Screenshot 1 of 5. A dark brick corridor with red walls and a ceiling torch under the Lost Signal VHS scanline filter.
What Lost Signal VHS works with.
| Platform | Java Edition |
|---|---|
| Loaders | Iris, OptiFine |
| Minecraft versions | 1.18.2, 1.19.4, 1.20.6, 1.21.11, 26.1.2, 26.2 |
Lost Signal VHS is a lightweight VHS shader pack for Minecraft Java on Iris and OptiFine. It keeps vanilla lighting intact and processes only the final image, so the world looks like found footage played back through a damaged tape deck. It is a client-side visual pack and is not supported on servers.
Shader loaders and versions
- Iris and OptiFine: Minecraft 1.18.2 to 26.2.
Presets and signal effects
The pack is aimed at Backrooms maps, Poolrooms, liminal spaces, horror modpacks, ARGs and machinima. Seven presets cover the range: Backrooms, Poolrooms, Liminal Night, Found Footage, Rental Tape, Broken Signal and Analog Fog.
- Analog Fog uses true scene-depth fog, with five palettes and controls for density, clear-start and falloff.
- Interlaced NTSC and PAL field weaving, plus feathered tracking tears and time-base error.
- YIQ signal processing with chroma bandwidth loss, phase errors and chroma persistence.
- Tape formats from VHS SP to VHS-C and rental, with oxide wear, RF interference, tape chew and frame-repeat stalls.
- Optional REC, battery and timecode HUD, and three quality levels named Performance, Balanced and Cinematic.
Installation
- 1.Download Lost Signal VHS v1.8.1 and place the ZIP in the shaderpacks folder without extracting it.
- 2.Start Minecraft with Iris (paired with Sodium in the tested setups) using OpenGL.
- 3.Open Options, Video Settings, Shader Packs, then select the pack and apply it.
- 4.Open Shader Pack Settings to choose a preset and quality level.
Performance and testing
Performance impact is low. No resource pack, external texture or compute-shader support is needed. The trade-off is uneven testing: 1.8.1 was verified live on Minecraft 26.2 with Iris and Sodium, while older targets such as 1.19.4 and 1.18.2 use conservative shader interfaces but have not all been tried across every GPU and driver. For a similar tape look with a different treatment, see CTR VCR.
Backrooms VHS shader showcase
Questions about Lost Signal VHS.
3 questions
How do I install Lost Signal VHS?
Put the ZIP, unextracted, in your shaderpacks folder. Launch Minecraft Java with Iris and OpenGL, open Options, Video Settings, Shader Packs, and select Lost Signal VHS v1.8.1. Then open Shader Pack Settings to choose a preset such as Backrooms or Found Footage and a quality level.
Why does Iris say Lost Signal VHS is invalid?
Releases 1.7 and 1.8 were packaged with Windows-style internal ZIP paths, which Iris could reject as invalid. Release 1.8.1 rebuilds the archive with portable paths and keeps the same shader features, so redownload that release and replace the old file.
Does Lost Signal VHS work with Bedrock?
No. It is a Java Edition shader pack that needs Iris or OptiFine, and neither of those runs on Bedrock. Bedrock uses a different format for visual packs, so this ZIP will not load there.
