VHS Effect Filter - Making a Video Look Bad on Purpose
Below is a YouTube video by Tom Scott about the "90s VHS look" filter. The video goes into some technical detail on how a special effect filter like VHS is made.
I went to the redgiant.com link in the YouTube video description and the VHS filter is a tool in a software product named Universe. There are a few other tools to add distortion to a video project such as GLITCH and WARP.
The HOLOMATRIX II filter will, according to the website, "Give your footage the look and distortion of a sci-fi hologram, digital display, and more." Can we someday get over the stereotype that sci-fi hologram images are prone to glitches and distortion? Someone please just subvert the expectation and make decent holograms in sci-fi fantasy. Quantum Leap did it. Star Trek: Voayger also made decent sci-fi holograms while struggling to do other sci-fi tropes well.
It's kind of weird how the annoying VHS random lines on the TV screen with bleeding colors is now something video makers pay a software license for to purposely downgrade their projects. Based on an internet search I just did on Google it seems there aren't many open source alternatives to this filter. There are a few tutorials on how to imitate the effect using other commercial software.
I still have some .mpg files I made around 2005 on an external drive of converted VHS video and I paid nothing for the "'90s look" quality because the tapes were already 5-10 years old. I'd actually like to have the opposite and upgrade the video using a filter.
Veeery nostalgic look!
Why would you pay a license for something like that? By the way, I made videos in the 1990's and the footage was bright and clear.
Like I wrote in the post there are tutorials to make a similar effect but from what I can tell those tutorials are for other proprietary software programs. I couldn't find a tutorial to make the effect on an open source video editor. Professionals would record the type of information such as licensed software used in the video log metadata.
I am sure the footage you got was bright and clear but how often did you play it through the VCR? Oh, and remember every time you bought a blank VHS tape a small part of the retail price you paid went to the MPAA because it was assumed the VHS tape would be used to record a movie broadcast. It didn't matter if you were recording a family picnic or a trip to the beach on the blank VHS tape. It was just assumed you were going to record copyrighted material.
Yeah, interesting. To answer your questions, they varied. So, as a family, we have had dozens to hundreds of video tapes, some played a lot, some played a little, in VCRs, some eaten up, some repaired, some destroyed. Excellent video and audio quality for some of the tapes and less so on some of the others, especially ones from the 1980's.
VHS Effect Filter
I understand that acquiring filters is tempting. So, if you got the money, then have at it. That's what I'd say to anybody. But at the same time, I would probably find a free version of the filter or find a way to design my own filter or I would send my video out of my computer and into my VCR and record it on my VCR and then record it back and forth from VCR to VCR to degrade the value until the video starts to look old. So, if I really wanted to do, I would try to experiment using different video editors and I would Google it to see if others have done it. If all of that fails, assuming I don't want to just buy the filter, I would do the VCR option.
If people wanted to learn how to do it for free, I would gladly help them. I probably should post an article about how to connect a computer to a VCR. Probably need an adapter. The laptop would probably need HDMI out. A VCR would probably not have HDMI in but it's possibly to buy an adapter. And you can downgrade the video by recording it from VCR to VCR using a coax cable and make sure the cable wire is very long or have it run through some adapters or cut up the cord a little to add interference to degrade the video faster or perhaps put it in a dirty VCR.
Someday somebody will be looking for a 90s VHS filter on the internet. Maybe there still won't be a free or open source filter equal in quality to what the commercial software offers but that person will come across this post during the Google search and see your suggested method. Realizing time is money they'll decide to get the commercial software as a business expense and write it off as a tax deduction.
Somehow you should get a sales commission for that.😀
Likewise, we should get sales commission when people leave Facebook and come to Hive or Gab or Bitchute or Minds or Steem or other places.
I was all onboard with you up until you brought steem into it.😀
Haha yeah, I wouldn't put money into Steem but I don't mind collecting and pulling money out of Steemit.
Or burn the video to DVD and then put the DVD into a DVD player or DVD VCR Combo Recorder.