no. of resolvable lines

[graham.myers]

Friends are considering buying S-VHS VCRs

If they record UHF TV how many resolvable lines will they expect so see?

i.e. a pre-recorded VHS will resolve say 240 lines (or more maybe more)

S-VHS is say 350 lines

An LD will resolve 400+ lines
and a DVD 500+ lines

I've seen elsewhere that a good VHS will match a bad LD. A Good LD will match a good DVD.

Has anybody got anything more scientific

Where does a UHF siginal (or digital through an RF cable) sit in the scheme of things

If for example its at 300 lines. They would get better off-air recordings on S-VHS but would not get the best from the format

This has probably been ask tons of times, but a search didn't find anything

[bxd]

Graham,

Until the arrival of DVD the Laserdisc (about 420+ lines) was the only domestic format that could hold (pretty well) the full pal signal bandwidth.

Based on that fact, you could argue that the broadcast signal exceeds a value of about 400 TVL and that a s-vhs (around 400 lines) recording should be pretty good. A D-vhs (or DVD-R) recording is probably better still (for other reasons) but this will also be related to the quality (in resolution terms) of the receiving equipment such as the tv tuner in the recorder or the sat box which is supplying the signal.

I'm not at all sure about the quality of a digital (sat or cable) signal which has been sent thru an rf converter. The best way 'tape' from a sat box is via the rgb output and use one of the rgb to s-video converter boxes.

hope that helps.

Brian.