1. Default
Everything at once: television, films, animation, commercials, ephemera, sports, music, public access and other surprises from across the available collections.
17 RETRO TV CHANNELS
Pick a theme or let the default channel mix everything together. Each channel changes the programming, wording and look of the television set.
Random TV Time is a free channel-surfing app for recorded video. Rather than presenting a catalog to search, it deals a lineup and starts playing. Move to the next channel when curiosity strikes, go back without losing your place, save something worth returning to, or open the item on its original archive.org page.
The sets
2. Cartoons
Animated shorts and shows from vintage-cartoon and recorded-television collections. The title-and-tag safety filter remains on for this channel, but it is not a children’s service.
3. Silent Pictures
Films dated from 1910 through 1926, shown with sepia, grain, flicker and intertitle-inspired controls. Some items have a recorded score; others are silent.
4. Classic Films
Features, comedies, film noir, science fiction, horror and trailers dated from 1933 through 1986, with a restrained movie-channel presentation.
5. Film Noir
Crime pictures of the 1940s and 1950s and related films, presented in hard black and white with a vignette and venetian-blind shadows.
6. Cable TV
Programs, game shows, commercial breaks and home-recorded television dated from 1990 through 2019, dressed like a cable set from those years.
Television by decade
Each decade channel combines programs, game shows and commercial breaks dated within its ten-year range. The visual set changes with the era as well as the lineup.
7. The 1950s
A blond tabletop set, a small rounded tube and black-and-white programs dated from 1950 through 1959.
8. The 1960s
A walnut console, rounded screen and the softened color of early color television, with items dated from 1960 through 1969.
9. The 1970s
A harvest-gold and avocado portable set with a warm picture and programming dated from 1970 through 1979.
10. The 1980s
A black plastic set, green VCR readout and tracking wobble, playing television dated from 1980 through 1989.
11. The 1990s
A charcoal set with a blue input box, built around programs, game shows, commercials and home recordings from 1990 through 1999.
Specialty channels
12. Commercials
Nothing but television spots, from the 1940s through the 2000s, played one after another like an endless commercial break.
13. News and Newsreels
Newsreels, television news and material tagged as newsreel footage, with a black-and-white sprocket-and-teletype treatment.
14. Old Sports
Games, bouts, races and highlights from sports television, wrestling and film collections, framed by a scoreboard-inspired set.
15. Game Shows
Quiz and game shows from the 1950s through the 2000s, inside a royal-blue and gold marquee of chasing bulbs.
16. Public Access and Home Movies
Community television, cable-access programs, home movies and camcorder diaries, complete with a recording dot, date stamp and tape wobble.
17. Late Night
Creature features, science fiction, thrillers, horror and noir under a cool midnight-blue picture.
How the lineup works
The app searches selected Internet Archive video collections and creates a shuffled lineup for the channel you choose. While one item plays, the other channels are prepared in the background. Recent items are kept out of rotation, neighboring choices are separated when they come from the same collection, and a stalled item is skipped rather than holding the set indefinitely.
The exact lineup changes because collection metadata and availability are controlled by the Internet Archive. Random TV Time does not host or copy the programs. Every title links to its source page, where you can review the item’s description and any rights information supplied by its uploader.
Watch on the screen you prefer
Use the web edition on a phone, tablet, computer or television browser. On Android phones and tablets, install from Google Play. For a television-focused setup, see the guide to Random TV Time on Android TV and Fire TV.