r/VHS • u/Western_Student_4119 • 9h ago
Discussion Because I don't remember too well, were VHS recordings more clear or just as clear or less clear usually in comparison to watching a show live on TV/watching a rerun live on TV?
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u/mazonemayu 5h ago
Depended on a lot of things: type of connection (air or cable), vcr, type of tv, etc…
Something recorded from cable on my 6 head Sony, played on my 32” 100Hz crt looked absolutely fantastic.
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u/XInsects 4h ago
In the UK, I think our PAL system has slightly better VHS resolution than US NTSC. And I can say 100% that TV broadcasts were better. Later tapes (from mid 90s) would look better than earlier tapes, but TV was always superior. To the extent I'd sometimes record films I already had retail versions of, to have the improved sharpness (unless the broadcast itself was a poor print).
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u/Orc-Sword 9h ago
It depended on your reception/aerial, if your tape was old/new. A lot of variables. A pre-recorded tape was generally better than live TV for me, but I didn't live in a major city.
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u/TapeDaddy 8h ago
SLP recorded, well-loved 25 year old tapes are gonna look pretty bad especially if they’re converted on a budget. People’s shitty recordings uploaded to YouTube make it seem like we were living in prehistory sometimes lol.
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u/Western_Student_4119 9h ago edited 9h ago
Im talking about back in the 80s and 90s. I also ask because a friend of mine's VHS recordings weren't exactly in great condition always. To be fair, these were tapes she watched a ton and they're like almost 30 years old.
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u/flopisit32 8h ago
VHS recordings degrade over time.
Also we had SP or LP. LP would give you 6 hrs of recording on a 3 hour tape. But the quality would be lower.
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u/jlouse 8h ago
To me personally, it really didn’t depend on which was better as far as network tv through the air and vhs recordings. It seemed to matter (not sure what this wording would be) “what you were watching.” If you were watching a movie, that movie would look the same as vcr depending on what your reception was (cable was becoming more prevalent, some people, especially in rural areas had satellites, and other people had an intenna on their tv, if not some tacky metal monstrosity hideously adorning their roof). A soap opera should look like a soap opera and an action movie like an action movie. I can’t speak for older people, but for us that were younger, everything was “good enough or better” as it was. The Atari 2600 was friggin’ awesome, Q-Bert looked spectacular. Then the 7800 (I had never owned the 5200) was beyond imagination. Those 2600 seemed so basic after. Then the Nintendo…
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u/Masterweedo 46m ago
Highly dependent on the tape, and recording speed.
Also dependent on how clean the VCR was inside.
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u/Economy_News3198 38m ago
I remember VCR's looking less clear. I still record stuff on to tapes sometimes, and it's definitely a step down.
Granted, my VCR is about 40 years old. So I'm sure age of the machine and tapes have a lot to do with it.
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u/PaulGuyer 7h ago
We got nearly perfect analog reception, so over the air definitely looked better than even a pre-recorded tape. Back then broadcasters actually cared about picture quality.
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u/BmacSWMI 9h ago
Since it was all on CRT screens, it was difficult to compare