Late Bloomer for Smart TV upgrades

[bucolic_frolic]

so ... the issue comes up .. vhs conversions to dvd and for that matter film to digital. Thought I had that nailed with a film to digital converter. It sounds like that would be fine for PCs. But how does it play on smart TVs?

But then the issue of analog vs digital TV's came up, and then vhs to digital, and then playing on a modern digital TV like a Roku or Samsung.

I spent an hour on AI informing me about this stuff. Seems a sticking point is picture quality deteriorates when VHS is played on smart TVs. Playing on analog is said to yield better picture quality.

Then they say "use S-Video" cables. Smart TVs as far as I can tell do not have S-Video inputs. More frequent is to use analog RCA to HDMI adapter. Is there S-Video to RCA to HDMI? I think not, or at least don't think it would improve anything.

Does it help to digitize first, before playing on smart TVs?

Thanks for any direction you can offer. AI sorted it out well, but sometimes they generalize and slough over sticking points, as if everyone already understands the technology.

[walkingman]

1. Good synopsis of the changing technology - but what exactly are

you trying to do?

stream from PC to TV?
rip a dvd and play on TV?
s-video from AVR to TV?

I have a 4K TV and to be honest I think the basic 1080p resolution is pretty standard these days and although it is supposed to simulate 4K from 1080 feed - I can't really tell the difference.

I've found that HDMI connection seems to be the standard these days, even from PCs.

The 4K TV is smart but I seldom use it. I like the ROKU player best. I also have a Chromecast (easy to cast from chrome browser) which uses chromeTV for apps which seems good but I stick to the ROKU because it is much more straight-forward to me. Maybe because I have used it for years?

[bucolic_frolic]

5. Good questions

I have multiple projects. I still have film to convert to digital. These can be digitized frame by frame with a converter, and the playback is said to be very good. I think they make mp4 files.

Also I have VHS, camcorder type as well as full size. My DVD deck will record on DVD from VHS though I never figured out how to do it and I doubt it's digital.

So it was really a question about a new Smart TV. I was going to ditch the analog one but it's had light use and was the best picture of any CRT I ever had. I think some of this stuff about picture quality, distortion, won't be solved until I do some conversions and compare the two. But the goal simply must be to use smart TV's because that's what there are now. Can't rely on analog long term, but can see if intermittent steps for analog make playback any better on smart TVs when digitized.

THanks for the help.

[Wounded Bear]

2. Have had a smart TV for a while. Samsung is my chosen model...

I like converting recorded media to MP4 for watching, most smart TVs have at least one USB port available and can read PC file types direct from a portable hard drive.

There are programs available to convert DVDs to MP4 in most cases. Picture quality is degraded a bit, but it is more convenient than switching out discs every episode/flick.

[bucolic_frolic]

6. Interesting hard drive idea and good to know.

MP4 is recommended by so many but it still has some loss of picture quality. That's probably something I'll have to live with and won't be a big deal, but am more concerned about distortion.

[walkingman]

3. If you are trying to play some vhs tapes on your smart TV

Last edited Sat May 10, 2025, 05:40 PM - Edit history (1)

the best choice is probably get a RCA to HDMI cable unless like Wounded Bear said you wanted to convert to mp4. I wouldn't bother. The S-video in it's day was probably a little better than the RCA but honestly you probably couldn't tell the difference.

Older stuff will more than likely be 14:3 instead of 16-9 resolution the picture will be a square box not filling the elongated 16-9 format. Although on most TV you can change the mode but the picture looks distorted to me.

If you are interested in converting to MP4 (very time consuming process) they do make PC software to do the conversion - I wouldn't bother.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. The VCR/DVD unit dubs the VHS to DVD and vice versa. The DVD is digital and MPEG-2 format.

Not that I've ever done such a conversion.

But there would still be MPEG-2 to MP4 after that.

[canetoad]

4. This might not be relevant

I recently ripped a dozen VHS tapes to digital for some friends. Not especially difficult to do and the device cost about $60. Results were watchable despite tapes from the 70s & 80s.

If you are talking about long term viewing of VHS, I'd suggest digital conversion.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Yes digital is the way to go

I imagine the trick is to get the clearest copy possible, it can always be tweaked with software at a later time. There's probably software that will adjust anything from aspect ratio to brightness, fuzz removal, sharpen, contrast.

VHS to digital - what device did you use?

[canetoad]

9. The device is called

August VGB350
https://www.amazon.com.au/VHS-Digital-Video-Capture-Converter/dp/B08N4LL66W

It comes with ripping and editing software which is not really flash, but quite adequate to do the job.