
Show HN: Video Hub App – like YouTube for videos on your computer - yboris
https://videohubapp.com/
======
yboris
I created this software using Angular, Electron, FFmpeg, and angular2-virtual-
scroll.

All proceeds go to Against Malaria Foundation (GiveWell's top-rated charity).

Currently not open source, but am trying to figure out how to set a license
that encourages people to tinker with the code, but not to clone a copy and
sell it.

~~~
peterburkimsher
It looks nice! I like the browser view.

One feature I need (and would like to tinker with the code to add it) is
support for subtitles in multiple languages at the same time.
[http://voicetube.com](http://voicetube.com) does this to help people learn
English; I'm trying to learn Chinese.

~~~
uvu
Ah, voicetube idea is nice :)

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richardvt
I'm the maker of VoiceTube. Hope you love it!

~~~
peterburkimsher
Hi Richard! It's Peter from Pingtype; we chatted on Skype a while ago. Good to
see you joining HN. I've posted a couple more videos on my YouTube since then.
[https://pingtype.github.io](https://pingtype.github.io)

Unfortunately life in Taiwan has been really hard for the last few months
though, so I'm preparing to leave. Busy looking for new jobs in other
countries now.

~~~
natch
Wow, pingtype is cool!

What kind of job are you looking for?

~~~
peterburkimsher
I studied electronic systems engineering, but most of my work experience has
been in software.

I'm most passionate about control systems/automation, network admin, and
circuit design. But I've done a wide variety of other projects (big data, web
apps, device drivers, tech support and repairs for friends). I'm not good at
art or marketing, so front-end design isn't for me. I'll consider pretty much
anything else though.

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thirdsun
Quick related question: Is there a lightweight video player that also acts as
library management tool? It seems there are either lightweight players that
simply open and play files you throw at it (MPV, VLC, ...) or heavy server-
client solutions like Kodi, Plex and others.

I'm looking for something inbetween. Basically VLC or MPV with a persistent
library I can point to my film/tv shows folder and it will let me browse, play
content, keep track of progress, etc. Is there such an app for macOS?

~~~
cypherg
Tried Plex yet?

~~~
thirdsun
Briefly. But as a long time Kodi user (since early XBMC / XBOX days) I'm
probably quite familiar with the concept and while it certainly fits into my
living room setup, it's way too heavy for casual use alongside other
activities on my iMac. There I'd be fine with something slightly better than
the file system: List shows, build a library, add some meta data, track
progress.

There are countless music library management apps (iTunes, Swinsian, MusicBee,
Roon, Foobar, Vox) - something similar for video is needed.

------
mintplant
Cool! Peanut gallery suggestions:

\- The default black-on-dark-grey in the primary pane looks amateurish.
Switching out the background color for something lighter (maybe a light
beige?) would make a world of difference for first impressions.

\- I'd appreciate if the screenshots adapted to my platform, so I could see
what the app actually looks like on Windows. But I understand that it'd
consume a lot of effort to re-take everything two extra times and keep them
all up to date. The Windows/Mac/Linux image at the bottom at least ought to
use a platform-appropriate screenshot for each segment.

~~~
bo1024
If we're giving suggestions ... I strongly recommend against a website that
requires javascript to view anything.

~~~
yboris
I grabbed a free online template without too much thought -- but I really
should keep this in mind!

My goodness! My website is _useless_ without JS at the moment!

------
yboris
Thank you _Hacker News_! Thanks to you I just had my 100th sale of the app --
and that means I was able to donate $350 to GiveWell's top-rated Against
Malaria Foundation:
[https://www.againstmalaria.com/MyNets.aspx?DonationID=395198](https://www.againstmalaria.com/MyNets.aspx?DonationID=395198)
Cheers!

------
Bulk70
Looks great, can you explain how it differs from say PLEX?

~~~
yboris
Primary goal: preview inside the video on hover (scrub). I may be mistaken but
I don't think PLEX has it. Video Hub App also has a filmstrip view and a quick
and advanced search capabilities (by folder, file name, exclude, etc). PLEX
has many features that my app isn't trying to replicate -- I think the two are
aimed at different use cases.

~~~
Firerouge
It isn't immediately clear to me, but could someone throw an nginx proxy in
front of this and use it like Plex, either over the internet or local network?

~~~
yboris
The app basically does 2 things:

1) extract screenshots from videos from a folder you give it (should work over
network as far as I can tell -- it works with external hard drives for sure).

2) show a gallery view of your videos. When you click on any video, it
launches your OS's default video player.

I'm unsure if/how it would work in the case you describe.

------
yboris
I also gave a short talk about some of the technology behind the app at
AngularNYC Meetup:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv7IfU78vxw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv7IfU78vxw)

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mzz
Awesome! What inspired you to connect effective altruism with your project?

~~~
yboris
I've been part of the Effective Altruism movement before it got its name ;) I
made a video about it in 2011:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZKh0M9x8s4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZKh0M9x8s4)
It features Nick Beckstead, current Open Philanthropy's Program Officer of
Global Catastrophic Risk!

------
toomuchtodo
Thoughts on using YouTube-dl as an importer of videos to the local library?

Otherwise, looks awesome! Take my money!

~~~
yboris
I'd rather relegate importing online videos to another software. Video Hub App
should just use whatever is already on the computer (or external hard drive)
;)

~~~
voltagex_
What about consuming metadata provided from things like youtube-dl, though? It
can dump thumbnails and other info as JSON.

~~~
yboris
Seems achievable, though would add complexity. Currently all screenshots are
standardized (because they are extracted via the same process) and app
requires exactly 10 per video with specific file name convention. Seems easier
to just re-scan for images.

As for metadata - currently Video Hub App doesn't keep anything other than
file size, time length, and resolution. One very-requested feature is to allow
tags and that may be the first large addition to the app in the future.

But I'm unsure if I'd work on any automated import of metadata at this time.

------
Brajeshwar
I know this may not be important 'yet' to your app but please change the name
to "Video Hub" without the "App".

~~~
yboris
:) reminds me of the movie "The Social Network" when Zuckerberg was told "Drop
the 'the' from 'The Facebook'" :P

I'm afraid without the word "app" it would sound as generic as "rename files"
... also I needed an available domain name.

Coincidentally [https://videohub.app/](https://videohub.app/) was also free :)

~~~
tjoff
First impression: The use of mac images and screenshots and including "App" in
made me absolutely positive this was a mac only thing. Only by chance that I
stayed long enough to realize it was multi-platform.

That was also the same time I realized, oh this is probably electron. Should
state that somewhere as well.

~~~
yboris
Thanks for the feedback! I think I'll make the multi-platform messaging more-
prominent (perhaps text right on top of the first screen).

------
bstchn
Very nice. I was recently look for something similar, but with support for
markers (eg. add marker "explosion" to video XY at 2:14). Do you plan to
implement such feature?

~~~
yboris
I didn't expect to put in markers ... though if adding tags is to become a
feature, perhaps tags that correspond to time might be easy-enough.

The trickiest part would be the UI -- making it usable and elegant.

Perhaps those markings would visually fit nicely inside the filmstrip view.

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giancarlostoro
So is this meant to be an alternative to XBMC? I've tried some pieces of
software that just sucked, any comparisons between this and similar software?
:)

~~~
yboris
I've not found good alternatives, though of course it doesn't mean my version
of what I think the software should do is the best fit for everyone ;)

------
amelius
What is the performance/memory footprint? E.g. can I run this on a Raspberry
Pi connected to my TV?

~~~
yboris
I'm unsure how a Raspberry Pi would handle it. It's an app built with
Electron, so it's basically running Chrome (Chromium) under the hood. Here's
an old build running as a website:
[http://dev.yboris.com/vh/](http://dev.yboris.com/vh/) \-- I suspect the app
will run just fine.

If you try it out -- please report back and let us know how it goes! :)

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therobotking
I like it. Nabbed a copy for $5 - feel like you should charge more than $3.50!

~~~
yboris
Thank you for paying more!

Charging more is a balance between larger sales volume (importantly -- more
people using the app), and possibly higher revenue (in my case donations to my
favorite charity).

I'm leaning towards having a lot more people enjoy my work (though I'm still
unwilling to go "pay what you want" with no minimum at this time).

~~~
kennyadam
I agree that giving people the option to pay $0 will probably result in less
sales. I've been thinking about it over lunch and I'm liking the $3.50 price
more and more. It was certainly low enough that I didn't have to give the
purchase much thought and also low enough that I felt you deserved a bit more
- and was happy to pay it.

No doubt you can see the stats and know what's gonna work better than some
random on HN :)

One thing: I found the contrast of the video name text and the bg a bit tough
when using the light theme. IF it's possible, custom bg colour or something
would be great. Anyway :) thanks for a cool app

edit: ha was logged in to my old acccount when i first posted, a downside of
password managers if you're not paying attention!

~~~
yboris
Thanks for the comment on the contrast. I should have paid more attention to
WCAG when picking the color scheme. I'll keep your comment in mind next time I
tinker with the UI :)

------
weisser
Looks great. I suggest charging more!

~~~
yboris
Great to hear you think it may still have customers at a higher price point! I
made the price pay-what-you-want-with-a-minimum (I'm gonna need about tree
fiddy :P).

I'm unsure how well the app will do in the international market, but in many
countries even $3 is quite a bit of money.

A nice feature about the price, is that each purchase of the app equates to a
purchase of an anti-mosquito bednet (since I'm donating proceeds to a charity
that provides them to communities affected by malaria) :)

