YouTube is saying happy birthday to the VHS tape by giving you the option to watch select videos in ‘VHS mode’ – and as you guessed it, it lets you watch a video like you were watching an old VHS tape. It even includes the snow, image distortions and even that weird effect that when you pause the video and just bobbles.
In order to activate it, you will need to click on that little logo on the right hand corner that looks like a VCR tape, and it should activate it. Not all videos have that option, and you can’t do that little URL trick to activate it (we’ve tried it with PSY’s Gentleman and Gangnam Style). However, if you want to try it yourself, here’s a video that I managed to get it working on.
And if you’re looking for something a bit meta, try watching this video about someone’s VHS collection – in VHS mode.