VHS is good enough, why should I care about DVD?

VHS do encode surround sound. A 2 hour VHS tape is good quality, and in fact I've noticed dark areas in even commercial DVDs show posterization. Posterization is when you can see obvious changes in brightness and/or color. VHS tapes tend to show some less noticeable noise in dark areas, however it does worsen with age and wear.

DVDs do degrade with age, lifetime of DVDs is a big issue. The layers may delaminate and corrode in commercial DVDs. The dyes in recordable DVDs have been known to break down or "rot". VHS also degrade with age. However, DVDs are not worn by playing them, where VHS tapes -are- worn by playing. But, things never being that simple, DVDs are subject to damage because you must handle the bare DVD. They are -much- less tolerant of scratches than DVDs are, due to the nature of the design, and -much- less tolerant of bending than CDs. A DVD can fail due to invisible cracks caused by moderate bending.

Caution! I have noticed many commercial DVD releases in the past few years are playing a sneaky trick that will ultimately result in a shorter lifespan for your DVDs. DVDs are very fragile when it comes to bending them. That is why when they first came out, all DVD cases were made so that simply pressing the center would release the DVD easily.

But lately I've had most of my DVDs coming in cases without this feature, that require a lot of force to remove the DVD. Hence I've bought a box of empty cases with the release button and am transfering all of mine into those cases.

Another vote against VHS: they are being phased out. The magnetic tape used in them is no longer being made, so when the warehouses are empty, no more VHS tapes. Parts for the VHS decks are already almost impossible to get, because no one has been having their $40 VHS recorders fixed, so most repair shops have gone out of business, and the parts suppliers don't carry parts for them. You'd have more luck getting a much older VHS deck repaired.

And speaking as an electronics tech, the old VHS decks were built a lot better than the new junk.