MiniMax-H3-Tape-FX is a single mega-node for ComfyUI that degrades your images and video batches with authentic analog-tape playback artifacts: VHS, BetaMax and LaserDisc — including the worn out tape look, tracking errors, dropout, creases, ghosting, head-switch noise, vertical roll and a period-correct VCR on-screen display.
format comparison
Left to right: original, VHS (worn out, with OSD), BetaMax (lightly worn), LaserDisc (worn out).
Highlights
Format DNA — each format is simulated with its real technical character, not a single filter with different names
Six transport damage effects — tracking error bands, signal dropout, tape creases, frame ghosting, head-switch noise bar, vertical hold roll
Worn-section simulation — damage spikes inside a configurable frame range, exactly like a bad patch of tape
Damage presets + full manual control — mint through destroyed, every slider always available
Authentic VCR OSD — PLAY ▶ / blinking REC ●, tape counter and date stamp, drawn with a built-in 5x7 pixel font (no font files needed)
Video-ready — the IMAGE batch dimension is treated as a timeline, so temporal effects (tracking, rolls, ghost trails, counter) animate correctly on AnimateDiff / video latent outputs
Deterministic — same seed, same damage, on every machine
Zero dependencies — pure PyTorch + NumPy, both ship with ComfyUI
Demo
VHS — worn out
VHS — destroyed
vhs
destroyed
BetaMax — lightly worn
LaserDisc — worn out
beta
ld
Worn-section simulation (animated) — the tape plays fine, then hits the damaged patch at ~0:01, then recovers:
worn section
Installation
Inside your ComfyUI folder: cd custom_nodes/
Either clone this repo or copy the MiniMax-H3-Tape-FX folder there:
Even a mint VHS stays soft and bleeds a little — that's the format's bandwidth, not damage. LaserDisc never creases and has no head-switch bar, but old discs rot: sparkle dropout and crosstalk ghosts instead.
Presets
Presets are a global damage multiplier applied on top of the damage sliders (mint 0.08x, lightly_worn 0.4x, worn_out 1.0x, destroyed 1.9x, custom 1.0x). The look sliders (softness, bleed, scanlines) are never scaled by presets — a mint VHS is still a soft VHS.
mint — clean playback, format character only
lightly_worn — occasional noise, rare dropout
worn_out — the classic rental tape (default)
destroyed — the tape your VCR ate and you rewound with a pencil
custom — the sliders, exactly as you set them
Worn sections
Tapes damage in places, not uniformly. Set wear_start / wear_end (frame range, 4-frame ramps) and wear_boost, and damage spikes inside that range: more tracking chaos, heavier dropout, extra noise — then the tape plays on as before. Leave wear_end <= wear_start to disable.
On-screen display (OSD)
Option
What it does
osd_mode
play (▶ PLAY), rec (blinking ● REC), or none — top-left
osd_counter
Tape counter h:mm:ss top-right; osd_counter_start sets the starting value in seconds
osd_custom_text
Your stamp bottom-right — e.g. DEC 24 1996, SP, CHR-LOCK
osd_color
white (classic VCR), teal (camcorder), amber (date stamp)
osd_scale
Pixel size of the OSD font — raise it for 2K/4K images
osd_fps
Frame rate used by the counter and the REC blink
The OSD uses a built-in 5x7 pixel font supporting A-Z 0-9 : . - / ( ) ' plus the ▶ and ● symbols (lowercase is converted to uppercase; unsupported characters become spaces).
Full parameter reference
Format & preset
Parameter
Type
Description
format
combo
vhs / betamax / laserdisc
preset
combo
Global damage level (see above)
Damage effects (scaled by preset + wear)
Parameter
Default
Description
tracking
0.35
Tracking error bands: horizontal tearing waves that crawl over the image
dropout
0.30
Signal dropout: white streaks (tape) or rot speckles (LaserDisc)
creases
0.25
Tape creases: diagonal bright kink lines that persist for a while
ghosting
0.30
Frame ghosting / crosstalk: previous frame bleeds through
head_switch
0.45
Head-switching noise bar at the bottom (VHS/BetaMax)
vertical_roll
0.15
Vertical hold failures; low values give gentle vertical jitter
tape_noise
0.35
Analog grain: luma + chroma noise
flicker
0.25
Slow brightness instability
Analog look (not scaled by presets)
Parameter
Default
Description
luma_softness
0.50
Video bandwidth — how soft the picture is (scaled by format)
color_bleed
0.50
Composite chroma smear and oversaturation
scanlines
0.35
Interlaced line structure (every other line darker)
Worn section
Parameter
Default
Description
wear_start / wear_end
0 / 0
Frame range of the bad patch (disable: end <= start)
wear_boost
0.60
How much worse it gets inside the patch
OSD
See the table above.
Misc
Parameter
Description
seed
All randomness derives from it — same seed, same damage, CPU or GPU
Tips
Single stills always show their damage: a tracking band and (for heavy settings) a crease are guaranteed on frame 0, so the effect you dialed in is visible immediately.
Resolution independent: effect sizes scale with image resolution (calibrated to ~640px reference).
Performance: everything runs on your ComfyUI device (GPU when available). Typical cost is a few dozen small convolutions per frame.
Stack it: the node output is a normal IMAGE — chain two instances (e.g. BetaMax look + extra dropout) or follow it with any color/grade node.
Performance at 4K: raise osd_scale to keep the OSD proportional.
File structure
MiniMax-H3-Tape-FX/
├── __init__.py # ComfyUI entry point
├── minimax_h3_tape_fx.py # The node (pure torch + numpy)
├── examples/
│ ├── minimax_h3_tape_fx_workflow.json
│ └── demo/ # All images in this README
└── LICENSE # MIT
