A real broadcast signal, not a noise overlay. Dot crawl, ringing, and chroma bleed decoded live on your own footage.
How to use it
- Open the editor from this page — it loads demo media with the effect already set up — then drop in your own video or image.
- Choose NTSC or PAL, then dial in ringing, dot crawl, chroma bleed, snow, and hum.
- Press play to preview the artifacts in motion, then export an MP4 or PNG.
What the NTSC effect actually simulates
Most NTSC filters online drop a static noise-and-scanline image over your clip. This one rebuilds the composite signal the way a real broadcast did: it encodes your picture into one channel where brightness and color share the same carrier, then decodes it back imperfectly, which is exactly the mismatch that produced dot crawl along hard edges, ringing where the limited bandwidth overshoots, and color that bleeds past its outlines because chroma was carried at a fraction of the luma detail. Transmission faults sit on top as their own controls: snow in the shadows, a hum bar rolling down the frame, and RF interference beating across the picture.
Every artifact is generated per frame on your GPU, so on video it moves the way a real signal moved: the dot crawl slides sideways along edges, the hum bar drifts, the snow reseeds each frame. Switch to PAL and the crawl gives way to that standard’s static checkerboard. The same effect ships inside the Modulate editor as NTSC, where it stacks with VHS for the tape and CRT for the screen, in the order the artifacts actually occurred, and every parameter can be keyframed.
Common questions
Is this NTSC filter free?
Yes. This page opens the full Modulate editor, free with no signup, with the effect already set up. Anonymous exports run up to 5 seconds at 1080px with a small watermark; a free account removes the watermark and raises exports to 1920px and 30 seconds, and Pro raises the caps to 4K and 5 minutes.
Does it work on video or just images?
Both. Drop in an MP4, WebM, or MOV and the dot crawl, hum, and snow animate over your footage; drop in a photo and the ringing, chroma bleed, and noise still render on the still frame.
Should I choose NTSC or PAL?
NTSC is the look of the Americas and Japan, with visible dot crawl sliding along edges and a slight hue instability. PAL, most of Europe, alternates its color phase every line, which trades the crawl for a static checkerboard texture and holds hue steadier. Pick by the region you are evoking.
Can I combine NTSC with VHS and CRT?
Yes. The editor this page opens stacks effects freely: an NTSC pass for the broadcast signal, a VHS pass for the tape it was recorded to, and CRT for the screen it was watched on. That order matches how the artifacts occurred in reality.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. The effect runs entirely in your browser on your GPU. Your media never leaves your computer unless you save it to a Modulate project yourself.
Go deeper
NTSC effect
The NTSC effect makes video look like an analog television broadcast: edges that ring and smear, color that bleeds past its outlines, the beady shimmer of dot crawl along sharp boundaries, and, on a weak signal, snow and a hum bar drifting through the picture. Where a VHS effect simulates a worn tape, an NTSC effect simulates the signal itself.
VHS effect
The VHS effect makes digital video look like it was recorded and played back on tape: soft resolution, a wobbling image, tracking bands that tear across the frame, color that lags and bleeds behind the brightness, dropouts, and noise. Every one of those artifacts has a physical cause in the tape or the player, which is why a convincing VHS effect is a simulation of the machine, not a scanline overlay.
CRT effect
The CRT effect makes an image look like it is being displayed on a cathode-ray tube: the glowing phosphor stripes or dot triads of the mask, slight color fringing where the beams misconverge, and the darkened corners of a curved glass face. It is the look of every screen made before the 2000s, and it reads instantly as arcade cabinets, control rooms, and late-night TV.
There's more where this came from
The full editor lets you use every effect together, over video, text, 3D, and shapes. Free, no signup, nothing to install — it opens with this effect already set up.
Open the editor