Channel 90: Retro TV Player
Turn Videos into 24/7 Cable
Free · In‑App Purchases · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
iPad
Your videos, running like real cable — on a 24/7 schedule, with commercial breaks, channel surfing and a proper TV guide. Bring your own tapes.
Turn your iPad into a 90s TV set.
Channel 90 takes the videos you already own and broadcasts them as real channels — running around the clock, on a schedule, whether you're watching or not. Tune in and something is already playing, halfway through. Just like it used to be.
LOAD YOUR TAPES
Import your own MP4, MOV, M4V and 3GP videos from the Files app, your Photos library, or by dragging them over from a computer. Classic cartoons, old home movies, vintage commercials — whatever you've got on hand.
PROGRAM THE SCHEDULE
Group your videos into custom-named channels. Channel 90 builds each one a continuous 24/7 schedule, so switching over drops you into the middle of whatever is on right now — not back at the start of a playlist. Don't like the running order? Regenerate it and get a fresh one.
SURF'S UP
Swipe to change channels, with a satisfying burst of static between each flip. Half the fun is not knowing what you'll land on.
REMEMBER COMMERCIALS?
Mark clips as commercials and they'll slot themselves into the breaks between programs — one or two at a time, exactly like the real thing. Leave them off a channel and it plays straight through.
CHECK THE GUIDE
One tap opens a proper scrolling TV guide, showing what's on now and what's coming up across every channel you've built.
LIVE STREAMS TOO
Point a channel at an Owncast server or any .m3u8 (HLS) URL and it sits right alongside your own tapes — 24/7 retro TV streams, internet radio, or your own broadcast. Owncast streams even show what's currently playing.
DIAL IN THE PICTURE
Scan lines you can tune, brightness, contrast, tint and color, three screen sizes, and your choice of 4:3, widescreen or fullscreen. Plus a set of color themes to match the era you're going for.
PLEASE NOTE — BRING YOUR OWN TAPES
Channel 90 is your personal TV station, which means you supply the programming. It does not come with any TV shows, movies, or commercials. It's a player for the video files you already have, plus any live streams you point it at.
FREE VS FULL CABLE
The free version runs one channel, so you can build a lineup and try the whole experience end to end. A one-time Full Cable purchase unlocks unlimited channels.
It's also a great second life for an older iPad sitting in a drawer. Grab a snack, get comfortable, and see what's on.
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
NEW: THEMES
Fifteen new looks — and they don't just retint the TV, they recolor the whole app.
CLASSIC 90s
Cable Box — the original: deep navy, yellow bezel, green readout
Saturday Morning — candy cartoon-block magenta and cyan
Late Night — warm amber phosphor and wood panel
Test Pattern — SMPTE color bars on black
Miami — art-deco teal and flamingo
8-Bit — four-shade pea-green handheld LCD
16-Bit — vivid console colors on grey-purple
Broadcast — early-90s newsroom navy, gold and red
MODERN
Midnight, Vaporwave, Aurora, Daylight, Terminal
PLAIN
Onyx and Paper, for when you just want to watch
Find them in Settings → Appearance. Every option previews itself in its own colors before you pick it.
ALSO NEW
• Picture shape — choose 4:3, widescreen or fullscreen, so 16:9 recordings no longer sit letterboxed inside a square frame
• Your picture settings finally stick. Scan lines, brightness, contrast, tint, color and screen size all survive a restart
• TV Guide and Settings are now reachable from the on-screen controls, including in fullscreen
• Live stream channels show what's actually playing right now, with an on-air indicator
• Long channel names wrap in the sidebar instead of being cut off
FIXED
• Channels keep broadcasting. A channel used to drop to "No Signal" once it had played through its schedule — it now loops continuously, the way it always should have
• The TV Guide shows the right program. The now-line and the listings are properly aligned, and the channel column scrolls with its rows
• Nothing gets deleted behind your back. Videos whose files can't be read are flagged in your library instead of being removed
• Regenerate genuinely reshuffles the running order every time
• A stream that won't connect now tells you why and offers a retry, instead of showing static forever
• Volume starts at full, remembers where you left it, and the on-screen readout tracks your finger
• Importing shows progress, tells you if anything was skipped, and checks you have room first
• Much easier on the battery — the static effect and the TV Guide are dramatically cheaper to draw
• Better VoiceOver support, and text now scales with your system text size
The developer, JudeWorks, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- JudeWorks LLC
- Size
- 7 MB
- Category
- Entertainment
- Compatibility
Requires iPadOS 15.6 or later.
- iPad
Requires iPadOS 15.6 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 12.5 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPad
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- In-App Purchases
Yes
- Full Cable Upgrade $0.99
- Copyright
- © 2026 JudeWorks LLC
