Real tape damage, not a static overlay. Wobble, tracking, chroma bleed, and dropouts, tuned 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.
- Tune the tape: resolution, wobble, crease, tracking, chroma drift, noise, and dropouts.
- Press play to preview the artifacts in motion, then export an MP4 or PNG.
What the VHS effect actually simulates
Most VHS filters are a scanline PNG stacked on your clip. This one models the tape transport itself: the vertical roll of a failing servo, the head-switching crease at the bottom of the frame, tracking bands that tear across the picture, chroma that lags and bleeds because color was recorded at a fraction of the luma bandwidth, and dropouts where oxide flaked off the tape.
Because every artifact is generated per frame on your GPU, it moves the way tape damage moves. The same effect ships inside the Modulate editor as VHS Pro, where you can stack it with grain, bloom, or CRT-style screen curvature and keyframe any parameter.
Common questions
Is this VHS 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 artifacts animate over your footage; drop in a photo and the tape noise, wobble, and dropouts still move over the still frame.
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.
How do I remove the watermark?
Create a free account — signed-in exports carry no watermark, up to 1920px and 30 seconds. The watermark only applies to anonymous exports.
What is the difference between a VHS effect and a CRT effect?
VHS artifacts come from the tape and the player: wobble, tracking errors, chroma bleed, dropouts. CRT artifacts come from the display: scanlines, phosphor glow, curvature, and shadow-mask patterns. Real footage from the era usually shows both at once.
Go deeper
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.
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.
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