We're just purchasing our first HDTV - probably a 46" plasma. My wife wants a DVD VHS combo player to play old VHS tapes for our grandson. Will they even be watchable? Are there any that will upconvert the VHS to 1080p like a DVD?

Will it be watchable, yes. Would YOU want to watch it, no. Will your grandson care, probably not, lol.

I'm not sure if there are any combo players that can upconvert to 1080p, either way your HDTV will upconvert to 1080p for you. It depends how good the scaler in your TV is. Honestly, I don't think any upconverter will give you a good picture with VHS, there is only so much you can do with a given source.

We're just purchasing our first HDTV - probably a 46" plasma. My wife wants a DVD VHS combo player to play old VHS tapes for our grandson. Will they even be watchable? Are there any that will upconvert the VHS to 1080p like a DVD?

yeah, u can watch it but...
i tried it once, never again except as a very last resort, nothing else to watch, etc.
in fact i'd go read a book first.

No upconversion to 1080 for VHS. Some AVRs will upscale to S-Video from Composite (Sony), but many HDTV Panels have dropped the S-Video input.

We have a stereo VCR on our home theater to watch old Disney tapes, and a number of other kid movies, that have not made it to the top of the DVD list yet. It is about equal to watching SDTV. For most, the graphics are simple and the colors are bright, so not too bad to watch.

An added advantage is that the VCR gives me a front mounted Composite Video and Stereo Audio input. This works great for the odd old school video game or camera that needs to be plugged in.

in fact i'd go read a book first.
I'm not sure why, but that just made me LOL!!! :D

Heck, I just watched a VHS tape through my HC1500 (720p DLP projector) last night. It sure wasn't pretty, but it was 'watchable' (even on a 106" screen). but consider yourself warned -- colors will likely look quite flat, and everything will look really soft and smooth.

Why did I subject myself to this, you ask? I wanted to watch 'Big Man on Campus' which, AFAIK, has never been released on anything but VHS (as a matter of fact, even finding a clean VHS copy wasn't easy). :)

tlniec is correct regarding washed out colors. It will be watchable, just not enjoyable. Actually, for your grandson, enjoyment will have little to do with image quality and everthing to do with content. The image quality issue isn't VHS on an HDTV, but VHS on a 46" screen, blowing up low rez images isn't good. Viewing VHS on SDTV 46" CRT rptvs looked bad as well. Regarding upconversion. Your HDTV will upconvert the image to HD. Looking for a VHS player with upscaling built-in won't guarantee anything.

If my memory serves, VHS on a HD LCD looks similar to 480i satellite, except with out the mpeg noise. In it's place is analog noise, lack of sharpness, and stuttering. The audio is only 2 channel and is "meh" in quality.

Watchable but it's looks like crap.

Except the VHS is not even 480i unless it is superVHS. Standard VHS is even less than the 330 line ntsc standard. I think it is like 270 line. Your conclusion has it about right though.

Maybe its just me...but allowing children to watch anything on VHS approaches abuse.

Making anyone watch VHS is one step from waterboarding.

We have a 15 yo Sony VHS recorder player hooked up to a Panasonic 800U plasma. It works great (no its not HD so don't expect that hahahaha). It puts out plain ole 480i composite video (I think that is the lowest standard there is?).

Tapes of the kids 25 years ago never looked better, the newer TVs handle that old stuff just fine.