How to watch VHS on Smart TV

jeff_chandler

Hi all, help needed again. 

I have fifty or so VHS Cassettes where many family video memories are stored. In order for me to watch them through my smart TV what exactly do i need. 

I have a standard VHS Video recorder and a Samsung smart TV. I currently have a SCART lead with the three coloured wires on the other end. I have tried this without luck Will I need something like a converter, and if so do any of you recommend something.? I'm baffled.
Thanks for reading. 

Stubod

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnoP_Mpwxnk

oldernonethewiser

Plenty of Scart to HDMI devices available online.

Less than £12 on one site. 

Neil_Jones

Depending on the TV you may just need an adapter that the TV already has.

Most Smart TVs still have analogue tuners.  You can probably use the analogue tuner, most video players output by default on UHF channel 37, unless you were in an area 30 odd years ago where it would clash with Channel 5 so it would have to be retuned.

You can just connect your Freeview aerial to the RF input on the video and connect the other RF cable from RF out on the back of the video to the input on the TV and then scan for analogue channels or specifically look for Channel 37 or frequency 602.

MyRealNameToo

jeff_chandler said:

Hi all, help needed again. 

I have fifty or so VHS Cassettes where many family video memories are stored. In order for me to watch them through my smart TV what exactly do i need. 

I have a standard VHS Video recorder and a Samsung smart TV. I currently have a SCART lead with the three coloured wires on the other end. I have tried this without luck Will I need something like a converter, and if so do any of you recommend something.? I'm baffled.
Thanks for reading. 

What's the model of your Samsung tv?

What are the three coloured wires? SCART can support both composite and component that can be 3 wires, the former would be yellow (video), red and white (audio) and the later red, blue and green which are all video (sometimes this would be 5 wires as it would also have a red and white audio) 

You can get a ADC to convert the SCART analogue to a digital format like HDMI but these may not be necessary as most smart TVs still have some analogue inputs. 

Word of caution though, SCART was not a signal format but just a connection type. It was capable of doing composite, s.video, rgb and component. If you buy a ADC you need to be sure it supports a format your VHS machine supports and ideally it wouldnt be composite which is the worst quality. 

flaneurs_lobster

Not a particularly cheap option given your number of cassettes but have you considered getting your tapes converted to a digital medium?

oldernonethewiser

flaneurs_lobster said:

Not a particularly cheap option given your number of cassettes but have you considered getting your tapes converted to a digital medium?

That is something I did years ago, I bought an adaptor and software and did it myself.  

Very time consuming but well worth it. 

MyRealNameToo

flaneurs_lobster said:

Not a particularly cheap option given your number of cassettes but have you considered getting your tapes converted to a digital medium?

Personally would recommend the cheaper option of viewing them first... a friend got theirs converted and whilst some of them looked terrible on their 75" TV the rest the tapes had degraded over time and it was basically junk so tapes, DVDs and money all went in the bin. 

Neil_Jones

MyRealNameToo said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

Not a particularly cheap option given your number of cassettes but have you considered getting your tapes converted to a digital medium?

Personally would recommend the cheaper option of viewing them first... a friend got theirs converted and whilst some of them looked terrible on their 75" TV the rest the tapes had degraded over time and it was basically junk so tapes, DVDs and money all went in the bin. 

It must be remembered that VHS was designed for a system that was commonplace at the time, and that's (UK wise) a PAL 625 line/analogue system and most likely on a TV that was probably no bigger than 28" at the absolutely most in the 1980s.  None of this "1920x1080" resolution stuff, it was a line based system.  The digital equivalent is probably closer to something like 300x576 resolution.  Super VHS was a thing which could in theory have produced a better picture but there was limited to no uptake on it.

All you're basically doing is blowing up a low resolution image onto a massive TV screen and taking the artifacts with it.  If you blow up a 300x576 picture up to a 75" TV (hopefully in 4:3 and not forcing it to fill the screen) it will look awful.

VHS tape degrades, it will do.  How they have been stored may have more effect on the outcome, though video players were known to eat tape on occasion, great fun to take the unit apart to get a tape out when its been eaten by the mechanism.

MyRealNameToo

VHS PAL was 576 interlaced lines (ie each frame was only 288 lines but each frame alternated between odd and even lines) so yes those 576 lines have to be expanded over 2,160 lines of a 4k TV plus as you say expanded from the more like 21-24" TV to a 61" (which would have the same height in a 4:3 screen as a 75" 16:9 screen has)

That said I did have a 32" 16:9 CRT that supported 720p but it was crazy heavy and had the most stupid handles any person has ever designed

flaneurs_lobster

MyRealNameToo said:

That said I did have a 32" 16:9 CRT that supported 720p but it was crazy heavy and had the most stupid handles any person has ever designed

Phillips? Built in surround sound with wired side-speakers? Absolute sod of a TV.