BitRot

BitRot (/ˈbɪt.rɒt/ noun) — A simple interface for creating glitchy video effects

Showcase

Pixelsort: Smears and reorders pixels along lines or bands, turning motion and edges into streaky, glitchy gradients.

• Example (Pixelsort)

  pixelsort.mp4

Chroma Glitch: Splits and offsets color channels to create RGB drift, halos, and jittery color separation.

• Example (Chroma Glitch)

  chroma-glitch.mp4

Datamosh: Emulates compression corruption and motion‑vector bleed for fluid, melting transitions between frames.

• Example (Datamosh)

  datamosh-classic.mp4

VHS: Adds retro tape artifacts/scanlines, noise, wobble, and soft tracking drift, for that worn‑out analog feel.

• Example (VHS)

  nasa-water.mp4

Development

Prereqs (typical Tauri + Vite stack):

• Node 20.19+/22.12+

  • See: https://nodejs.org/en/download

• pnpm (or npm if you absolutely prefer)

  • Can be installed via: npm install -g pnpm

• Rust (stable)

  • See: https://rustup.rs/

• Tauri system prereqs for your OS/distro

Install and run:

# install packages
pnpm install
# if you need to load the ffmpeg/ffprobe binaries from PATH:
pnpm run setup:ffmpeg
# start development environment
pnpm tauri dev

Tests

Frontend tests (Vitest):

pnpm test

Rust tests:

cd src-tauri
cargo test

See TESTS.md for coverage details.

Dependencies (ffmpeg/ffprobe)

This project expects ffmpeg and ffprobe as sidecar binaries.

Place them in:

• src-tauri/binaries/

Quick setup (copies from your PATH):

pnpm run setup:ffmpeg

ffmpeg is resolved in this order:

1. ffmpeg(.exe) / ffprobe(.exe) next to the app executable (packaged builds)
2. Sidecars in binaries/ (packaged into app resources) or src-tauri/binaries/ (dev)
3. System PATH as a final fallback

For development and building, use names that match your platform target triple:

• Windows (x64 MSVC):

  • ffmpeg-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe
  • ffprobe-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe

• macOS (Intel):

  • ffmpeg-x86_64-apple-darwin
  • ffprobe-x86_64-apple-darwin

• Linux (x64 GNU):

  • ffmpeg-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
  • ffprobe-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

Tauri resolves these from the base names binaries/ffmpeg and binaries/ffprobe.

Build + portable zip (Windows)

To build a portable zip on Windows:

pnpm run setup:ffmpeg
pnpm tauri build
pnpm run make:portable

Notes

• Some files include multiple video tracks; BitRot always targets the first video stream plus the first audio stream (if present).
• H.264 requires even dimensions. If a clip is odd-sized (for example 1921x1081), BitRot trims a single pixel to keep encoders happy.
• Datamoshing is intentionally destructive, so the result isn't always perfect, and some videos may work better than others for certain modes.