Comment by ahartmetz
18 hours ago
I've always disliked VHS. Broadcast TV was available for comparison at the time and it looked much better.
DVD resolution seemed fine to me at the time - it does not seem fine anymore.
Cassettes were not great, not terrible compared to CDs. That is still the case because stereo audio doesn't get much better than CDs.
Conclusion: Whether something seems good at the time depends on availability of something similar but better.
I think 480p resolution can look a lot better than people make it out to be. I reckon people's perception of it has been warped by YouTube serving dreadful low-bitrate 480p video for years.
On DVD: DVD would still look fine (I think) if you were still playing it through the same screen you did back then.