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DVDs are a digital medium, whereas VHS tapes are an analogue medium. All digital movie mediums, including DVDs, are compressed in order to fit the huge amount of data (an image for every movie frame) into the available space. This compression can be seen if you look for it - particularly in darker areas, or large blocks of colour with little movement from frame to frame. Technically then, an analogue picture will always be of higher quality than a digital picture, however in the case of VHS the picture quality is largely affected by the tape.

If you had a brand new, high quality video cassette being played in a professional grade multi-head video cassette player, the quality should in theory be superior to a DVD. However, over time the tape will degrade and become worn, even stretched. VHS tapes are also susceptible to magnetic interference. DVDs have none of these problems.

With analogue pictures, there are varying grades of quality. Think about when TV was analogue: in a strong signal area with good equipment, the picture could be perfect; but in weaker signal areas with poor equipment, the picture becomes snowy and degraded. Digital is not the same - it's either on or off. There or not there. So, whilst a digital picture is inferior in theory to an analogue picture, in most cases a better and more consistent quality is available in digital media.

Because of this consistent quality, the image will look much the same on cheap equipment as it does on expensive equipment. The same can certainly not be said of VHS.

DVDs also have the advantage of menus, special features, languages, chapters and many other features that VHS tape simply can't provide. And, these days, DVDs are much cheaper and faster to produce than VHS tape.

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