Entertainment Center: TVs, Stereos, VCRs and DVDs - Explanation please?

I have a 47" HD T.V. that projects a terrible picture when i play VCR tapes on it. I have no problem playing on a 27" T.V.
standard broadcast.
The picture is grainy,poor resolution,and just basically bad. The 27" standard displays great picture.

How come?Thanks

Larger screen..take a 27" picture and stretch it to 47", would it look the same?

Someone told me this as a simple example..look at a newspaper picture from 2' away...then move it to 6" away...better or worse(to use an Optometrists term)?

VHS has always been the lowest-quality format. Now that you have an HDTV, you're finally seeing just how bad those old VHS tapes really looked. Their spec is only 280 lines of resolution, and in reality they were hard pressed to deliver 240. The picture wavered, the colors drifted ... and the CRT TVs like your 27" were able to produce a watchable picture because of their own limitations.

It's like listening to a telephone through a $4,000 set of home stereo speakers.

Thanks guys.
I guess i'll hook up the VCR to the 27" set.

VCR to Digital Tv . Go to**********, there you will find composite video from the vcr to digital tv converters . Find them listed in the video converters section , I was looking at a PYRO AV PVC-984 and others. Give the people at ************** An other web site to check out is tigerdirect.com