diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 73c36f5..dffc073 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -31,8 +31,9 @@ app's config when adding it to a device.
   to show off different sections of its art over time instead of being
   stuck on one spot for its whole runtime.
 - **Static overlay** — On (default) or Off. When on, shows a brief
-  TV-static effect (sparse noise specks) over the album art during the
-  first/last few seconds of a track, as a transition cue.
+  TV-glitch effect (a jagged horizontal static band, plus scattered noise
+  specks) over the album art during the first/last few seconds of a
+  track, as a transition cue.
 
 ## How it works
 
@@ -115,17 +116,25 @@ app's config when adding it to a device.
   its full module list) — so there's no way to pre-bake or crop-at-render-
   time from a source we don't have until the request hits the live
   station.
-- When enabled (Static overlay config), shows a brief TV-static effect
+- When enabled (Static overlay config), shows a brief TV-glitch effect
   over the album art during the first/last `STATIC_OVERLAY_SECONDS` (5s)
   of a track, as a transition cue. Implemented as a small bundled animated
-  GIF (`images/static.gif` — sparse noise specks over a transparent
-  background, built with Pillow) composited over the zoomed art via
-  `render.Stack`, not generated at render time: pixlet's Starlark sandbox
-  has no per-frame procedural drawing hook, and `animation.Transformation`
-  only interpolates between fixed keyframes, so there's no way to get
-  genuine random noise out of it. `render.Image` plays back animated GIFs
-  natively, looping independently of the zoom's own animation timeline.
-  Like the progress bar, this only works correctly on a long-lived server
+  GIF (`images/static.gif` — a jagged horizontal static band plus
+  scattered noise specks, over a transparent background, procedurally
+  generated with Pillow, not sourced from any existing footage)
+  composited over the zoomed art via `render.Stack`, not generated at
+  render time: pixlet's Starlark sandbox has no per-frame procedural
+  drawing hook, and `animation.Transformation` only interpolates between
+  fixed keyframes, so there's no way to get genuine random noise out of
+  it. `render.Image` plays back animated GIFs natively, looping
+  independently of the zoom's own animation timeline. An earlier version
+  tried deriving this effect from a real "VHS glitch" stock-footage clip
+  (downloaded, downsampled, and thresholded for transparency) instead of
+  generating it — dropped because, even licensed as free-to-use, cropping
+  it down to 32x32 let recognizable footage content show through at any
+  opacity that read as an actual "band" rather than sparse noise, and it
+  compressed noticeably worse than procedural noise does. Like the
+  progress bar, this only works correctly on a long-lived server
   with a persistent cache — a one-shot `pixlet render` CLI call always
   sees `elapsed=0`, so it'll always show the "starting" static, never the
   "ending" one. Tuned the GIF's frame count/density/flicker speed down
diff --git a/images/static.gif b/images/static.gif
index 4265a21..c36ed98 100644
Binary files a/images/static.gif and b/images/static.gif differ