Feeling nostalgic for static? Watch YouTube videos in blurry VHS mode

Have you been longing for the comforting sight of lines of static on your screen? When you pause a video, do you wish you could see slowly looping blurs instead of a crisp image? Is HD just too much perfection for your eyes? Well, YouTube can help you out. In celebration of the 57th birthday of the first commercial video cassette recorder, it’s given a number of videos an extra option — VHS tape mode.

According to an official Google+ post today, the video sharing site’s quirky new feature is designed to help its viewers “relive the magic feel of vintage video tapes” complete with authentic levels of fuzziness and distortion. It’s not a wide-spread roll out, but on a number of YouTube’s own videos (including its April Fools joke), users will spot a new cassette tape icon that will transform the video to a lovely mess of low quality static with one click.

The effect is surprisingly realistic — the videos suffer a drop in resolution, and pausing them produces the same effect that hitting pause on your VCR remote brought about back in the 90s. Quite an experience if you’re watching blurry footage of Felix Baumgartner leaping from space to the tune of Gangnam Style, like in YouTube’s 2012 video round up.

Note: The feature doesn’t seem to work on embedded videos, so you may have to click through to YouTube itself to see the tape mode option.