Show HN: I made a web-based, free alternative to Screen Studio

Would love to be able to self host this tool - I'd be fine with purchasing a license to do so but I'd really rather not have this running on hardware that isn't mine - wrapping this up in a docker container that I can deploy would be mint.

Seems cool! But for privacy reasons I prefer to do the recording locally and send the file myself. I've been using the extension https://cursorful.com/ (only for Chrome), which doesn't upload the video to the cloud, it just does everything locally, and the free tier features are enough for me.

You 100% need a privacy policy, you are potentially storing PII information and secure details with this.

People are a nightmare, I can already see someone leaking secrets with this.

Well done! Just tested this out and it's great but some feedback:

I couldn't successfully trim my recording. I could get into "trim mode" but couldn't figure out how to do it. That's a really important feature to me and the UX needs a lot of work there.

A feature that I always use with Screen Studio is changing the speed of clips. For example, if I'm typing in the recording, I like to speed it up super fast.

Also, I like the Cursor size/preferences (size, hide when mouse isn't moving, etc)

A feature that is missing from SS is: I can't insert title cards or my own clips. I kinda wish it took video editing to the next level and allowed me to insert other clips or title cards.

I'm still not happy with Screen Studio's pricing change.

Good luck!

I know people are going on about privacy and that's fair but easily sorted with the appropriate data privacy policies and actually adhering to your commitments in them.

If you are approaching this from a potential business perspective that will not be the major issue. As you can tell from the comments most people do want their screen recordings on a remote service, now matter the policies involved.

That leaves you with some options :

1) Encrypt the outgoing WebRTC stream before it leaves the client device/browser (e.g. through WebRTC Insertable Streams or similar), encoded with a client local key that only your customer knows/manages. This ensures any screen recordings stored on your end cannot be accessed in any way. They can then download the recordings as needed and decrypt on demand. Note that this still has the implication of you storing and transmitting massive amounts of data which is likely to become cost prohibitive as a service.

2) As above but do the decrypting for your customer on your end so they get to download playable media. This obviously introduces the security risk of your platform becoming temporarily able to 'see' the content.

3) Save your recording directly through MediaRecorder WebM or similar (has various browser compatibility challenges as standards materialize) and uses less obvious encodings (we're still living with the bullshit of H.264 requiring licensing).

Awesome stuff. It requires some polishing though, but I prefer it over many apps. To me - it didn't work well with USB camera on a laptop - it could only choose one and it was the one built into my laptop.

Take the feedback, do some improvements. I will use it even if you don't - love it :-)

Hey! What are your opinions on open sourcing this tool considering privacy considerations and simply I would love it if I can host my own data/ not have to worry about what proprietary thing is running!

Thanks in advance

Doesn't appear to work on Firefox or Safari — dialog closes immediately after opening.

It is cool but I thought it was client-side only - it turns out the videos are exported and stored remote. Can you confirm?

I love this tool, but I am pessimistic because the following is probably going to happen next:

1. At some point, the app will be covered with tonloads of ads to the point of impossibility to use

2. The core functionality will be hid behind sign-up/sign-in walls. The email addresses will be collected and then spammed to the brim

3. To add an insult to the injury, the app features will be gradually crippled unless you switch to a "Pro" plan. But you will not be able to do that efficiently as a user because you will be constantly attacked, bombarded and poisoned by ad banners and popups everywhere

4. Then, the app will start to upsell other offerings (of course, with modal banners!)

Those are cynical observations but they are 99% precise. I wish you good luck if you are among 1% elite.

It’s time to have self hosted solutions for this kind of activity, with simple UIs, voice editing, text to audio, without subscriptions. Just a matter of time OSS will deliver