The CRT look
The CRT look puts footage back inside a cathode‑ray‑tube television: soft horizontal scanlines, a gentle phosphor bloom on highlights, faintly rounded geometry and warm, low‑contrast colour. Lost Media Emulator builds it from a real tube model of mask, beam and bloom, so the picture glows like curved glass on macOS or in Premiere Pro.
Real output from the engine. Drag to compare. Consumer CRT · 1975
What a CRT does to the image
A cathode‑ray tube paints the picture as glowing horizontal lines through a shadow mask, so highlights bloom and fine detail softens. The screen’s curve and the beam’s warmth give old footage its unmistakable living‑room glow.
- Scanlines, visible horizontal lines from the electron beam’s passes
- Phosphor bloom, bright areas glow and spread into their surroundings
- Shadow / slot mask, the fine RGB triad texture of the tube
- Rounded geometry and slight edge vignetting from the curved glass
- Warm, lower‑contrast colour with a soft highlight roll‑off
How to get the CRT look
Apply the CRT preset and choose how strong the tube reads, subtle scanlines for a hint of glass, heavy mask and bloom for a full retro display. Drive it on whole clips, game capture or stills, and keep it editable until you export.
- Mac app: load any clip or still, pick CRT, set scanline strength and bloom, export ProRes or H.264 on macOS 13 Ventura or later, Apple Silicon.
- Premiere Pro / After Effects: drop the panel on a clip and keyframe the mask and glow over time on Premiere Pro / After Effects 2023 or later.
- Pair it with VHS for a tape‑played‑on‑a-tube chain, or keep it clean for a sharp reference‑monitor feel.
Consumer CRT vs PVM reference monitor
Not every tube looks the same. A living‑room CRT is soft and warm with a coarse shadow mask; a broadcast PVM/BVM is tight, bright and accurate with a fine aperture grille. Lost Media Emulator ships both so you can match the screen, not just ‘a CRT’.
- Part of a 91‑look library with 97 controls
- Real‑time GPU preview on Apple Silicon
- Non‑destructive, the original is untouched until export
CRT, answered.
- Can I add CRT scanlines in Premiere Pro?
- Yes. The Premiere Pro / After Effects extension applies the CRT look, scanlines, mask and bloom, non‑destructively on your timeline, with every parameter keyframeable.
- Are the scanlines a real tube model or an overlay?
- A model. The mask, beam bloom and geometry are generated for your footage, so highlights bloom and the lines react to the picture instead of a static line texture laid on top.
- Is the CRT look good for retro game capture?
- Yes, it’s a common use. Feed in gameplay capture and the shadow mask and bloom give it an authentic tube‑display feel rather than crisp flat pixels.
- How much does it cost?
- The CRT look ships inside the full 91‑look library, a one‑time purchase from $39, no subscription.