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OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

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Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#41
post #17

Am I in the minority for thinking ScreenStudio is actually worth the money? The recent video I did for Cling for example ( https://lowtechguys.com/cling ) I’ve had many people ask about how I did it because it has just the right amount of motion and highlighting. I did it in a few minutes of editing in the ScreenStudio UI. I’m not saying it’s a great video, but people say it conveys the info well enough and that’s wh…

I must be in the minority but I find that constant panning/zooming to be very distracting and almost dizzying. The sharp start of the easing curves is pretty awful too. I'm surprised people like it.

I'd probably do it with arrows or fading out parts of the screen instead.

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#42

Smart choice using PixiJS for the rendering pipeline — WebGL gives you hardware-accelerated compositing for the zoom/pan effects without needing to shell out to ffmpeg for every preview frame. The auto-zoom feature alone makes this worth it for anyone doing quick product demos where you'd otherwise spend 20 minutes keyframing in a full NLE. Would love to see cursor click highlighting land at some point, that's the on…

pixijs has been great for my saas as well. rendering is blazing fast compared to ffmpeg pipelines.

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#43
post #17

Am I in the minority for thinking ScreenStudio is actually worth the money? The recent video I did for Cling for example ( https://lowtechguys.com/cling ) I’ve had many people ask about how I did it because it has just the right amount of motion and highlighting. I did it in a few minutes of editing in the ScreenStudio UI. I’m not saying it’s a great video, but people say it conveys the info well enough and that’s wh…

I must be in the minority but I find that constant panning/zooming to be very distracting and almost dizzying. The sharp start of the easing curves is pretty awful too. I'm surprised people like it. I'd probably do it with arrows or fading out parts of the screen instead.

A lot of the time it is, I agree. I would love the ability to do more highlighting and less panning. But in a small 700px wide video, zooming is kind of necessary to make it clear where the action is coming from. Because the app window is so large and packed.

And these recording editors don’t have arrows and callouts, not even a freeze frame. I have to plan the recording to the letter and after 10 frustrating takes I just say fk it and try to polish the least confusing take

Maybe I should start contributing to openscreen to get the ideal recording editor people are looking for instead of paying and complaining.

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#44
post #17

Am I in the minority for thinking ScreenStudio is actually worth the money? The recent video I did for Cling for example ( https://lowtechguys.com/cling ) I’ve had many people ask about how I did it because it has just the right amount of motion and highlighting. I did it in a few minutes of editing in the ScreenStudio UI. I’m not saying it’s a great video, but people say it conveys the info well enough and that’s wh…

> A $30/month subscription is indeed too much, but I see it as a one time payment for that month when I release something, then I pause the subscription. I need it rarely, very few videos need zooming and motion. If I think something is worth the money, I typically don't need to actively decide to pause the subscription each time I use it.

Right, it’s not worth $30/month all year for me because I don’t use it past demo videos for when I publish a new app or large update. Which happens rarely.

But if I was that kind of user who did demos monthly, the time saved on one or two videos that month is worth $30.

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#45

I see that this is for MacOS. Isn't there a stock feature for screen recording, like on the iPhone, or on Windows (snipping tool can do screen recordings since Windows 10 or 11)?

On Windows, I used to use https://www.cockos.com/licecap/

Now, I see the last build is from 2022.

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#47
post #17

Am I in the minority for thinking ScreenStudio is actually worth the money? The recent video I did for Cling for example ( https://lowtechguys.com/cling ) I’ve had many people ask about how I did it because it has just the right amount of motion and highlighting. I did it in a few minutes of editing in the ScreenStudio UI. I’m not saying it’s a great video, but people say it conveys the info well enough and that’s wh…

> A $30/month subscription is indeed too much, but I see it as a one time payment for that month when I release something, then I pause the subscription. I need it rarely, very few videos need zooming and motion. If I think something is worth the money, I typically don't need to actively decide to pause the subscription each time I use it.

The commenter you're replying to said he needs it only occasionally. It makes perfect sense to pause a subscription if you don't use it. Not doing so would be a waste of money. How can you critisise that, don't be ridiculous

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#48

Looks awesome! Super excited to try it. What are pros / cons over Cap? https://cap.so/ - also open source https://github.com/CapSoftware/cap

For one, OpenScreen supports Linux, whereas Cap doesn't. I appreciate it's small minority that appeals to, it's just that I'm in it.

Re: OpenScreen is an open-source alternative to Screen Studio

#50
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's mostly just that a subscription seems weird for a tool like this. Most users would probably only need it occasionally, and with a subscription you can't just add it to your toolbox to grab when that time comes.

IMO a big disservice to the universe has been done with the recurring revenue drive. Many services could/should offer a one-shot option, with the highest margin. Somehow the world got stuck on SaaS model so hard that one off is completely ignored. I know why the capital class loves MRR I'm just mad that OTC is ignored.

I am struggling with finding a good model for desktop apps. The subscription model always seems to yield the most money, but I too dislike subscriptions.

One-shot option seems attractive, but the desktop (MacOS at least) app market is actually so niche that the SAM is somewhere in the low thousands. So, if I would offer a one-time 100$ app, I'd have 100k$ before taxes. And for that revenue, there's developing, marketing, plus support and maintenance. So to match a dev's salary, I'd need to make 2-3 successful apps a year, that I'd also have to maintain for a long time.

I think maybe there's a mid-ground with buy forever, 1 year updates, so people get the product they paid for, and if they want updates or support the development they can re-buy, however I'm yet to hear opinions on this model.

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