How bad it will sound at any moment will probably depend on "how stereo" any given moment of audio happens to be. There are stereo to mono converters if you want to add another box to keep the ancient TV alive.
Then again, it might be better to capture your video tapes to mp4s, while you still have access to a VHS player that works, then get a modern TV.
Problem is that much of the large library of VHS tapes are commercial and copyright protected, so can't dub to DVDs.
The stereo to mono RCA converters, as noted, provide 2 mono RCA outputs but would be using only one. Not sure if this is an electrical no-no, leaving one output unloaded.
RobertA1 wrote:The stereo to mono RCA converters, as noted, provide 2 mono RCA outputs but would be using only one. Not sure if this is an electrical no-no, leaving one output unloaded.
Electrically, that's not a problem. A circuit with no load will simply not have any current/voltage across the connection. Just make sure there's no cable plugged into the unused port, as you then have the possibility of it shorting the connection. Not likely to happen, but best to just not have anything connected.
It’s been a long time, but as I recall, VHS tapes were protected by Macrovision, which was a hack that relied on limitations of the crude color and contrast circuits in VHS VCRs. As such, even in the 80s and 90s it was known that you could get around it by just dubbing to Beta instead. Also, because a few TVs were affected, boxes to remove it were routinely advertised in major video magazines.
I suspect many modern capture devices wouldn’t even notice it. Legally, I don’t think you’d have any problem with making a backup (modern copy) of ancient owned media for personal use.
By the way, here’s a conversation about a simple circuit for properly converting stereo to mono.
