD) it was a revelation. I found myself muttering, "Oh, that's what that was!" It's probably not the best example since the movie is really dark anyway, but man what a huge difference!Leave a comment:
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Yeah, I think a lot of folks forget that TV's have improved a lot as well but a nice new SP pre record of a movie on a tube TV was pretty sweet.
I blame stuff like "Tim and Eric" which sort of lampoons the VHS tape that's been recorded on 50 times for this perception now.Leave a comment:
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Our earliest top-loading VCRs had a really good picture quality.
Both Betamax and VHS.Leave a comment:
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I was in no hurry to jump on the DVD bandwagon and leave my vhs collection behind. Eventually I had no choice but still love my vhs (and beta) tapes.Leave a comment:
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