NTSC Composite Bleed
Analog composite video squeezes color and brightness into one cable, so colors smear horizontally and fine patterns shimmer with rainbow noise. It is the look of 1980s consoles and broadcast TV.
Spot it
- 01Horizontal color smear
- 02Rainbow dot crawl
- 03Soft dim edges
Why it happens
Color is encoded on a subcarrier alongside brightness, then decoded with low horizontal bandwidth, so chroma smears sideways and sharp patterns leak into false color.
Recreate it in Pixio
Image edit prompt“Render this image as seen through an old NTSC composite video signal: colors bleeding horizontally past edges, rainbow fringing and dot crawl on fine patterns, soft low-resolution detail, slightly muted saturation, faint scanlines, warm CRT softness. Keep the original subject and composition.”
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