Lost Media Emulator
Test signalLME Labs

Send any footage
back in time.

Film, tape and tube looks for macOS and Premiere Pro.

Scroll to travel

Choose your journey

Studio monitor · 2024
▸ The Time MachineRandom · era-matched
Shibuya, Tokyo
2024
4K HDR

No stock filters. Every frame on this page is real engine output.

Optics · emulsion

Light on film.

Film optics, rebuilt frame by frame: halation off the highlights, gate weave, grain matched to the stock, and Technicolor dye-transfer or deep Kodachrome reds.

Light on film. — Technicolor — Technicolor
Light on film. — Technicolor — Original
OriginalTechnicolor

Tap a look to swap the result

Signal · tape & sensor

Tape never forgets.

Every fault of a worn cassette, per frame: tracking jitter, chroma bleed past the edges, dropout flecks, head-switching tear, or the blooming green of a night-vision camcorder.

Tape never forgets. — VHS — VHS
Tape never forgets. — VHS — Original
OriginalVHS

Tap a look to swap the result

Display · tube

Through the glass.

Every signal ended at a tube. Push footage through a studio PVM monitor (shadow mask, scanlines, phosphor bloom) or the high-contrast slot-mask of a coin-op arcade cabinet.

OriginalPVM / BVM

Tap a look to swap the result

The app

Two surfaces, one engine.

Run it as a native macOS app, or as a panel inside Premiere Pro and After Effects. Same engine, same looks, working non-destructively on your timeline.

Lost Media Emulator · macOS
The Lost Media Emulator macOS app: preset browser, effect stack, timeline and live preview
Premiere Pro / After Effects panel
The Lost Media Emulator extension panel running inside Adobe Premiere Pro

The possibility space

Recreate any medium. Then break it.

Every look is a starting point. Pick a capture format and a display, then bend the result across the full control set until it matches a real medium, or turns into something no camera ever shot.

91
Calibrated looks to start from
97
Controls behind every look
9
Signal systems, lens to tape deck
1,050
Capture × display combinations

What it does

A signal chain, not a stack of overlays.

Lost Media Emulator rebuilds the analog path instead of stacking textures on top. Pick a capture format and a display, and it simulates tube, tape and film as you scrub. One engine, two surfaces, one perpetual license.

Signal path

capture display

Every era runs through one chain.

Most retro tools do one trick: VHS, or CRT, or film grain. Stack a capture format onto a display and dial the decay in a single pass.

Look bank

91

Sorted by signal, not slapped on.

Tube, tape and film. A sample:

Tube
  • PVM / BVMstudio reference monitor
  • Consumer CRTliving-room television
  • Arcade monitorcoin-op cabinet chain
Tape & sensor
  • Late-80s VHStracking, dropout, chroma bleed
  • Night visionimage-intensifier green
Film
  • Super 81970s home reel
  • Kodachrome 8mmrich reversal color
  • Technicolor1950s dye-transfer print
  • Faded 35mmaged cinema print
Compare a few ▸

Round-trip

Rough it out, finish in the edit.

Block a look fast in the Mac app, or grade it on your Premiere Pro / After Effects timeline. Pick whichever fits the job.

App ⇄ timeline

Renderer

Simulated, not stuck on top.

The engine builds tracking error, dropout, halation and bloom from your image, so they react to it instead of floating above it.

Vectorscope

License

from $39 · once

Buy it once. It stays yours.

The industry keeps drifting toward subscriptions, logins and cloud check-ins. This is a one-time purchase that opens and renders offline.

Terms

  • No monthly fee
  • No login to render
  • Free updates within the major version

Performance

Real-time on Apple Silicon.

Live preview that keeps up. Scrub looks and push parameters without waiting on a render bar.

Throughput · live

Field report · unverified

Yes, you can fake the UFO footage.

Hi8 grain, a night-vision pass, one mistimed tracking dropout, and your clip was suddenly “shot on a camcorder in 1997.” Analog-horror and found-footage creators: this aisle is yours.

We're not saying fool the internet with it. The tools are sitting right there.

Now you drive it

Try it on anything.

Every clip and still on this page, every look, one slider. Pick a source and an era, then drag to compare.

OriginalNight Vision
Night Vision · 1998
Image-intensifier green, bloom and sensor grain.

Look

Source · 12

End of transmission

Every look.
One payment.

Get the Mac app and the Premiere Pro / After Effects extension together for $69, $19 less than buying them apart. One payment, free updates, no subscription.