Why work from the file
A stream is a compressed copy of your recording with the livestream's own graphics baked into the picture: lower thirds, lyrics, countdown timers, a watermark. None of that can be removed afterwards, and all of it ends up in your clips.
The original file on your machine has none of it, and has not been through a platform's compression. Same sermon, better clips.
What leaves your computer
The full recording stays on your machine. What goes out is:
- the audio, compressed small, so it can be turned into text,
- your finished clips, so they land in the same library the web app shows,
- and only if your computer cannot do the rendering, the few short segments that were chosen, so we can render those.
That is the whole list. It is worth being precise, because "nothing leaves your computer" would be a nice claim and it would not be true.
Getting the app
The app is in early access and is not on a public download page yet. Ask for a build from the downloads page and we will send you one.
The app keeps itself up to date. It checks for a new version when it starts and again every few hours, then offers to install it and restart. There is nothing to download by hand.
What it needs
| Runs the app | Can render clips locally | |
|---|---|---|
| Mac | Yes | Apple Silicon only. An Intel Mac runs everything else and renders in the cloud. |
| Windows PC | Yes | Recommended with 4 or more cores and 8 GB of memory. |
| Linux | Not available |
Everything needed for video work is bundled inside the app. There is nothing else to install.
Accepted recordings: MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM and M4V, up to 6 hours. Rendering uses your machine hard while it runs, so a laptop will spin its fans and drain battery. Mains power is a good idea for a long service.
Using it
- Sign in. The app opens your browser to sign in and hands the session back, so you never type your password into the app. The sign-in is stored securely by your operating system.
- Choose your recording, by dragging it in or picking it. You can also paste a YouTube link if the file is not to hand.
- Trim, set moments, reduce background noise, or pick a Look if you want, the same as the web. Chapters are detected here too when you paste a link.
- Watch it work. It reads the file, extracts the audio, has it transcribed, finds the moments, then renders.
- Your clips appear in the app and in your web library at the same time.
Keep the app open while a run is going. Unlike the web, the work is happening on your machine, so closing it stops the run.
When it is done you get a notification on your desktop rather than an email. Downloads land in a ReelUse folder inside your Downloads, and Show in Finder (or Show in folder) takes you straight there.
Where clips are rendered
Settings has a Render clips on this computer switch, on by default, along with a plain description of what your machine can do. On a machine that does not qualify the switch is off and cannot be turned on, rather than sitting there pretending.
Each clip tells you which happened: Made here or Cloud. If a local render fails, it quietly hands that clip to the cloud and carries on rather than losing it.
The output is identical either way. The same rendering code runs in both places. What differs is which processor does the work, and whether the chosen segments travel.
Differences from the web
| Desktop | Web | |
|---|---|---|
| Source | Your own recording, or a YouTube link | YouTube links |
| The full video | Never leaves your machine | Not applicable, it is streamed from the link |
| Rendering | Your computer when it can, otherwise ours | Always ours |
| Told when done by | A desktop notification | |
| Library | Shared. One account, one library, both directions. | |
| Branding and captions | The same settings, edited in either place. | |
Rough edges
It is early access, and these are the things people notice:
- Intel Macs always render in the cloud, which is slower for you but produces identical clips.
- A YouTube run started in the desktop app has no cloud fallback, so if a render fails locally it fails rather than being picked up by us. Retry usually clears it.
- Occasionally a clip made on your machine cannot have its captions edited afterwards. The app tells you when that is the case instead of failing when you try.
If one of these blocks you, say so at support@reeluse.com. Early-access reports genuinely set the order things get fixed in.