Hyperbeam

Infrastructure

remote browser streaming

SHOW HN2022

268points
132comments
#169of 2,570 in 2022
Top 7%of 2022 by points

How HN took it

CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments

20 positive, 51 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 27 critical, out of 101 comments about the project. Thread score -0.02.

Execution: 3 for, 8 againstPerformance: 4 for, 6 againstDesign: 0 for, 7 againstIdea: 4 for, 3 againstPrivacy: 0 for, 1 against

The thread, comment by comment

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

What HN said

What people liked

  • Impressive streaming performance and smooth remote view

    From 3 comments
    • What sorcery is this? Youtube videos are opening without any delay (within half a second) and there's no frame lag even with 1080 quality setting. How does this work?
      tauwauwau on HN
    • Wow. That remote view runs surprisingly smooth on my cheap phone. Nice work.
      kaetemi on HN
    • Tried Youtube and was surprisingly good. Impressed by Hyperbeam tech behind. Bookmarked for later.
      throwaway888abc on HN
  • Cool, impressive technology

    From 3 comments
    • This is simply amazing. I wish it was open source, but totally understand why that is not realistic or possible. It's crazy to think this is built off forked chromium yet there…
      metadat on HN
    • This is very impressive technology, but I'm not sure what I'd use it for, to be honest. Does this technology have support for VR? Because I could see how this could be the future…
      WaffleIronMaker on HN
    • This is pretty damn cool...
      ARRgonaute on HN

Objections

  • Shared single cursor and keyboard make multi-user control chaotic

    From 3 comments
    • The underlying work you guys have done is great as a proof of concept, and after playing with it for a short while there are some obvious flaws and improvements which basically…
      parksy on HN
    • It's not very umm... cooperative, in there lol.
      westoncb on HN
    • It's cool and all, but is there an actual use case for the multiplayer aspect? Feels slightly like the infamous "hacking" scene when two people are using the same keyboard.
      mupuff1234 on HN
  • Does not work on some browsers or mobile devices (Firefox, iOS black screen)

    From 3 comments
    • It just shows a black screen where the browser should be on my phone but looks great in the browser. If I wanted to run code that would say scroll through a site for everyone to…
      jimhi on HN
    • I have no idea how to use (iPhone, iOS 15.6.1). There is a pink background and a black box saying outside virtual PC, and a few keyboard/mouse shortcuts (which doesn't apply as…
      can16358p on HN
    • does not work. firefox dev
      AtNightWeCode on HN
  • Unclear use case for the multiplayer aspect

    From 2 comments
    • It's cool and all, but is there an actual use case for the multiplayer aspect? Feels slightly like the infamous "hacking" scene when two people are using the same keyboard.
      mupuff1234 on HN
    • This sounds/looks very interesting, but I am not sure what the use-case is, from what I can tell the quality is pretty low in the demo (and can't full-screen), isn't something…
      XCSme on HN

Requests

  • Chat or voice so participants can coordinate

    From 1 comment
    • Hmm, what I was thinking of was that everyone seemed to be competing with each other to click random UI elements on the virtual browser as rapidly as possible, I assume because…
      westoncb on HN
  • Default room for the HN crowd

    From 1 comment
    • Maybe create a default room for the HN crowd to join? I also had the same experience as OP... "nobody is here".
      daenz on HN
  • Hotkey to reset orientation

    From 1 comment
    • This is remarkable stuff. Suggestion: A hotkey (in or out of the virtual computer) that allows you to reset to the default orientation without having to reload the page. On a…
      vz8 on HN

Questions

  • How does it avoid DRM and streaming abuse such as YouTube restreaming

    From 2 comments
    • I'm surprised Widevine DRM allows this but I guess you can't really detect "I'm in a VM and being streamed visually by the host". You can't even take a screenshot of YouTube TV…
      MuffinFlavored on HN
    • Hey. I'm not the person you're responding to, but your response sparked my interest given the context. It sounds like you're saying, "Yes. Our technology enables someone to…
      SeanAnderson on HN
  • How are user credentials and inputs handled

    From 2 comments
    • How do you handle user credentials or general inputs? If I type in my Netflix credentials, don't you and/or my watch party friends get access to them in some way?
      zirror on HN
    • Great question. We’re building a “privacy mode” feature to address this exact problem that allows the host to black out the screen when entering sensitive information like…
      declan_g on HN

Alternatives named

  • Rabb.it

    From 1 comment
    • Rabb.it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabb.it) did this some years ago. It was an amazing service, but it unfortunately shut down. This is very close to what it was back then.
      coldblues on HN
  • TeamViewer

    From 1 comment
    • This sounds/looks very interesting, but I am not sure what the use-case is, from what I can tell the quality is pretty low in the demo (and can't full-screen), isn't something…
      XCSme on HN
  • Puppeteer and browserless.io

    From 1 comment
    • Looking over the API docs now https://docs.hyperbeam.com/start-chromium-session First thing that comes to my mind is... this is kind of like Puppeteer. Even if that is what they…
      MuffinFlavored on HN
  • BrowserBox

    From 1 comment
    • There's source code on GitHub for a simple version of this tech (without multiplayer or smooth and fast streaming): https://GitHub.com/crisdosyago/BrowserBox And a closed source…
      graderjs on HN

Category, keywords, summaries and labels on this page were made by AI (Thread Reader v2) and not checked by hand. Each point links to the comments it came from.

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