4 ms·

Show HN: MacOS Live Screensaver – A screensaver that plays live video streams

65 points by hauxir 1y ago

hauxir 1y ago
Or any live stream on youtube for that matter, surprised this didn't exist before!
rollcat 11mo ago
AVFoundation is pretty cool. You can whip out a simple audio/video player in a couple dozen lines of code. It was one of my first macOS apps/prototypes.
cnr 11mo ago
Does it really save the screen? ;P
- hauxir 11mo ago
  Is that really the point anymore :D?
  - nothrabannosir 11mo ago
    With oled it is, yes
MontagFTB 11mo ago
How’d they get Claude listed as one of the contributors? Is that due to changes coming in to the repo from a Claude/github integration?
- hauxir 11mo ago
  it's just claude code commiting and pushing for me because i'm lazy
  - threecheese 11mo ago
    Not lazy! This should be a requirement, so future “us” can discern authorship - just like any developer.
    - hrimfaxi 11mo ago
      It will probably go the opposite way though in the future. People will list when AI wasn't used in the loop, like how "sent from my iphone" was both a status signal and a request for leniency when it comes to spellcheck.
- hackernewds 11mo ago
  if you read the article, it says it is entirely vibecoded
QuantumNoodle 11mo ago
> Disclaimer: This project was entirely vibe-coded. I've never written Swift before in my life Something I've wondered - but not had much empirical evidence for - is if entirely vibe-coded projects are difficult to maintain. I, too, don't know swift so I cannot look over the codebase to gauge this. I am curious if any swift savants out there can weigh in. Furthermore, I will follow the project and keep an eye out for patches/discussions and try to discern any friction and/or loss in momentum because it is difficult to work with (e.g. more bug/feature tickets than PRs, etc.). I am aware it might fizzle out on its own, irrespective of the quality of the codebase. This will be a curious exercise for me. This may be my first empirical data on this topic - sadly on vibe-coded & maintainability, not the project itself.
- hauxir 11mo ago
  They most definitely are. However this project is so simple it's more akin to a script. Really not that hard to grasp despite not knowing swift. Also vibe coded an android tv version and used this codebase as input ;) https://github.com/hauxir/androidtv-live-screensaver https://github.com/hauxir/androidtv-live-screensaver
  - runjake 11mo ago
    Indeed I was able to read through it's 555 lines in about 4-5 minutes. Nothing seems too ghastly -- it's a pretty good vibe coding job.
- reaperducer 11mo ago
  I wonder if certain languages are easier to vibe code than others. My supposition is that the better documented a language, the easier it would be for the LLMs. Or is it the opposite: The more obtuse a language, the more StackOverflow questions, the easier it is for LLMs to work with.
  - QuantumNoodle 11mo ago
    I've had success vibe-coding things that, I would imagine, make up more of the training dataset - more common. When I try to do more specific Linux systems programming it is pretty trash, especially with newer languages.
losthobbies 11mo ago
I will be streaming a certain watering hole in Namibia.
grimgrin 11mo ago
this is cool. i love shit like this idk if any of y'all ever used https://satelliteeyes.tomtaylor.co.uk/ https://satelliteeyes.tomtaylor.co.uk/ but I was a big fan. such that i now have my own process of keeping my wallpaper updated w/ various city webcams. throw in some noise/desaturation and you've got an _aesthetic_ anyway, this is about a screensaver not a wallpaper and i think there is cool potential with video streams as screensavers
t1234s 11mo ago
Does anyone still use screensavers? I have set my machines to turn off the screen as soon as that was an available option.
- grimgrin 11mo ago
  it's a combination of people seeking aesthetic (imo), and naturally, preventing an oled, plasma, or crt from burn-in
  - c-hendricks 11mo ago
    If the screen is off, what's to burn in?
    - grimgrin 11mo ago
      nothing because that is a screen saver. but yeah you're right, it's probably mostly people who just want to see a visualization? i'd never argue screensavers are a logical choice lol
- ge96 11mo ago
  I like the newest mac update shore video, Tahoe I think with the liquid glass
- macNchz 11mo ago
  As much as I disliked open plan offices, I did enjoy trolling my coworkers with fake blue screen of death and kernel panic screensavers. Windows 95 "Pipes" also got a lot of nostalgic shoutouts when I used that for a while.
  - t1234s 11mo ago
    Pipes and the other direct3D screen savers were legit
- dylan604 11mo ago
  It's still a habit of mine. I have 2 external monitors on my desk connected to my laptop. One of them is a bit older LCD, but still functions well for purpose. It has a fun little quirk where when it first turns on there are a few vertical lines of a solid color until it has "warmed up" and the lines disappear after a few minutes. By using a screen saver when I get up and lock the screen, I don't have to wait for that screen to warm back up. At night, it does eventually turn off the screen saver after my timeout, but at least it's not every time I return to the desk. Also, from a time long ago in a galaxy far away where we had production CRTs that were color calibrated, we would not turn them off either. They had a saver mode as well by running a not quite black signal to them, but not enough to burn in phosphors. It was even meant to "even" out some of them. So because I'm that old that has used CRTs for such a long part of my life, screen savers will always be just part of the routine.
dfedbeef 11mo ago
Finally, a screen saver with ads
- grimgrin 11mo ago
  bring your own http live stream
aerostable_slug 11mo ago
Nice work! Excellent, advertising-free live streams to choose from here: https://www.youtube.com/@MontereyBayAquarium/streams https://www.youtube.com/@MontereyBayAquarium/streams I often turn on the kelp forest (sound muted) as a pleasing backdrop on my living room TV, but they're all pretty neat.
- Lammy 11mo ago
  Getting my daily dose of Kensington Ave, Philadelphia or Skid Row, Los Angeles every time I come back from the restroom: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8mIPhfrMug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8mIPhfrMug - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpcdnZhztI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpcdnZhztI
cwizou 11mo ago
That's super cool, congrats on releasing it ! It's a feature that some people periodically ask me to add in Aerial, but I never got to it. Piping from yt-dlp to AVFoundation is definitely the way to go. I was gonna warn you about a bug in macOS 15+ where your screensaver stays around after you go back to the desktop, but for some reason your code seems to avoid that issue. I'm not quite sure how, as you don't hook stopAnimation or any event apart from the deinit. But it works, so, massive kudos, I'll have to try and understand why !
- hauxir 11mo ago
  interesting you pointed that out because i ran into that exact problem! look at the animateoneframe function, there's the workaround
  - cwizou 11mo ago
    Ha, you do the exit trick too then, I just missed it. FYI that works 99% of the time, but for some people it sometimes crashes (because we exit our host container - legacyScreenSaver.appex - and sometimes if you do it at a wrong time things just hang).
  - cwizou 11mo ago
    So fyi, the way you hook it there is what makes the preview flicker in System Settings. You check if the screen is locked, and if not, kill the host. But screen is not locked in System Settings. So basically, you're killing the host process every 2 seconds (and macOS, at least in Tahoe, restarts it, it doesn't in previous macOS versions). That's also what causes your issues with "Options" not working (because you killed the instance that was linked to that button). The way we workaround it usually is to hook a system event. You can check https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal Look for handleWillStopNotification and com.apple.screensaver.willstop
hackernewds 11mo ago
We have become so wasteful with energy. at a mass scale this will consume a lot of electricity but we only think of dollar cost now
billsunshine 11mo ago
this is so cool, congrats, im a product manager turned vibe coder so im way into this. nice job, ill be tracking!
Lucian6 11mo ago
[dead]
Isuckatcode 11mo ago
Cool project! I wish there was a way to play Twitch streams on it. Maybe it’s something I’ll look into next weekend
- hauxir 11mo ago
  it uses yt-dlp so it should already support that

65 points by hauxir 1y ago

Or any live stream on youtube for that matter, surprised this didn't exist before!

AVFoundation is pretty cool. You can whip out a simple audio/video player in a couple dozen lines of code. It was one of my first macOS apps/prototypes.

cnr 11mo ago

Does it really save the screen? ;P

hauxir 11mo ago
Is that really the point anymore :D?
- nothrabannosir 11mo ago
  With oled it is, yes

MontagFTB 11mo ago

How’d they get Claude listed as one of the contributors? Is that due to changes coming in to the repo from a Claude/github integration?

hauxir 11mo ago
it's just claude code commiting and pushing for me because i'm lazy
- threecheese 11mo ago
  Not lazy! This should be a requirement, so future “us” can discern authorship - just like any developer.
  - hrimfaxi 11mo ago
    It will probably go the opposite way though in the future. People will list when AI wasn't used in the loop, like how "sent from my iphone" was both a status signal and a request for leniency when it comes to spellcheck.
hackernewds 11mo ago
if you read the article, it says it is entirely vibecoded

QuantumNoodle 11mo ago

> Disclaimer: This project was entirely vibe-coded. I've never written Swift before in my life Something I've wondered - but not had much empirical evidence for - is if entirely vibe-coded projects are difficult to maintain. I, too, don't know swift so I cannot look over the codebase to gauge this. I am curious if any swift savants out there can weigh in. Furthermore, I will follow the project and keep an eye out for patches/discussions and try to discern any friction and/or loss in momentum because it is difficult to work with (e.g. more bug/feature tickets than PRs, etc.). I am aware it might fizzle out on its own, irrespective of the quality of the codebase. This will be a curious exercise for me. This may be my first empirical data on this topic - sadly on vibe-coded & maintainability, not the project itself.

hauxir 11mo ago
They most definitely are. However this project is so simple it's more akin to a script. Really not that hard to grasp despite not knowing swift. Also vibe coded an android tv version and used this codebase as input ;) https://github.com/hauxir/androidtv-live-screensaver https://github.com/hauxir/androidtv-live-screensaver
- runjake 11mo ago
  Indeed I was able to read through it's 555 lines in about 4-5 minutes. Nothing seems too ghastly -- it's a pretty good vibe coding job.
reaperducer 11mo ago
I wonder if certain languages are easier to vibe code than others. My supposition is that the better documented a language, the easier it would be for the LLMs. Or is it the opposite: The more obtuse a language, the more StackOverflow questions, the easier it is for LLMs to work with.
- QuantumNoodle 11mo ago
  I've had success vibe-coding things that, I would imagine, make up more of the training dataset - more common. When I try to do more specific Linux systems programming it is pretty trash, especially with newer languages.

losthobbies 11mo ago

I will be streaming a certain watering hole in Namibia.

grimgrin 11mo ago

this is cool. i love shit like this idk if any of y'all ever used https://satelliteeyes.tomtaylor.co.uk/ https://satelliteeyes.tomtaylor.co.uk/ but I was a big fan. such that i now have my own process of keeping my wallpaper updated w/ various city webcams. throw in some noise/desaturation and you've got an _aesthetic_ anyway, this is about a screensaver not a wallpaper and i think there is cool potential with video streams as screensavers

t1234s 11mo ago

Does anyone still use screensavers? I have set my machines to turn off the screen as soon as that was an available option.

grimgrin 11mo ago
it's a combination of people seeking aesthetic (imo), and naturally, preventing an oled, plasma, or crt from burn-in
- c-hendricks 11mo ago
  If the screen is off, what's to burn in?
  - grimgrin 11mo ago
    nothing because that is a screen saver. but yeah you're right, it's probably mostly people who just want to see a visualization? i'd never argue screensavers are a logical choice lol
ge96 11mo ago
I like the newest mac update shore video, Tahoe I think with the liquid glass
macNchz 11mo ago
As much as I disliked open plan offices, I did enjoy trolling my coworkers with fake blue screen of death and kernel panic screensavers. Windows 95 "Pipes" also got a lot of nostalgic shoutouts when I used that for a while.
- t1234s 11mo ago
  Pipes and the other direct3D screen savers were legit
dylan604 11mo ago
It's still a habit of mine. I have 2 external monitors on my desk connected to my laptop. One of them is a bit older LCD, but still functions well for purpose. It has a fun little quirk where when it first turns on there are a few vertical lines of a solid color until it has "warmed up" and the lines disappear after a few minutes. By using a screen saver when I get up and lock the screen, I don't have to wait for that screen to warm back up. At night, it does eventually turn off the screen saver after my timeout, but at least it's not every time I return to the desk. Also, from a time long ago in a galaxy far away where we had production CRTs that were color calibrated, we would not turn them off either. They had a saver mode as well by running a not quite black signal to them, but not enough to burn in phosphors. It was even meant to "even" out some of them. So because I'm that old that has used CRTs for such a long part of my life, screen savers will always be just part of the routine.

dfedbeef 11mo ago

Finally, a screen saver with ads

grimgrin 11mo ago
bring your own http live stream

aerostable_slug 11mo ago

Nice work! Excellent, advertising-free live streams to choose from here: https://www.youtube.com/@MontereyBayAquarium/streams https://www.youtube.com/@MontereyBayAquarium/streams I often turn on the kelp forest (sound muted) as a pleasing backdrop on my living room TV, but they're all pretty neat.

Lammy 11mo ago
Getting my daily dose of Kensington Ave, Philadelphia or Skid Row, Los Angeles every time I come back from the restroom: - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8mIPhfrMug https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8mIPhfrMug - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpcdnZhztI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnpcdnZhztI

cwizou 11mo ago

That's super cool, congrats on releasing it ! It's a feature that some people periodically ask me to add in Aerial, but I never got to it. Piping from yt-dlp to AVFoundation is definitely the way to go. I was gonna warn you about a bug in macOS 15+ where your screensaver stays around after you go back to the desktop, but for some reason your code seems to avoid that issue. I'm not quite sure how, as you don't hook stopAnimation or any event apart from the deinit. But it works, so, massive kudos, I'll have to try and understand why !

hauxir 11mo ago
interesting you pointed that out because i ran into that exact problem! look at the animateoneframe function, there's the workaround
- cwizou 11mo ago
  Ha, you do the exit trick too then, I just missed it. FYI that works 99% of the time, but for some people it sometimes crashes (because we exit our host container - legacyScreenSaver.appex - and sometimes if you do it at a wrong time things just hang).
- cwizou 11mo ago
  So fyi, the way you hook it there is what makes the preview flicker in System Settings. You check if the screen is locked, and if not, kill the host. But screen is not locked in System Settings. So basically, you're killing the host process every 2 seconds (and macOS, at least in Tahoe, restarts it, it doesn't in previous macOS versions). That's also what causes your issues with "Options" not working (because you killed the instance that was linked to that button). The way we workaround it usually is to hook a system event. You can check https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal https://github.com/AerialScreensaver/ScreenSaverMinimal Look for handleWillStopNotification and com.apple.screensaver.willstop

hackernewds 11mo ago

We have become so wasteful with energy. at a mass scale this will consume a lot of electricity but we only think of dollar cost now

billsunshine 11mo ago

this is so cool, congrats, im a product manager turned vibe coder so im way into this. nice job, ill be tracking!

Lucian6 11mo ago

[dead]

Isuckatcode 11mo ago

Cool project! I wish there was a way to play Twitch streams on it. Maybe it’s something I’ll look into next weekend

hauxir 11mo ago
it uses yt-dlp so it should already support that