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Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

deniablevideo.com

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Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#31

Post by sailormoon »

cool-RR wrote: post #9

Reminds me of a cool idea I once thought of. It's more a nerd-fantasy than something practical. A surveillance system that not only encrypts the video, but also digitally signs it, so James Bond-style thieves can't switch cameras.

I thought the exact same thing! Can't remember if it's James Bond or what not, actually I think it was Ghost in the Shell, but it involved a heist whose detection was prevented by faking a video stream.

My first thought is why isn't there end-to-end digital signing from the camera to the monitor. Sure, you could probably still fake it out by getting into the camera and reading the key from ROM or whatever, but that's a hell of a lot harder than just tapping a cable.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#33

Post by diN0bot »

csmeder wrote: post #10

The layout is good, however, I have one suggestion: Left align your text. Follow the advice of this book by Robin Williams: "Find a strong alignment and stick to it." "Avoid using more than one text alignment on the page (that is, don't center some text and right-align other text). And please try very hard to break away from a centered alignment unless you are consciously trying to create a more formal, sedate presen…

neat advice. word up yo.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#34

Post by chrischen »

goodside wrote: post #20

My first impression: I love the idea, but I'd never give $6,000 to a site that looks like yours. I generally don't like criticizing without some constructive advice on what to fix, but in this case you don't need tips from random commenters, you need professional graphic design talent. A lot of startups could forego that at first, but not if they're selling $6,000 of equipment to an audience that's pre-selected to be…

The site does look a bit bland. And so does the logo. So I'll agree that the branding should be a little better for something $6,000, but I'll also agree with the other guy in that there still has to be more. Reviews, or endorsements could do it.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#35

Post by chrischen »

sailormoon wrote: post #29
goodside wrote: post #20

My first impression: I love the idea, but I'd never give $6,000 to a site that looks like yours. I generally don't like criticizing without some constructive advice on what to fix, but in this case you don't need tips from random commenters, you need professional graphic design talent. A lot of startups could forego that at first, but not if they're selling $6,000 of equipment to an audience that's pre-selected to be…

What exactly put you off? I mean, it's not the best site I've ever seen, but I hardly had the visceral reaction against it you seem to have experienced. There's a balance to be struck I think - you can't look too Netscape 4.0 but I'd, if anything, be made suspicious by an obvious focus on marketing bling. I would have thought this site is a little drab but serviceable enough, decently put together, certainly enough t…

I think his point was that you need to gain credibility, and more than usual since the potential audience is already paranoid.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#37

Post by robotrout »

negativezero wrote: post #12

Neat idea, but I think (certainly not) the only way you'll ever see a substantial return is if you were you marketing this to the obviously most vile demographic of pornographer(s) out there.

I think pornography is definitely the main market here. However, it's doesn't have to be child porn, as you imply. I think there's a housewife market. I think a lot of normal people would record more (ahem) adventurous videos, if there was a guarantee that those videos couldn't possibly, EVER, be seen by other people.

If it takes $6K to convince the wife to break out the whips for the camera, I think there's plenty of guys that would do it.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#38

Post by jasonlbaptiste »

Glad to see more companies doing hardware. It's pretty intimidating stuff, but it's also really fun.

Site Design: Needs lots of work. It seems like an infomercial product. I think branding is key here, especially if you're looking to charge 6k.

Price: 6k is a nonstarter. If the equipment were expensive and margins were tight, I'd understand. Everyone wants hardware to be cheap and it's hard when you don't have economies of scale yet.

Implementation: Lots of different devices and I'm sure there's a certain level of complexity to this. I think you're on to something with the security aspect. I would try to make it a lot easier and a lot simpler. The 100gb of space is also way too low. I haven't looked through the specs, but SATA 2.5s with 500 are readily available. If you can somehow cram a 3.5 inch, you can get up to 2 tb.

Could this be done via the cloud? IP camera, sheeva plug, and encrypted recording to an overseas server? Require the private usb key to be used in conjunction with any software system its loaded on. You could charge a small up front fee for the camera+sheeva plug and recurring fee for recording. Kind of a TiVo for personal security.

Re: Ask HN: Review our startup: Deniable Video

#40

Post by kw_ »

No 'about us' page. I was confused for a moment when the 'contact us' page started with 'to view our company's website, click here'. I thought I was on the company website.

Having multiple languages seems a bit odd if large swaths of content aren't translated. "Cette page est disponible seulement en anglais" being followed by an entire page of English text doesn't help credibility.

Your logo seems like it'd fail pretty hard for individuals with red-weak color blindness.

The 'deniable video operation' flowchart is more complex than what I want, for understanding how it works.

If the thing is supposed to be deniable, I might prefer a plain black plastic, or aluminum enclosure to a giant DV logo'd one.

The targeting seems very broad... and some of it seems a bit misinformed. As an example, there are substantial SEC rules when it comes to communications and the records thereof, but you have two trading-related examples in commercial.

I'd like a clear example of how it is that:

a) if my wife asks me for my password, she will get the pictures of her and I... not of the woman I met on ashleymadison. (purely hypothetical, honey.)

b) if a government asks me for my password, they will get something plausible, but not everything...

I guess it's just not clear to me what it's really good at, except that it's a camera, and a hard drive, and it uses ogg vorbis and chunks to... do something.

edit: It also conflates what appear to be the two major features (encryption, and data hiding), and it's not obvious to me what quality the resulting video will be, nor what I'd have to do if I wanted to use it in broadcast.

Also, I felt like I had to read a lot of the website to know what the product really did. I might've got the gist faster if the front page said something like: Deniable Video. * Records, Encrypts and Hides Your Video. I really didn't know what "personal video security that's loyal to you" meant.

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