Playing With / Deliberate VHS Quality

Basic Trope: VHS quality is used in The New '10s or later when HD equipment is readily available

• Straight: A scene in a visual work that uses VHS quality.
• Exaggerated:
  • The quality is a consumer videotape format that predates VHS and Betamax, such as Sony CV-2000 or Cartrivision.
  • More VHS (or analog TV) effects are added, such as:
    • Raster Vision
    • Dot pitch as seen on a color CRT TV.
    • Generational loss (from recursive copying)
    • A faulty TV signal
    • Color fluttering^note This is due to color analog TV being a black and white signal with color information hidden for color sets to decode, so as to maintain compatibility with black and white sets
    • Tracking problems^note When the rotating head drum is having trouble tracking the helical scan lines on the tape. This can cause things like static, rolling picture and other visual glitches.
    • A complete failure to read some parts of the tape.
    • Head switching noise in the middle of the screen instead of at the bottom.
• Downplayed: The quality is still analog TV, but in a higher quality format, such as LaserDisc or professional tape equipment used at TV stations. May also be in an aspect ratio other than 4:3.
• Inverted: VHS quality is default, and medium changes are shown with HD footage or better.
• Justified:
  • The footage was recorded in the early 2000s or earlier.
  • The characters can only use older video equipment, be it through cost or availability.
  • The story takes place After the End, and "The end" was around 1995.
• Subverted:
  • A character puts a tape in a VCR, but HD footage plays^note This scenario can be justified. From 1998 to 2004, there was actually a format available called D-VHS, which would store digital data on a VHS cassette. This allowed for up to 1080i resolution at home before Blu-ray came around.
  • A character goes into an "archive of old footage", walks past shelves of VHS tapes, then pulls out a film reel.
• Double Subverted: Bob discovers a 2 inch master tape of a movie that was only ever distributed on VHS. When he tries playing it, it's VHS quality as if it was copied from VHS.
• Parodied:
  • A production company switches to VHS quality for most or all new distributions
  • A character uses an old camcorder or records footage to VHS for no obvious reason, just because they feel it will look cool, or as a requirement for a wacky task.
• Zig Zagged: The footage put on a VHS tape was of worse quality, such as 8mm and/or monochrome film.
• Averted: All footage in the work is HD quality.
• Enforced:
  • The author is a fan of Retraux, borrowing aesthetic designs from The '80s or The '90s.
  • Budget constraints meant that not everything could be done at a modern resolution, so doing everything at 240i at least meant that quality was consistent.
• Lampshaded: "Do we have a better video playback system?"
• Invoked:
  • A character uses VHS quality footage, or turns the viewing frame into VHS quality.
  • "We unfroze someone who's been in cryogenic preservation since 1988. Let's film him with old technology until we can tell him it's the future now."
• Exploited: VHS quality is used to...
  • Prevent someone from reading a sign in the background.
  • Cover up other details with a narrow 4:3 frame.
  • Hide things in the poor detail, poor dynamic range, or poor low-light capabilities.
• Defied: Someone uses a film look instead to convey it's the past with more resolution, or a character uses a newer camcorder or smartphone to record something when an analog option was available.
• Discussed: Explaining how the effect works and various characteristics of it, a la Tom Scott in "How The 90s VHS Look Works"
• Conversed: "Wouldn't this look cool with a VHS look?"
• Played For Laughs:
  • The visual glitches provide a Gag Censor.
  • A character is using a VCR in spite of other options, and the VCR keeps crapping out and playing the tape improperly. The character keeps hitting the VCR as well.
• Played For Drama: The characters are looking for evidence in VHS quality footage, but there is no Enhance Button.
• Played For Horror:
  • Hiding some details behind VHS quality, a la Nothing Is Scarier combined with Found Footage.
  • Using VHS faults as an Ominous Visual Glitch
  • The 4:3 frame is used to create claustrophobia

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