Comparison

AnalogTV vs ZPTH

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

AnalogTV

This app simulates the entire analog television broadcast chain, from camera tube to CRT display. It offers realistic effects based on physics, not filters, with adjustable service menu options and unique phosphor types. Explore a full simulation of vintage television technology.

Highlights
  • Full analog television broadcast simulation
  • Multiple camera tube models
  • Composite signal encoding (NTSC, PAL, SECAM)
  • Eight distinct phosphor types
  • Adjustable service menu controls
  • Realistic magnet and purity damage effects
  • Tube aging and burn-in simulation
  • 14 real-time test patterns
Features
Read full description

AnalogTV recreates the complete analogue television chain - broadcast camera tube, composite signal encoding, RF transmission, and CRT phosphor display - simulated from physical first principles. Not a vintage filter. Not a post-process effect. A working simulation of every stage of broadcast television, from the camera neck to the phosphor screen. THE COMPLETE BROADCAST CHAIN. Not AI, Not a Filter, the Real Thing. Every frame passes through the same stages as a real television signal. A camera tube mode: Image Orthicon, Plumbicon, Vidicon, or CCD, captures the scene with its characteristic lag, halation, and MTF response. The signal is composite-encoded to NTSC, PAL, or SECAM standards, then decoded through the same mathematics a real television receiver performs. A Metal GPU fragment shader renders each frame onto a simulated CRT phosphor display at 60 fps. ANALOG CAM AnalogCam is a second way to use the app: a point and shoot camera with the console hidden and nine stompbox effect pedals along the bottom. Tap a pedal to latch it, hold it for a momentary hit. They are live while you record, so what you play is what is captured. EIGHT PHOSPHOR TYPES P22 colour television. P31 oscilloscope green. P45 white sub-millisecond. P4 B&W television. P3 amber radar. P7 dual-persistence radar - white flash fading to yellow-green afterglow. P11 deep blue photographic. P24 cyan-green flying-spot. Each calibrated from manufacturer datasheets and IEEE literature. Each shifts the IIR decay constants, rendered colour, and shutdown spot tint independently. SERVICE MENU Access the hidden service menu to make adjustments a television engineer would use: RGB drive and cutoff, convergence, focus voltage, G2 screen voltage, purity, HV regulation, and degauss. Every control operates at the physics level, changing focus changes the modelled electron beam diameter, not a software blur. TUBE AGEING AND SHUTDOWN Cathode emission falls with use. The screen accumulates burn-in at sustained high-brightness areas. Shut the set down and watch the EHT bleed, beam defocus, and phosphor decay to darkness with optional HV arc sounds. 14 TEST PATTERNS SMPTE and EIA colour bars, pluge, crosshatch, multiburst, zone plate, flat fields, and more. Every pattern is generated mathematically in real time. TECHNICAL SUMMARY - Metal GPU rendering at 60 fps - NTSC, PAL, and SECAM composite encoding and decoding - Eight phosphor types from primary source measurements - Four camera tube models with authentic lag and MTF physics - 14 test patterns generated in real time - Shadow mask magnetisation with 128×128 persistence texture - IIR phosphor decay with per-channel time constants - Aperture grille, shadow mask, and slot mask geometries Also on Apple TV as AnalogTV for TV, a separate app with a Teletext interface built for the Siri Remote.

About

ZPTH

Transform your device's depth camera into a dynamic visual instrument. Explore 20 unique modes to render depth as light, contours, or abstract art. Capture photos and videos directly to your library, with advanced customization options for Pro users.

Highlights
  • Depth camera to visual instrument
  • 20 unique depth rendering modes
  • Real-time photo and video capture
  • On-device processing, no network needed
  • Creator Mode for custom effects (Pro)
  • Saves directly to Photos library
Features
Read full description

ZPTH reads the depth in front of you and paints it in real time. Point it at a face, a room, or your hand and watch it become light, contour lines, plasma, chrome, cut paper, or a drifting cloud of dust. Capture a photo or record video straight to Photos — or stream the live preview to your computer over NDI. Fifteen of the modes need no depth sensor at all: a Core ML model running on your device infers depth from a single camera, so they run on both the front and rear camera of any iPhone ZPTH installs on. The other thirty read the front TrueDepth camera, or the rear LiDAR scanner on Pro models. FIFTEEN MODES, NO DEPTH SENSOR NEEDED • Parallax — the camera orbits the scene from one still viewpoint. • Anaglyph — real red/cyan 3D from one lens, plus a glasses-free wiggle. • Aperture — a cinema lens: shaped bokeh, iris blades, a focus puller. • Vertigo — Hitchcock's dolly zoom, live. • Nebula — a cloud that wraps behind people rather than over them. • Motes — dust, snow and embers drifting in the air in front of the scene. • Godlight — sun shafts your hand casts a real shadow through. • Aerial — true atmospheric perspective: haze, distance, a warm sun glow. • Woodblock — an engraving whose hatch lines curve around every surface. • Stipple — ink dots sized by curvature and spaced like a Seurat. • Papercut — the scene as up to 20 torn paper plates, each shadowing the next. • Riso — a risograph print in misregistered spot-colour plates. • Lattice — a scan plane leaves a glowing wireframe mesh in its wake. • Hologram — scanlines, chromatic fringing, a projection cone from below. • Datamosh — codec smear, with depth deciding what tears and what holds. THIRTY DEPTH-CAMERA MODES Environment, Face, Raw, Plasma, Organic, Data, Contour, Hillshade, Chrome, Oil Slick, Pulsar, Sonar, Pin Screen, Voxel, Facets, Light Trails, Miniature, Iron Filings, Dither, Juicy, Aerochrome, Heat Ghost, Solarise, Cymatic, Aquarelle, Tessera, Chemigram, Ripplefield, Ferrofluid and Lichtenberg — from topographic isolines and liquid chrome to false-colour infrared, wet watercolour, Roman mosaic, a vibrating Chladni sand plate, and forking lightning. Pulsar and Cymatic can move to live sound. CREATOR MODE (Pro) Build your own mode. Start from an empty depth field and stack effect layers grouped by function — texture, lighting, lines, edge, colour, bloom. Each layer has its own controls, opacity and blend mode. Shape how they fall through near and far depth, import a photo as a depth-projected tileset, then save it as a named mode. CAPTURE • Tap the shutter for a photo; hold and swipe up to record video. • Everything saves straight to your Photos library. • Double-tap to toggle 3:4 and full-screen 9:16. • Cut to the plain camera and back, even mid-recording. NDI STREAMING (Pro) Broadcast the live preview to OBS, TouchDesigner, vMix and other NDI receivers on your local network, turning your iPhone into a depth-camera source for your desktop. A second optional stream carries the raw camera alongside the effect. Off by default; Wired mode over USB-C lowers latency. PRO ZPTH Pro is a one-time $2 purchase — no subscription. It unlocks the fifteen monocular modes, every other mode's settings, the colour maps, all presets, Creator Mode and NDI streaming. The thirty depth-camera modes are free to explore on their first preset; the monocular modes need Pro. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No accounts, no servers, no analytics, no tracking. Camera frames are processed on the device and never leave it — unless you save a photo or video, or turn on NDI to reach your own computer on your own network. The microphone is used only by Pulsar and Cymatic, is off by default, and is never recorded or transmitted. REQUIREMENTS iPhone only. The monocular modes run on any supported iPhone. The rest need a front TrueDepth camera (iPhone X or later) or a rear LiDAR scanner (Pro models).

Screenshots

AnalogTV4 screens
ZPTH4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: ZPTH at Free against AnalogTV's $9.99. AnalogTV's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 3.5) and review sentiment (91% vs 50%). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

ZPTH is free to download; AnalogTV costs $9.99 up front. AnalogTV sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ZPTH sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AnalogTV holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AnalogTV has 16 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 91% of AnalogTV's written reviews are positive against 50% of ZPTH's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
AnalogTV versus ZPTH: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAnalogTVZPTH
Price$9.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (16 ratings) — better3.5 (2 ratings)
Positive reviews90.9% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings16 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 9 daysEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size33 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAlastair Borari lintzeris

Customer experience

AnalogTV

All ratings16 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews11 reviews
Positive90.9%
Neutral9.1%
Negative0.0%

ZPTH

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

AnalogTV

One-time1
  • NDI® Network Output & InputFree
1 purchases

ZPTH

One-time1
  • ZPTH Pro Lifetime$9.99

Questions

Is AnalogTV free?
AnalogTV costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is ZPTH free?
ZPTH is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, AnalogTV or ZPTH?
AnalogTV is rated higher. AnalogTV averages 5.0 out of 5 from 16 ratings, while ZPTH averages 3.5 from 2 ratings.
Do AnalogTV or ZPTH have ads?
Neither AnalogTV nor ZPTH shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AnalogTV or ZPTH?
AnalogTV ships an update every 9 days, and ZPTH every 9 days. Most recently, AnalogTV was updated on October 31, 2026 and ZPTH on October 8, 2026.

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