alt.hn

5/21/2025 at 7:50:37 PM

Show HN: ClipJS – Edit your videos from a PC or phone

 https://clipjs.vercel.app/

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 9:41:25 PM

I got about 30% through making something very similar then moved on to another project. This is very nicely done.

It is worth noting that I did a lot of research in this space when I was working on my own video editor and there are a lot of these now (I have about 30 in a spreadsheet). Ever since there was a ffmpeg WASM port many people have made these web based editors. It is so cool we live in a time where that kind of powerful technology is freely usable by others to build these tools.

My angle was to add gen ai video as a first class feature. That might be something you want to investigate now that video gen apis are becoming more common.

by zoogeny

5/21/2025 at 11:09:07 PM

>That might be something you want to investigate now that video gen apis are becoming more common.

No, it doesn't need that. It just needs to be a good web-based video editor.

by leptons

5/21/2025 at 11:46:10 PM

Wrong, depending on his priorities.

If he just wants a good website to do the job, sure, genai is uselesse

But if he wants to market it, in this day and age, it's practically a need.

by aio2

5/22/2025 at 1:32:13 AM

>But if he wants to market it, in this day and age, it's practically a need.

No, it isn't. AI content creation is a fundamentally different thing that a video editor. Maybe you can't tell the difference, but I can. AI isn't going to edit the video how I want, it isn't going to create the video I want from a prompt when I've already got the video clips I want to edit. I don't need to edit clips of people with 7 fingers, I need to edit my family vacation video, or whatever it is I need a video editor for. There's nothing about AI that would improve this as a video editor, at all.

If I could import this project into my existing React-based web app, I will use it to edit clips of content for my specific application, and for that it is useful. AI would just bloat it and be annoying where it isn't needed.

by leptons

5/22/2025 at 5:54:29 AM

> want, it isn't going to create the video I want from a prompt when I've already got the video clips I want to edit.

You act as if there aren't a bunch of non-AI video editing apps that try to do exactly that, nevermind AI apps that try and do that.

> I don't need to edit clips of people with 7 fingers

There's more to AI than image generation (and 7 fingers isn't the same problem it was 6 months ago). Specifically, picking out the important part of the clip, adding appropriate captions and music from the AI processing the video.

> I need to edit my family vacation video

Yes. What do you think an AI enhanced video editor would do? Be Photoshop? Editing the family video from hours down to a digestible video for sharing is a time intensive process, and while I'm sure you enjoy it, not everyone does. A "Make vacation video" button for those people for whom that's a chore and not fun, and don't remotely care to be semi-professional video editors is the target market for a program with a feature to find decent photos and snippets of video from a giant pile of stuff, and arrange them into something cromulent.

As far as state of the art for generated content, a cousin of mine used AI to take a still image of the extended family at dinner with their hands under the table, and turn it into a convincing video where everyone raises their hands and waves (with the correct number of fingers, in case that needed to be stated.)

Anyway, to answer your question, the react library backing this for building your own to drop in is called Remotion. If you'd rather a different video editor, https://omniclip.app/ was mentioned as being an open source no-upload video editor.

by fragmede

5/22/2025 at 3:56:12 PM

This post is about a JAVASCRIPT in-browser video editor. Not AI. But somehow AI fanbois insist on inserting their favorite hacky tech into every conversation, like they own stock in it.

No, I do not want AI automagically editing my home videos for me. It does not know the moments that are important to me as well as I do. To suggest that AI will somehow do a wonderful job at that is ignoring how bad current AI really is. It's become a running joke.

I'm glad someone else downvoted your comment because I can't.

by leptons

5/21/2025 at 8:02:30 PM

https://omniclip.app/ is another online video editor option that runs entirely in the browser (i.e. no video sent to an unknown server). Also open source.

by xnx

5/21/2025 at 9:05:50 PM

Another one https://pikimov.com/app/

by dobladov

5/21/2025 at 9:26:09 PM

Wow this is really great! I can't believe this is a one person project I can definitely get inspiration from it.

by mohyware

5/22/2025 at 2:22:16 AM

I get a message from pikimov.com about Firefox not supported.

by talkingtab

5/22/2025 at 2:38:31 PM

Me too, but I'd rather see a message saying _which_ features are missing from Firefox than such a generic one.

by ale42

5/21/2025 at 8:07:11 PM

looks cool

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 7:57:17 PM

looks cool, love how there's no sign in required.

some feedback so far:

- allow me to drag + drop video clips to add them to the media section

- allow me to trim the beginning of a clip - right now i can only trim the end of a video clip

- allow me to drag the playhead (right now i can only click to move the playhead somewhere)

- make most of the text on the page be select-none - there were many times when i tried to drag something and it selected a bunch of text on the page

by jony1266

5/21/2025 at 8:50:18 PM

no sign in IS SO NICE

by jacktheturtle

5/21/2025 at 9:00:33 PM

limited time offer (almost certainly only until they get some users) but for the purposes of demonstration in HN i love it

by purplecats

5/22/2025 at 9:19:28 AM

Thanks! I am planning to leave like this even if it gets a lot of users.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 8:06:53 PM

Glad you liked it! I’ll add these to the to-do list

by mohyware

5/23/2025 at 2:20:38 AM

I have lot of large gopro videos (have a 4 year old with all 4 years of gopro videos), that I painstakingly have to edit when my 256 GB card fills up (currently I have 500GB of vodes sitting) . No matter how careful you are while recording it has some parts that needs to be trimmed out for saving space and also play time. As of now I use quickplayer loading single videos for each and every one and have to save them carefully. I have not found any app or tool that can efficiently just show me the files on a sidebar that I can select and edit using simple edit options like trim to remove unwanted parts in 3 to 10GB files. anyone know any tools that work. The tools suggested here did not even load these files :( 1. clipjs.vercel.app 2. https://pikimov.com/app/ 3. https://omniclip.app/

I will happily pay for this tool. AI to show me the part where there are no humans, I will pay more :) by ofcourse all locally and no cloud shenanigans. Of course people saying why record so much, why do we do anything ? :) try to be optimistic nihilist

by bicepjai

5/23/2025 at 4:22:48 PM

I use LosslessCut for simple edits like this, works pretty well. Allows you to merge and split without reencoding.

https://mifi.no/losslesscut/

by radicality

5/23/2025 at 11:59:47 AM

The problem is that its stored in IndexedDB in the browser, which has a 2 GB limit. also FFmpeg (WASM), which renders the files, cannot process files larger than 2–4 GB. So the tool needs to be running either on the cloud or locally outside the browser like Adobe Premiere.

by mohyware

5/23/2025 at 3:13:51 AM

Please don't only start to edit the videos when you fill up the 256GB card. You would regret when you have to recover lost files from it. I've seen too many people lose irreplaceable memories due to card corruption or accidental deletion and it is even painful for me to scan and recover their >256GB cards.

Move them out as early as you can and do regular backups. Videos of your child are much more precious than a whole backup solution.

by simonmysun

5/23/2025 at 3:36:15 PM

Note that your buymeacoffe link is broken: https://buymeacoffee.com/mohyware

by XCSme

5/23/2025 at 9:42:35 PM

yeah i removed it cause it doesnt support my country. however I added a gitHub Sponsor option instead.

by mohyware

5/23/2025 at 3:33:45 PM

Congrats, this looks very easy to use!

I tried exporting, but it's quite slow and seems to be using CPU only. Shouldn't it use GPU for rendering?

by XCSme

5/23/2025 at 9:56:19 PM

Thank u sm! i think ffmpeg wasm only uses CPU ;(

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 9:06:49 PM

This is remarkably good for a month-old project. I wish all apps could remain this snappy!

I don't like the auto-scrolling of the timeline when the red bar reaches the halfway point it's too jumpy.

Consider hosting some sample clips for people to play with.

by jasonthorsness

5/21/2025 at 9:23:04 PM

Thanks! u can disable it with the Track Marker button or the (T) shortcut. I'll also consider this.

by mohyware

5/22/2025 at 1:07:45 AM

Perhaps add a screenshot to the landing page? The current "Ok, what does it look like?" path seems discouragingly long (landing page, Get Started, Add Project, name project, click on project).

by mncharity

5/22/2025 at 7:58:25 AM

oh good point! i can include a screenshot or a gif on the landing page to show it off

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 11:41:07 PM

Wow. I didn't know we could make video editors online now. Amazing job. I tried to do this so many times over the past 10 years, and it's a lot harder than it looks. But the "power" apps in this area are disproportionately too hard to use, and capcut and tiktok are easier but have their own major problems. Looking forward to using this! Also to reading the source!

by 90s_dev

5/22/2025 at 8:02:18 AM

Thank u sm! really appreciate it man.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 9:21:17 PM

I could have used this several weeks ago when all attempts to edit video (OpenShot & everything else I had installed) in Void Linux were temporarily thwarted until I realized an update had introduced incompatibilities with the GPU OpenGL/mesa driver slopstack.

I was able to wrest back some of my software by starting with

LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1

This forces CPU rendering through bypassing the intel GPU shitstack.

Or that's at least what I think happened. Took a loooong time to figure out.

Edit: I should include that part of the issue might be hamfisted aspects of the updates that penalize variable frame rates, which phone cameras use, and also comprises 100% of my videos. Still not sure though.

by eth0up

5/21/2025 at 10:52:42 PM

It looks like I can only edit the first 30 seconds of my video, which is 23 minutes long? https://i.imgur.com/L39MS2r.png

by koakuma-chan

5/22/2025 at 7:50:49 AM

this is the initial. u can extend it by resizing the right side, but I will change this in the next update

by mohyware

5/22/2025 at 12:16:15 PM

I think there is some kind of bug with the duration display, because on my screenshot it shows 0:52, even though I was actually at around 0:28. I encourage you to submit another Show HN in half a year though. I've been on a lookout for a free web-based video editor recently, and haven't really found anything to my liking. I even had thoughts of making my own but never actually got to it.

by koakuma-chan

5/22/2025 at 2:30:39 PM

Its position in the timeline is shifted 23 sec as i see so the duration is fine. but If u mean the source end time yes, its not causing any trouble for now, but I will work on making it accurate.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 11:18:04 PM

Haven't even looked at this, but does this or similar webapps (saw some others posted in comments) make it easy to redact passwords or any other sensitive information in videos? I've explored some desktop tools (very cursorily tbf), and it always seems dreadfully complicated so I've never really even attempted beyond a half-assed effort. I really think there should be some tool that makes this point and click so that even a lazy half-asser can do it easily.

by indigodaddy

5/22/2025 at 5:41:50 AM

What sort of videos? For Twitch streaming, the way to do is not have passwords on screen by having OBS only show a portion of the screen, with an extra terminal/whatever outside of the shared section (find a more in depth guide for details on how this works in detail/practice)

Redacting an area of the screen is easy with a bit of practice, even though the location of the password on screen may move, you just have to trace a path for the black box to move along. However, thattakes a bit of time unlike a hypothetical hide password with AI button.

by fragmede

5/23/2025 at 4:55:14 AM

hello, congratulations for clipjs, it's a nice idea but the performances are not good. there is no loading indicator and for a 10 mega file you have to wait a long time. Can I export the projects but also import? thanks

by 8mobile

5/23/2025 at 11:53:23 AM

Thanks! How exactly do you have to wait? I tested it by adding around 200 MB, and it was added immediately since nothing gets uploaded it's just stored in the browser. Exporting and importing the project in a specific format is a really great feature to have. Thanks for suggesting it! I will add it to my to-dos.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 10:50:23 PM

It would be good to add a default project to just test it out without uploading our own content.

by asadm

5/22/2025 at 7:46:58 AM

good idea I will add it to my to-dos.

by mohyware

5/23/2025 at 5:46:02 AM

@OP - Your buymeacoffee link 404s

by jasonm23

5/23/2025 at 11:42:44 AM

yeah i removed it cause it doesnt support my country. however I added a gitHub Sponsor option instead.

by mohyware

5/22/2025 at 7:13:02 AM

Love this, curious to see where it'll go. Would be amazing if we could move text around with the mouse.

by shkm

5/22/2025 at 2:32:07 PM

Thanks! yeah positioning all elements not only text is on my todos list

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 10:55:49 PM

Rendering...

Aborted() The progress bar is experimental in FFmpeg WASM, so it might appear slow or unresponsive even though the actual processing is not.

by aaurelions

5/22/2025 at 7:42:52 AM

What file types were used?

by mohyware

5/22/2025 at 1:55:11 AM

Ever consider shipping this as an SDK that other apps can embed? This is something I’ve heard many people ask for.

by dylanjha

5/22/2025 at 2:33:51 PM

i can work on it when i migrate from remotion library to pure canvas

by mohyware

5/22/2025 at 1:22:31 PM

Would be good to see an option to upload lottie as remotion supports it.

by Jayakumark

5/22/2025 at 2:42:04 PM

Good idea! If I find a way to include it in the FFmpeg render pipeline, I will add support for it.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 9:12:23 PM

incredible. the get started "+" icon and the github icon vectors were AI generated?

by higgins

5/21/2025 at 9:20:53 PM

Nah, I just found it on some random Tailwind components site.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 10:30:41 PM

uploaded a clip, pressed play on the timeline, but the preview wouldnt play

by s09dfhks

5/22/2025 at 7:40:20 AM

What is the clip type?

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 10:55:07 PM

Incredible use of remotion.

by dested

5/22/2025 at 7:43:45 AM

Thanks!

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 8:38:04 PM

I couldn't find your Privacy policy. What do you do with the videos uploaded? How do you store them, process them, 3rd parties? How do you monetize this? How is your approach/compliance to GDPR?

by HenryBemis

5/21/2025 at 8:48:13 PM

No files are uploaded everything is stored locally in the browser using IndexedDB and processed with FFmpeg (WebAssembly port) in the browser.

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 8:51:02 PM

FFmpeg continues to run the world lol

by jacktheturtle

5/21/2025 at 10:37:04 PM

there is nothing more useful

by dylan604

5/21/2025 at 9:21:19 PM

Assuming this is hosted on Vercel (which the URL indicates) and everything's done/stored locally (as stated) I don't think there's passive cost associated with providing this service (besides dev time).

by feznyng

5/21/2025 at 9:30:14 PM

Yep you are right. The only reason was time since I don't have much experience with deployments.

by mohyware

5/23/2025 at 1:34:57 PM

(sincerely please) Do write a "Privacy Policy" and mention all that (if it's not a problem for you/your time), because I cared to ask, some other may simply walk away.

by HenryBemis

5/21/2025 at 10:15:22 PM

Nice Project !

by SkilTrick

5/21/2025 at 10:41:31 PM

Is it usable as a react or vue component?

by popalchemist

5/22/2025 at 7:41:09 AM

react

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 10:23:29 PM

Curious: why not set up a custom domain?

by steren

5/21/2025 at 10:37:07 PM

Don't domain cost money? Then you have to keep it around for years.

by edoceo

5/21/2025 at 10:40:21 PM

Like $10 - $20 per annum.

by andsoitis

5/21/2025 at 11:32:01 PM

So, money.

by mvdtnz

5/22/2025 at 9:14:16 AM

money ;(

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 10:15:01 PM

Nice project !

by SkilTrick

5/22/2025 at 7:37:46 AM

Thanks!

by mohyware

5/21/2025 at 8:36:30 PM

[dead]

by libinpage

5/21/2025 at 8:07:51 PM

[flagged]

by HelpHumanity