TV Static

How to use it

1. Click the screen or press F for full screen. Click again or press Esc to exit.
2. Press Turn static sound on for the hiss and set the volume. In full screen, S turns the sound on and off.
3. Pick black and white or color, the grain size and how fast it moves. Turn the scanlines, the old TV frame, the rolling band and the text on or off.

For a clean static screen with no frame, turn off Old TV look and the text.

What people use a static screen for

• Video and streaming. A "lost signal" moment, a transition, or a background behind a webcam scene. Record your screen to capture it.
• Halloween and escape rooms. An old TV showing snow and hiss in a dark room is an easy spooky prop. Put a tablet inside an old TV cabinet or a cardboard frame.
• Retro decor. Scanlines and the rounded frame give a monitor or TV the look of an old tube set.
• White noise screen. Some people like the steady hiss in the background while they work. For sleep, the black screen for sleep gives you softer noise with a dark screen and a timer.

How the static is made

Old analog TVs showed snow when no station was tuned in: the set amplified random electrical noise and drew it as dots. This page imitates the look. Every frame, your browser fills a small image with random gray or colored pixels and stretches it to fill the screen. The grain setting changes how big the dots are.

Because every pixel is random and independent, the overall brightness of the screen stays almost the same from frame to frame. It shimmers, but the whole screen never flashes on and off. The Still setting stops the motion completely.

The hiss is random noise too, made in your browser with the Web Audio API and filtered to sound like a TV speaker. Nothing is downloaded.