The RetroBox is a new TV/VCR combo — yes, really — with a classic design and modern tech including HDMI ports

• A TV/VCR combo like the big brands used to make
• LCD instead of CRT, and with HDMI as well as analog connections
• $399 for early birds, assuming it launches to plan

A new TV with an integrated VHS player wasn't on my list of predictions for 2026, but the RetroBox appears to be exactly that: it's a very old-school TV/VCR, but while it looks like it fell through a portal from the set of Friends, it has slightly more modern technology inside.

I had something very similar to this in my parents' kitchen for years, but where mine had a CRT display, the RetroBox has an LCD – albeit one designed to replicate the look of an old-school tube TV.

Retrobox VHS/TV: key features and pricing

The RetroBox is apparently the creation of Daniela and Chase, two college students and newlyweds "seeking to re-create a special experience from our childhoods." I assume the experience is TV related, but they don't specify.

The goal here is to replicate the grainy video of old VHS tapes, and the RetroBox promises full compatibility with any VHS cassette. But if you don't have any tapes kicking around on the grounds that we're well into the 21st Century now, you can also connect external video devices via HDMI, AV Component and S-Video.

Or you can pay an extra $26 for the RetroBox VHS bundle, which gives you five randomly selected VHS tapes, which seems like a real risk, to be frank

This is going to be a US-only release – it'll support NTSC but not the European PAL standard – and it'll deliver glorious 240p or 480i resolution.

There are eight colors to choose from, but sadly not a weird purple-blue like the one that lived in my parents' house; instead there are vivid reds, greens and blues and a bright pink, along with some more sober options.

The RetroBox will be available from retrobox.us with a price tag of $399. That's an introductory offer for presale orders, and the usual price will be $525. You can't buy it yet, but if you're in the US you can sign up for email updates to be notified when the presale goes live.

I've got to be honest: this feels more like an interesting hardware hacking project than a product that's going to ship in significant numbers any time soon.

The website isn't the most information-packed site I've ever seen, but there's a little more information on the RetroBox Instagram channel where the most recent reel shows various partly disassembled TV/VCRs from the likes of Toshiba and RCA and a first prototype; that reel was uploaded in December 2025, so clearly there's some way to go before the RetroBox is available to anyone.

But I can't say it's not an interesting proposition…

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