VHS Video Effect

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Degrade footage the way a well-played VHS tape degraded a picture. Effect Strength sets the look of the format, and Tape Wear sets how damaged this copy is.

The format

Effect Strength warms the color, lowers saturation and contrast, shifts red and blue sideways in opposite directions, softens the picture horizontally, and adds scanlines and a slight row wobble. At low strength the result reads as a clean tape. At full strength it reads as a second-generation copy.

Tape damage

Tape Wear fades the picture toward gray-brown, shifts blocks of rows sideways as tracking errors, adds noise and bright specks, and draws dropouts: short white streaks where the tape lost its magnetic coating. It also sets the strength of the head-switching band at the bottom of the frame.

Damage in motion

Every frame gets new tracking errors, dropouts, and specks, placed by the frame’s timestamp. They change 30 times a second and flicker like real playback instead of sitting on the picture as a texture. The same frame always gets the same damage, so the preview matches the export.

Output size

VHS resolved roughly 240 lines of detail across the picture, well below 720p. The 720p default already holds more detail than the format had, so a 1080p export adds export time without adding anything a tape would have shown.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the two sliders control?

Effect Strength sets how much of the VHS signal is applied: warmer, less saturated color, the color channel offset, softness, scanlines, and a slight wobble. Tape Wear sets the damage: fading, tracking errors, noise, dropouts, and the band of noise at the bottom of the frame.

Why is the bottom of the frame noisy?

That is head-switching noise. A VCR switches between its playback heads just before the end of each field, and the switch shows as a torn, noisy strip along the bottom of the picture. Here it covers the lowest part of the frame and grows with Tape Wear.

Is there a date and REC overlay?

No. The camcorder overlay of the image version is not drawn on video exports. Add a timestamp in an editor afterward if the shot needs one.

Why is the export slower than the clip?

VHS is the heaviest video effect here, about 290 ms per 720p frame on one core. Frames are spread across the processor's cores: a dual-core laptop renders about 4 frames per second at 720p, so a 30 fps clip takes around 8 times its own length. More cores shorten that.

What happens to the audio?

It is copied into the export unchanged when the container can hold its codec, and re-encoded when it cannot. The tape effect does not touch the sound.

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VHS Camcorder Effect

Apply a VHS camcorder effect with analog color bleed, scanlines, tape grain, and tracking noise. Adjust effect strength and tape wear level.

CRT Video Effect

Make a video look like it is playing on a CRT television: barrel curvature, scanlines, a phosphor mask, color bleed, and glow, with fresh static on every frame. The soundtrack is copied into the MP4 or WebM export.

Duotone Video Effect

Map every frame of a video onto a two-color gradient from a shadow color to a highlight color, and shift the balance between them. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Frosted Glass Video Effect

Put every frame of a video behind frosted glass: soft diffusion, fine etched grain that stays fixed like a real pane, and an optional tint. Set frost depth, roughness, tint strength, and tint color. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Glitch Video Effect

Add a digital glitch to every frame of a video: RGB channel shift, horizontal tearing, static noise, and scanlines, with the tearing redrawn on every frame. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Y2K Video Filter

Make a video look like it was shot on an early 2000s digital camera: harsh flash, cool color, RGB fringing, moving sensor noise, and an orange date stamp. Set flash, cool grade, RGB fringe, and date stamp. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Anaglyph 3D Video Effect

Split every frame of a video into offset color channels for the red and cyan look of anaglyph 3D glasses. Set the separation distance and angle, color pair, and ghosting. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Autochrome Video Effect

Recreate a video through the Autochrome Lumière process: color built from a fixed mosaic of dyed starch grains, with soft saturation and fading. Set grain size, color saturation, and fading. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Chromatic Aberration Video Effect

Split the red and blue channels of every video frame outward from the center or along one axis for lens color fringing. Set strength, fringe colors, and a protected center. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Disposable Camera Video Effect

Give a video the look of a cheap point-and-shoot film camera: harsh flash bloom, faded warm print color, light leaks, vignette, and grain and dust that move on every frame. Set flash strength and film finish. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Expired Film Video Effect

Age a video like expired color film: shadows and highlights drift to opposite casts, blacks fog up, the emulsion mottles, and grain moves on every frame. Set degradation, crossover, fog, mottling, and grain. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.

Grunge Video Effect

Distress every frame of a video with dirt, scratches, ink loss, and a hard contrast grade, with the damage redrawn on every frame like worn film. Exports MP4 or WebM with the original soundtrack.