[HN Gopher] Show HN: Presentations for your webcam, not a projector
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Show HN: Presentations for your webcam, not a projector
CueCam Presenter is my Mac app (actually a suite of Mac and iOS
apps) to run better presentations on your webcam. Editing cards
should feel natural to anybody used to Markdown. I came to create
CueCam as an "embedded entrepreneur". I had some success with my
camera app "Shoot Pro Webcam" back in 2020 and built on this by
creating squares.tv. As I talked to more and more users, I
discovered more opportunities to make their lives easier. I started
with features in Shoot (camera options, pausing, drawing etc..)..
Then I created Video Pencil (which connects to your computer and
lets you draw on your webcam using your iPad). Then I created "Beat
Sheet" which lets you run through "smart scripts", controlling
Ecamm Live, OBS and mimoLive. CueCam Presenter is how I'm
connecting all these elements. It gives you a virtual webcam,
virtual mic, and seamlessly connects to Shoot and Video Pencil
running on other devices. There are various ways you can use it as
a teleprompter while maintaining eye contact. It's taken a lot to
get it to this stage. The video pipeline has been through two major
iterations and the audio pipeline even more. The UI has evolved and
developed to cover the different ways it is understood by different
people. Educational discounts are a must for me, as I want to help
improve the quality of remote teaching around the world. For other
professionals, I believe it transforms the way you interact with
people on video calls. It's useful for recording software demos and
running live streams.
Author : michael_forrest
Score : 139 points
Date : 2024-02-09 12:37 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (cuecam-presenter.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (cuecam-presenter.com)
| yodon wrote:
| Great explainer video at the top of your page. Very helpful for
| understanding what the app does, and how easy it is to control.
| bberenberg wrote:
| I didn't see a price listed, and going to buy now requires auth.
| Any chance you could share pricing?
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I could see this without login in https://cuecam-
| presenter.com/pricing
| bberenberg wrote:
| Figured it out. There's a pricing menu at the top. If you
| scroll down, you only get the buy now button which requires
| auth. Thanks for pointing it out.
| bemusedthrow75 wrote:
| This looks super. Like the late lamented CamTwist but more
| focused on presentations.
| bentobean wrote:
| I was so happy to see this until I saw the subscription model.
| Hard no.
| suyash wrote:
| How much would you pay if it was just a one time purchase -
| let's say license with 1 year updates ?
| CharlesW wrote:
| I love this! Some thoughts:
|
| * I hope you're wildly successful with a subscription model, but
| the yearly cost for the full product is quite high for a "nice to
| have" even if I wasn't personally subscriptioned out.
|
| * I typically present with PowerPoint, so the scenario where I'm
| speaking to slide notes is central. Although your introductory
| video is very good, it's unclear how this works with Presenter
| View.
|
| * You emboldened "Eye Contact", so are you doing the "magic eye
| contact" thing that FaceTime does? Does CCP integrate with things
| like Stream Deck to help minimize the need to use the GUI?
| jimstr wrote:
| Was interested until I checked the pricing and saw it sold as a
| subscription. Just let me buy it and I'll decide if I want to buy
| version 2 next year.
| rcarmo wrote:
| This. I also can't equate the yearly value of a subscription
| with the usage I'd get out of it (and I do _a lot_ of video
| calls, always have).
| bjelkeman-again wrote:
| That is really impressive. The explainer video alone made me
| start thinking about several different ways I want to try to use
| this.
| Zetobal wrote:
| Looking at the pricing you are probably aiming for a niche target
| group. Best of luck.
| bonestamp2 wrote:
| I love this. For structured presentations, this is really
| awesome.
|
| It would be great if you also had more of a non-linear mode for
| content that is less structured and more suited to live events
| where anything can happen at any time.
|
| For video meetings, podcasts/talk shows, etc. there is often
| content repeated between calls/presentations (theme song/intro,
| memes, sound effects etc) and also planned content from a topic
| list, but that content may be mentioned by anyone at anytime so
| it should be easy to trigger without too much scrolling.
|
| Maybe it would look more like a sound effect board/stream deck/TV
| Mixer where there is a matrix of buttons to playback videos, add
| titles, show images, play sound effects, etc.
|
| In the future, it would be awesome to have support for chroma key
| (green screen), data driven motion graphics (score board, live
| weather, live stock data, etc).
|
| Basically, if you could dramatically simplify OBS, and it looks
| like you've already made some big steps in that direction, that
| would be highly valuable.
| jackthetab wrote:
| > It would be great if you also had more of a non-linear mode
| for content that is less structured and more suited to live
| events where anything can happen at any time.
|
| I've been thinking on how to do this "non-linear mode for
| content" but haven't been able to figure out the actual
| infrastructure for it.
|
| The problem I see is accessing the content in real-time; how
| does one pull up content in real-time without materially
| affecting the flow of conversation? Of course, this assumes you
| know the location of the relevant piece of content. And don't
| even THINK about combining different pieces of content together
| in real-time!
| imhoguy wrote:
| I wonder. Let's assume there is video conference going thru most
| common: Google Meet, MS Teams or Zoom. Wouldn't webcam view
| degrade the resolution or quality with codecs?
|
| Can CueCam eventually just work in full-screen and screensharing?
| jedberg wrote:
| I've been a paid presenter for a bunch of years, and switching to
| online presentations in 2020 was a huge chore. You're absolutely
| right about OBS being hard to work with.
|
| This solves pretty much every problem I encountered. I would buy
| this in a second.
|
| But I have to ask, why a subscription? Why can't I download this
| software like I do with all my other presentation software? What
| value does a subscription buy me?
| fnordpiglet wrote:
| The typical answer is it funds ongoing development, support,
| and maintenance. The alternative is new versions requiring
| repurchase of a new license to fund ongoing development. As a
| developer I would much prefer reoccurring revenue as an
| incentive to keep developing vs having to build large shrink
| wrapped releases and managing LTS etc.
|
| Whether $120/year is reasonable or not is debatable though.
| Seems steep for the casual user but for people that
| professionally do presentations, these sorts of things can be
| extremely pricey even on purchased licenses.
| jedberg wrote:
| There are lots of pieces of software where that makes sense,
| but presentation software is not one of them. Specifically,
| adoption of new features in presentation software is rare and
| slow because you don't want to be fiddling with unfamiliar
| things while trying to give a presentation.
|
| I would be extra upset if a feature changed or the interface
| changed between practicing and giving a presentation for
| example.
|
| I want my presentation software to have a set of features and
| then _never change_ until I make a very deliberate act of
| upgrading to a new version _while still having the old one
| around in case I get stuck_.
|
| A subscription to auto-updating software is about the worst
| thing I can think of presentation software in particular.
| rcarmo wrote:
| These are excellent arguments.
| aloisdg wrote:
| I would love to see a FOSS version based on OBS. I am not a
| streamer and I don't need half of OBS' feature. Like OBS but ELI5
| mode
| rcarmo wrote:
| Hmmm. That's an interesting idea, especially since OBS has a
| built-in "transparent" browser that I use to do lower thirds.
| Getting it to render sequences/chunks of Markdown doesn't seem
| too far-fetched at all.
| kevingadd wrote:
| OBS already has a virtual webcam mode, fyi
| domano wrote:
| Maybe someone knows how to solve a common sharing issue, I didn't
| see it mentioned here:
|
| I have a single ultra wide screen and would like to share a
| virtual area that has a normal size (16:9) with people via Google
| Meets, Slack, etc. Otherwise I have to share a window, stop,
| share another one etc.
|
| Really bad, especially during some on call emergency session.
|
| So far I couldn't make it work, only Zoom had this feature at
| some point but nobody uses Zoom where I have worked.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I use Region To Share on Windows, and just drag windows on and
| off that virtual area as needed (works great with PowerToys
| FancyZones):
|
| - https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9N4066W2R5Q4?hl=en-
| us&gl=U...
|
| - https://github.com/tom-englert/RegionToShare
|
| I haven't needed to do the same on a Mac yet, but if anyone
| knows of an app that does the same (i.e., define a
| "transparent" window that screen cap can then share in a call),
| do let me know (it's bound to be trickier on macOS due to
| window contexts, the compositor and privacy, but there might be
| an app out there for that)
| chris-orgmenta wrote:
| Ah that's cleaner than my idea. Which was:
|
| Install OBS, add a 'Scene', add a 'Window Capture' to the
| scene, then right click it (in sources) and transform / scale
| / crop the scene dimensions. Then optionally in the
| 'controls' panel you can start a virtual webcam, then go to
| Chrome/Brave settings, go to Site & Shield settings, set the
| default Camera to your virtual one.
|
| Not sure if OBS would solve your Mac issue.
| rcarmo wrote:
| It wouldn't really, since I don't want to replace my camera
| feed--I just want sharing to share a region of the screen,
| like you do.
| jhund wrote:
| CueCam Presenter solves this quite elegantly: You can prepare a
| script with a card for each window you want to share. Then you
| can just select the card during the presentation and it will
| share just that window.
|
| I also have a single large screen. So I put the CueCam window
| on the right, top to bottom. And the windows I want to share in
| the bottom left quadrant. There I can make them smaller, with
| the correct aspect ratio, so that participants with smaller
| screens can see all the detail they need.
|
| That leaves the top left quadrant for my meeting window where I
| can see the meeting participants.
|
| I'm also experimenting with the two companion apps: Shoot to
| use my iPhone camera and control zoom from CCP; and Video
| Pencil to draw on my video.
| morsch wrote:
| Seems very slick, though I don't give pre-built presentations via
| webcam. Still, I would love to be able to draw on my screen when
| screen sharing e.g. via Google Meet. E.g. highlight a function in
| the IDE or a requirement in a task or do a quick diagram. These
| are things that have somewhat lower friction when doing the same
| meeting in person.
| pimlottc wrote:
| Is there a free version or is it just a trial? The download
| button says "Use Now For Free" but doesn't tell me what that
| means, and I don't see a free tier on the pricing page.
|
| Is it free for a limited trial period? How long? Are certain
| features free while others require payment?
|
| This is sort of a pet peeve of mine, many tools offer a "free
| trial" but don't tell you what the limitations without installing
| it.
| yeputons wrote:
| My main issue with any virtual camera-based screensharing is that
| Zoom (and others) seem to degrade camera first, screensharing
| second, audio last. If I share a static image, it'll eventually
| get through. Internet lagging, laptop lagging, some random
| updater running, whatever.
|
| But if I share everything via a single "camera" channel, it's all
| or nothing. The only "in between" is "image is blurry, face is
| barely legible, text is illegible".
| malshe wrote:
| Yeah, pretty much my experience too. I used mmhmm app for some
| time with great hope but the Zoom experience was subpar.
| pimlottc wrote:
| This looks cool and pretty powerful, especially being able to use
| multiple devices together. But I'm having a hard time
| understanding how it all works together at presentation time. It
| would be nice to have a "behind the scenes" video that shows the
| presenter's point of view to understand how executing a
| presentation scripts really works.
| skykooler wrote:
| How does the video on your home page bypass Firefox's "don't
| autoplay videos" setting?
| JoshTriplett wrote:
| Firefox allows videos to auto-play if they don't have audio
| enabled. (The rationale for this is that you can achieve the
| same effect via an animated GIF or JavaScript or a canvas, and
| videos are more efficient.)
| MacOnly wrote:
| Mac only, Damn
| sircastor wrote:
| This is tangential, but I believe your cookie banner is not GDPR
| compliant (and if it's not compliant, why bother?).
|
| It only has the option of accepting cookies, and does not specify
| the kind of cookies.
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