Ask S&V

Q I have dozens of concerts and other programs that I recorded using JVC’s HRD-470U, one of the best VHS tape machines ever made. Here’s my problem: even high-quality VHS tapes look terrible when played on a high-definition digital TV. Is there some sort of “widget” I can buy that will make VHS recordings look better on my HDTV? —Jay Daley / Wickenburg, AZ

A Most HDTVs upconvert standard-definition analog video to digital high-definition, and contain at least one composite-video input to accept signals from legacy sources such as VHS. The quality of that upconversion, however, is often just adequate at best. That’s mainly due to cost—HDTV manufacturers operate on slim profit margins and don’t want to spend money on high-quality video processing circuits to improve the look of analog sources.

A few years ago, you could find numerous video processors with analog video inputs that upconverted standard-definition signals to HD resolution while improving picture quality via sophisticated noise reduction and image enhancement algorithms. Sound&Vision reviewed a pair of such processors as recently as 2012.

Since then, the video processor market appears to have abandoned analog video — no surprise now that HDTV is a mature tech and 4K/UltraHD is fast becoming the norm. For your situation, I would suggest buying an inexpensive adapter that converts analog video for 1080p output over HDMI. You can find plenty such devices at Amazon . To improve the picture quality, you could then run the HDMI connection through a Darbee DVP-5000S , a relatively inexpensive ($199) “widget” that provides high-quality video processing to increase the apparent sharpness of video signals.

One more thing, if you ever feel an urge to upgrade from VHS to, say, Blu-ray, check out Oppo’s BDP-103D Blu-ray player ($599), which has HDMI inputs for external sources plus built-in Darbee processing and other video enhancement features.