History Main / DeliberateVHSQuality

* The WebAnimation/YouTubePoop ''WebAnimation/AdventuresInHyrule'' video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqf6PXw5cRk "Hyrule Visits 1993"]] by iteachvader achieves this effect with a video filter in Sony Vegas.

* ''Film/ComputerChess'' is mostly filmed from the perspective of early 1980s-era camcorders.

Since [[TheNewTens the 2010s]], this has become a way of establishing a time period as being in the [[TheEighties 1980s]] or [[TheNineties '90s]], in much the way filming in black-and-white became shorthand for the early-to-mid 20th century, and can be meant to invoke nostalgia.

* ''Film/TronLegacy'' used this in several flashback moments, like Flynn's last address to Encom. Again, {{Justified}} as the scenes were set in 1989, and an ExploitedTrope as the grainy VHS style downplayed some of the UncannyValley aspects of the DigitalDeaging.

* The FoundFootage horror anthology series ''Film/{{VHS}}'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin naturally]], uses this technique to great effect, being a [[FoundFootageFilms found-footage]] GenreAnthology in which the main hook is that people discover old VHS tapes containing horrifying scenes. The fourth and fifth films, ''Film/VHS94'' and ''Film/VHS99'', go even further and are staged as outright '90s {{period piece}}s.

* ''Film/{{Censor}}'' is this as TheMovie. The tapes that Enid watches are naturally 80s quality, although it's a mark of Enid's deteriorating sanity when it starts to slip into real life, with rewinding, pause, and other video qualities.

* The FoundFootage horror anthology series ''Film/{{VHS}}'' uses this technique to great effect.
* The promotional material for ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' was intentionally produced to resemble the cheesy movie trailers featured on VHS rentals in the 80s and 90s, including the warped sound and grainy film quality.
* The ''Film/ParanormalActivity'' films dabble in this although released solidly in the DVD era, particularly the third film which is actually set in the 1980's and thus looks like it was filmed on a VHS camcorder.

* ''Film/{{VHS}}'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin naturally]], uses this, being a [[FoundFootageFilms found-footage]] GenreAnthology in which the main hook is that people discover old VHS tapes containing horrifying scenes. The fourth and fifth films, ''Film/VHS94'' and ''Film/VHS99'', go even further and are staged as outright '90s {{period piece}}s.

When used in a FoundFootage film and/or AnalogHorror it can add a horror element by making it seem more authentic, though these days this is more likely to be done with a smart phone camera, unless it's supposed to be a PeriodPiece. May be combined with an AspectRatioSwitch to show a 4:3 frame, as VHS only ever supported that AspectRatio.[[note]]While widescreen VHS tapes technically exist with select movies, they show widescreen content {{Letterbox}}ed to 4:3. This practice was used for nearly every widescreen movie on UsefulNotes/LaserDisc in TheNineties. A "true" widescreen VHS tape or [=LaserDisc=] would either be incompatible with an existing player, or would [[VisualCompression look squished]]. "True" widescreen wouldn't become popular until digital formats, such as UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} and UsefulNotes/HighDefinition came around.[[/note]]

* ''Film/TronLegacy'' used this in several flashback moments, like Flynn's last address to Encom. Again, {{Justified}} as the scenes were set in 1989, and an ExploitedTrope as the grainy VHS style downplayed some of the UncannyValley aspects of the "de aging" CGI
* The director of ''Film/WNUFHalloweenSpecial'' went so far as to copy the film's digital master copy onto VHS and from there copy it to another VHS tape ''5 times'' in succession, in order to achieve the level of degradation appropriate for a VHS tape from the 80s.

** In 2017, his second video on the ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' was treated as an exploration of an old VHS-tape he found, complete with VHS-quality footage, to create the story of a 90s company called "Dilley's" leaking SCP-information through the use of a bargain-bin tape.

* The director of ''Film/WNUFHalloweenSpecial'' went so far as to shoot the film digitally, copy it to VHS and then copy it to another VHS tape ''5 times'' in succession, in order to achieve the level of degradation appropriate for a VHS tape from the 80s.

* In the TV series of ''WebVideo/DontHugMeImScared'' the ArtShift in the Old Train's song from the episode "Transportation" is done up in this way, making it look like some sort of animation from The90s.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' short "Welcome to Hexside" features this to go along with the whole KitschyLocalCommercial, even though the presence of [[NewTransferStudent Mattholomew]] means that it would have been recorded during or shortly before the events of the series (which is set in 2022).

* Some scenes in ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe3'', mainly those that involve [[BigBad Balthazaar Bratt]], were made to resemble VHS quality footage. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], as he was a famous child star in TheEighties.

* Music/BrunoMars' "Treasure" is inspired by late-1970s & early 1980s music videos, and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPvuNsRccVw official YouTube video]] is capped at 4:3 480p resolution, in keeping with [=NTSC=]] broadcast TV/VTR standards of the time.

** Synthpop artist Male Tears like making their music videos look like cheese goth or New Wave videos from the 80s,[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGZ6BqqgtOY with most of them done on VHS]].

* Dua Lipa’s video for [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHuBW3qKm9g “Levitate”]] has a 1980s aesthetic, with lyrics in stylized 1980s fonts against a space background, and of course the look of being recorded on a a VHS tape.

* College Humor used this effect in [[https://youtu.be/tD0rchvuoMU “We Found Sinbad’s SHAZAAM Genie Movie”]], reportedly a degraded VHS recording of the 90s movie many people remember existing but it never actually did.

* The music video for Music/TessaViolet's "punk" remix of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eGY6_kfTfs "Games"]] that she made with lovelytheband and Matt Squire has the styling and cinematography of something that might have aired on MTV in the 90s, and then also has the video quality of a homemade VHS recording.[[/folder]]

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** Synthpop artist Male Tears like making their music videos look like cheese goth or New Wave videos from the 80s,[[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGZ6BqqgtOY with most of them done on VHS]].