Well, here we go. I’m honestly not great at this—I love talking about what others create, but I feel pretty self-conscious talking about my own stuff. However, I truly believe in this project, it’s deeply personal to me, and I think someone else out there might actually enjoy it, so here I am presenting it to you all.
I’m an 80s kid. I absolutely love nostalgia and everything related to 80s and 90s cinema—the movies I grew up with. I actually have a massive physical and digital movie collection from that era. For years, I was looking for a retro video player for my digital files that could simulate a classic vintage television from back then; something to complete the experience when watching movies on my computer (or casting to my TV via Apple TV or Chromecast). My search was completely in vain. I found nothing. I only came across a few apps that would just take your files and turn them into TV channels, but that wasn’t what I wanted. So, utilizing my background as a designer, I decided to jump in and build it myself as a basic tool for personal use.
Once it was ready, I shared it with a few friends, and they told me I just had to publish it. So after spending many months perfecting it and making it as complete as possible for the public, here we are. It’s finally finished, published on the App Store, and ready to share!
Essentially, the app is a video player that lets you watch your local files inside a nostalgic retro TV. Just drop and watch. It features all the manual controls you'd find on an old-school television set: volume, saturation, brightness, and I’ve also built-in customized CRT TV screen effects and VHS lines. It supports fullscreen mode and PiP (Picture-in-Picture) in case you want to keep a movie playing while working on something else. The video playback buttons also look and feel exactly like a classic physical VHS player.
But my absolute favorite part—and what I had the most fun with—is that every single channel is a different skin! You can change the entire aesthetic of the television. There are custom skins inspired by retro computers, classic gaming consoles, sticker-bombed setups, a surf vibe, a neon future style, Y2K, frutiger aero, synthwave, Memphis design... you name it. You can also grab extra packs with exclusive designs inside if you want to customize your vintage TV even more!
I know the logical path when developing an app is to design something generic that appeals to the masses, but I chose the hard road. I made a niche app that will probably only interest about four victims of nostalgia like me. I don't aspire to become a millionaire with this; my only goal is to recover the $100 it cost me to register the developer account on the App Store 😂. If I manage to do that and people truly enjoy it, it's mission accomplished for me!
The price is $3.99 as a single one-time purchase—it includes all current features and 12 custom skins. It’s literally the price of a coffee, c'mon! Either way, I promised the moderator I would offer some freebies, so for the FIRST 3 PEOPLE who ask for one in the comments, I will send a promo code via DM! ;-)
IMPORTANT: At this moment, it's for Mac users only. Sorry…
I am already working on the PC version. With a bit of luck, it will be available by January at the latest, and I’ll have more promo codes for Windows users then.
You can check out more details about the app at www.rewindvision.com, and I’ll be posting updates and new features on the Instagram profile @rewindgarage.
By the way, the app is called RewindVision... you see? Told you I was terrible at self-promotion 🤦♀️.
Thank you all for your time! 🙌🏻
Maria (Salomon Studio)
