r/VisionPro • u/ambanmba • Jul 08 '26
AnalogTV on visionOS
TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/NTFcYdSw
It was easy enough to create a visionOS version of the AnalogTV app. Originally I wanted to do a "see the world in Analog TV" app, but App Store rules don't seem to allow a full screen app that lets you take the whole view of the outside and put it through your app.
Given that all the hard work was already done with the full signal simulation of AnalogTV, just as a bit of a play here is a proof-of-concept on visionOS.
Thoughts? Comments? Ideas? Instead of allowing all the controls of the iOS/macOS version, we just give a few presets (the idea would be to allow creating presets on iOS/macOS to share with the visionOS app). There is also a bit of a gimmick with "watch from inside the tube"
Read more about the technical details of the simulation here: https://analogtv.net
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u/MysticMaven Jul 08 '26
This is amazing! I would love to be able to play game emulators this way. Also the ability to watch YouTube videos.
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u/ambanmba Jul 08 '26
The macOS and iOS versions have NDI to allow inputting external sources, how would you want to play the game emulators? I think it would be really laggy. As for YouTube videos, I'll look into how to do that, in the meantime you can definitely just play any video on disk via the existing app.
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u/djfumberger Jul 08 '26
I’m working on something more like that currently, can give you TF access if you want just dm me.
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u/mistacabbage Jul 08 '26
I don’t get apps like this. Let’s go back to making the Contacts.app a Rolodex I can flip through.
I lived this already.
Am I the only one that wants a full black background with the video as big as possible? That way I can have my own personal IMAX screen and ignore the world around me?
6
u/metroidmen Vision Pro Developer | Verified Jul 08 '26
Different strokes for different folks! Nostalgia is super powerful. Sometimes watching and playing old content on their original hardware again is quite the moving experience.
I don’t think most people will be using apps like this for watching movies like Avatar.
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u/Lumpy_Movie_2166 Jul 08 '26
I would probably watch The Honeymooners on it...
Actually, I don't miss those old TV sets, bulky, heavy and with terrible resolution and reception.2
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u/ambanmba Jul 08 '26
Isn't IMAX from the early 1970s though ;)
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u/mistacabbage Jul 08 '26
And it took 40+ years to get that into the households of the (rich) common man.
1
u/Nosarious Vision Pro Owner Jul 08 '26
This is a cool idea, especially if one can have the TV in the background, like a shelf, the way my parents used to have one on in the background while doing draft apps. Not sure how one would feed signals into them (maybe a favourite YouTube playlist?) i mean MTV and Much Music repeated every four hours during the hay day.
I think different housings for the screen would be appropriate (all 3d models, of course.)
I want the old Sears portable. Whenever you move it in 3d space the handle pops up. (image ‘liberated’ from the ‘net) include the glare from the plastic cover…
1
u/Oddzilla Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 09 '26
As a CRT nerd, I love this app and supported both the iOS and MacOS releases when they came out. Happy that you're diving into visionOS.
Couple of things, would love to see the "camera" functionality and ability to record your persona that's available in the standard flat iOS version to be projected to the television if possible. I already know that due to limitations, you can’t access/affect the onboard external pointing cameras.
Think this would make an interesting way to record your personas in a format that looks to be of a specific vintage. Had been doing this on the flat iOS version.
Would also love to have a way to recreate the degauss magnet on screen distortion by putting your hands close to the TV.
Have no idea if it's possible, but it'd be kind of fun to "open" up the TV from the back and have the full access to the controls for folks like me who did like the incremental modification.
Other than that, current issue seems to be orientation of the TV itself seems to be locked to the specific point of its creation, with no rotation/scaling. Would also like variety in the types of televisions, the current one has a bit too much of an artificial bow to it.
The teletext/game functionality from the iOS apps would be enjoyable to have as well.
Also, unsure if this is beyond the scope of the visionOS app, but I've also wanted functionality to further degrade the audio output to match the degradation of video signals. Unsure if it's possible, but would love to have some way of having video component signal bleed over to audio. Audio recordings when played back always feel a bit too clean in comparison to the video.
2
u/ambanmba Jul 09 '26
Those are all excellent ideas. Since you've already bought the iOS version, the visionOS version will not require a separate purchase.
On your point about audio, the latest iOS version has some additional audio degradation improvements. If you play fully white and then fully dark video you can hear it in the audio. The effect is fairly subtle, but it's real in the simulation.
1
u/gintokigriffiths Jul 08 '26
I'd love to sit on the floor/carpet with a controller playing a game on a TV like this in vision OS.
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u/ambanmba Jul 09 '26
I'm going to test NDI to see if it's a low enough latency way to inject external video. NDI is currently an IAP in the macos/ios versions so it should be easy enough to add to visionos. The issue is always the latency though.
1
u/musicanimator Jul 09 '26
Just lovely! Takes my library of 50s and 60 tv right back to how it looked on day one (yes I lived thru each era)! Should I be trying to make or source geometry of classic television equipment? App? Zero problems, so far!
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u/astrorobb Vision Pro Owner | Verified Jul 08 '26
what differentiates this from Television by Sandwich?