Yeah, if you buy a new TV and sit close to it you can tell the difference. But I think for most people 1080p at a distance was acceptable where a fullscreen VHS

Yeah, if you buy a new TV and sit close to it you can tell the difference. But I think for most people 1080p at a distance was acceptable where a fullscreen VHS picture would have been illegible, and the convenience became the next biggest factor. The leap from VHS to DVD was a lot larger than the leap from DVD to Blu-ray, in terms of the perceived quality IMO.