VHS looks better and worse than I remember
I spent almost the first half of my life with only VHS as my home video format, although I was able to watch LaserDiscs a few times. So you would think that I have a pretty clear memory of what VHS video looks like. However, it’s been 20 years since I last watched a tape, and it turns out our memories can be inaccurate in the strangest ways.
So when my wife recently came home with a VCR and two boxes of video tapes from a thrift store, I was curious to see what quality the resulting picture would be. What I saw was paradoxical. I remember the VHS looking better than this, but at the same time it looks better than it should on paper.
Why VHS is better than nostalgia suggests
So I should point out that it’s been a while since I got rid of my last flat screen TV with analog video inputs. So even if I wanted to, I have no real way to connect this nice DVD/VCR combo my wife found to my modern TVs even if I wanted to.
And, I don’t do it I want to do this because they’re not going to do the source material any favors. VHS was never designed to span an eight million pixel grid, and it’s not fair to subject it to such torture. Although I haven’t tried VHS on a 4K TV, I have tried using my analog SD consoles on it, and that’s one of the reasons I bought a Sony Trinitron CRT.
I also happen to have a Samsung Slimfit flat-panel CRT monitor that I chose as a more portable retro gaming option than my 34-inch Sony monster. However, it turns out that the geometry of this CRT TV, being a flat panel model, does my PS1 or PS2 games a disservice. So my search for a small CRT continues and I gave the Samsung to my wife to accompany her in her new analog video hobby.
Looking at some of the factory-made VHS tapes she collected, I was struck by the fact that it didn’t look bad at all. Sure, the details aren’t there, but watching a National Geographic nature documentary, there was nothing stopping me from just enjoying the show. Fortunately, these tapes are still fairly “new” in the sense that they apparently haven’t been released much. So there were none of the usual issues with tracking or artifacts from wear and tear. Likewise, we used a head cleaner before playing a cassette, so aside from the age of the media and player, I think that was about optimal.
On the CRT in particular, given its small size (around 21 inches) and the smoothing effect that this display technology offers thanks to its operation, my overall impression was pleasant.
Why does this seem so objectively horrible?
So the VHS doesn’t look as bad as my adult brain thought, it doesn’t look as good as my child brain remembers it, but there’s no denying that it falls short of modern standards.
An interesting issue here is that because my wife purchased a DVD combo unit, I can compare the picture quality directly with that of the DVD without changing anything else. Same TV, same player, same cables. Going from VHS to DVD is a big jump in fidelity, but above all the improvement comes from the stability of the image.
VHS has a lot of noise compared to DVD, and colors don’t fluctuate or bleed all over the place. The audio in particular is also much cleaner. This really highlights what a fantastic DVD format it was and still is. I watch DVDs on my modern 4K OLED all the time and the upscaling possible is simply amazing. I rarely remember that I’m watching a DVD and not a Blu-ray with some of the best DVD edits.
This took me back to when I bought my very first DVD player and watched Akira And The Matrix on our old tube TV in the early 2000s. I never went back to VHS again until today.
Rediscover the charm of imperfection
What I can’t deny is that the texture and feel of VHS is truly something unique. It may not be the best quality by any objective measure, but some movies and shows just seem more authentic by playing to this setting. Or maybe it’s just nostalgia. I don’t know how someone who never lived with analog video would view VHS today, but with young people turning to cassettes, never say never.
I didn’t plan on having videotapes in my house again, and it’s not like I plan on watching them seriously, but it’s somehow comforting to know that if we feel like it, we can pretend it’s 1995 again.
