The 80s and 90s Channels

The Nostalgex bundle. 19 channels, built from your own library.

This is the bundle the app is named after, and if you only switch one on, make it this one.

Nineteen channels, all pointed at the same stretch of time: roughly 1985 to 2005, back when you watched whatever was on because that was the deal. SAT MORNING CARTOONS runs the cartoons you ate cereal in front of. AFTER SCHOOL TV picks up where the bus dropped you off. 90S SITCOMS is the laugh track block, and Y2K SITCOMS carries it into the early 2000s. VHS VAULT and DVD SHELF are the two shelves everybody had, one of them taped off TV with the last ten minutes missing.

Then there are the channels that are less about a year and more about a mood. REWATCHABLES MOVIES and REWATCHABLES TV are the ones you have seen eleven times and will put on again tonight. BUDDIES is the Friday night cop movie channel: two guys who can't stand each other and one car that is about to get wrecked. LAST ACTION HEROES is the solo version of that. GIRLS NIGHT, TEEN MOVIES, CLASSIC FAM JAMS, NOSTALGEX LOL, ACTION ADVENTURE, RETRO TOONS, Y2K COMEDY, Y2K TOONS: each one is a shelf you can flip to without thinking about it.

Worth saying plainly, because people ask: Nostalgex does not bring any of these movies with it. Every channel is built from your own Plex or Jellyfin library. The app reads what you already own, sorts it into channels, builds a schedule and starts playing as if it had been running all day. A library heavy on 90s comedies gets a thick 90S SITCOMS channel. If you have never owned a cartoon, RETRO TOONS never appears. An empty channel is worse than a missing one, so a channel only turns on once there is enough on your server to fill it.

That is also why this is the bundle people leave on. It casts the widest net of the fourteen, so it keeps a guide full even when a library is small. And the schedule runs in real time. Tune in at 8:40 and you land twenty minutes into something, the way it used to work. No menus, no picking, nobody scrolling for twenty minutes before anyone watches anything.

Free, open source under the MIT license, and it runs on any Apple TV on tvOS 18 or later.

Channels in Nostalgex

  • Ch 1 REWATCHABLES MOVIES
  • Ch 2 REWATCHABLES TV
  • Ch 3 NOSTALGEX LOL
  • Ch 4 SAT MORNING CARTOONS
  • Ch 5 90S SITCOMS
  • Ch 6 AFTER SCHOOL TV
  • Ch 7 VHS VAULT
  • Ch 8 CLASSIC FAM JAMS
  • Ch 9 GIRLS NIGHT
  • Ch 10 TEEN MOVIES
  • Ch 11 RETRO TOONS
  • Ch 12 ACTION ADVENTURE
  • Ch 13 LAST ACTION HEROES
  • Ch 14 BUDDIES
  • Ch 15 CARTOON NETWORK
  • Ch 16 DVD SHELF
  • Ch 17 Y2K COMEDY
  • Ch 18 Y2K SITCOMS
  • Ch 19 Y2K TOONS

Channel names describe the kind of titles that can air from your own library. Nostalgex is not affiliated with or endorsed by any studio, network, or streaming service.

Nostalgex FAQ

Do I need my own movies and shows?

Yes. Nostalgex builds every channel out of the Plex or Jellyfin library you already have. It never supplies titles of its own.

Why is a channel missing from my guide?

A channel switches on once your library has enough titles that match it. If RETRO TOONS is missing, there are no cartoons on your server yet. Add some and it shows up the next time the guide builds.

Does this bundle cost anything?

No. Nostalgex is free and open source under the MIT license. No subscription, no account, no Plex Pass.

What do I need to watch it?

An Apple TV running tvOS 18 or later, and a Plex or Jellyfin server it can reach. There is also a free web tuner if you want to try it in a browser first.

Can I turn off the channels I don't want?

Yes. Bundles switch on and off in settings, so you can run this one on its own and leave the other thirteen dark.

Start watching

Nostalgex is free and open source. Set it up with Nostalgex for Plex or Nostalgex for Jellyfin, get the Apple TV app from the App Store, or see the whole lineup on the channel guide.

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