VCR with sharpness knob has worse picture than without

[Electronic M]

I've seen this with sharpens controls on TVs too....I think they should be renamed the "how much it hurts grandma's eyes" control. 0 = happy grandma, while everyone asks her if her TV is broken. 10/10 = Grandma won't watch it and is irate about modern electronics, but everyone else thinks the TV has a fairly impressive picture.

It makes slightly more sense on a VCR because if you recorded a snowy OTA show, or are playing a damaged or poorly made tape you could probably make the noise less annoying by softening the picture.

I've got a 2003 era JVC S-VHS deck that has a hand full of video modes EDIT mode (which is meant to prevent changing video when doing multi-generation dubbing) is one of 2 that don't soften the picture...I think the other over sharpens it.