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Launch HN: Cardboard (YC W26) – Agentic video editor

by sxmawl177213111834 comments
Wow! congrats on the launch guys. client-side rendering is incredible, really. I saw your product somewhere and have it as an open tab in my chrome for ~2 weeks :D

I also saw another YC company, Mosaic, doing something similar. But your approach of chat-based editing is a lot closer to what I'm building. Shameless plug: I'm also working on a chat-based media processor. https://chatoctopus.com

But you guys are way ahead! will be looking at you for inspiration.

by moinism1772140367
Really impressive work guys! It seems like YC has funded a few companies attacking this but I think you all might have the best approach so far. Behind the scenes is the agent just editing using text/annotated timelines? I feel like the move is probably text for roughcut/narrative, then a vlm for digesting the initial roughcut, then adding broll and fixing timing issues. Feel free to steal my FCP xml generator. https://github.com/barefootford/buttercut
by barefootford1772138175
Love this idea! I built something similar last year https://www.usecrossfade.com and know how difficult this is to get right - I'm rooting for you guys!
by michaelevensen1772140923
This is amazing (I'll add you on LinkedIn).

I recently started making videos for a loved one that lives far away, I started using CapCut and this is the kind of thing I was thinking "I wish it did that".

I'll definitely try it out. Congrats!

by moralestapia1772134969
Funnily, this was an issue for myself so I built an open source AI video editor - https://github.com/waylonkenning/aidirector

Cardboard looks really well polished, well done!

by WaylonKenning1772139588
This seems like a great idea. Tools like video editors (and CAD) often impose a big learning curve - there is a big differential between "I want to do X" and actually knowing all the right buttons to press to do X. Good luck.
by calebm1772134245
Helpful for those who care less about the craft and more about a quick outcome. Werner Herzog said that he watches his footage a few times, takes extensive notes then edits based on his notes. That's how he crafts such extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime stories. But for those who are working on commercial or home movies, why not use AI to build a narrative? It can be like throwing dice and the outcome could be OK. Maybe even good.

Regardless, having a tool that knows the content of your footage is a huge time saver. Good luck with the product.

by telesilla1772143764
Excited to see AI integrations into more non-text-related applications (coding, spreadsheets, proofreading etc). As someone who only occasionally needs to edit videos for product / feature reels, I'd happily ask an AI to "sync the narration to the video, cut away irrelevant footage, and add transitions". The convenience of being able to automate simple, repeatable tasks in creative software via ai is something that gets overshadowed a lot by the agentic coding discussions. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be for a tool like Premier to integrate effective ai features, so new ai-in-mind tools really feel like a necessity.

Great website and good luck!

by jimmis1772137897
Very cool idea. If your product is about video, please fix your video players. I cannot even seek on my touch screen.
by joshribakoff1772139407
Who do you think your target customer is? Curious to know if you think the money is in short form, traditional YouTube videos, or even movie studios one day.

Great website btw. The onboarding was very pleasing

by rd1772134591
by 1772138488
The 10gb file size is going to be limiting for anyone shooting prores or raw.
by RobotToaster1772137528
Nice demo experience!
by deklesen1772135689
Impressive UI. I assume you must be doing some kind of RAG + audio/video transcription on all the media. What's RAG architecture did you go with?
by popalchemist1772143107
LET'S GOOOOOOO excellent product friends
by adboio1772140586
We use Cardboard at Vulnetic and it is an incredible product. The founders are easily accessible, and it has definitely made it easier to film feature update videos. I can't recommend them enough.
by danieltk761772136652
> We built a custom hardware-accelerated renderer on WebCodecs / WebGL2, there’s no server-side rendering, no plugins, everything runs in your browser (client-side).

Aight imma head out. Holy moly.

by jhatemyjob1772139875
$60...eh
by TimCTRL1772138463