Settings

Theme

Show HN: I built a Chrome extension that creates flashcards from YouTube videos

reeldecks.com

1 points by msafi04 a month ago · 1 comment

Reader

msafi04OP a month ago

Hi HN,

I am the solo dev behind ReelDecks. I built this because I was frustrated with forgetting almost everything I learned from educational YouTube videos. Passive watching just doesn't work for retention.

My goal was to create a one-click tool that turns any video into an active study session with flashcards.

The initial version was simple: it analysed the video's transcripts. But I quickly hit a wall. The real challenge was the huge number of valuable videos that have bad transcripts or are purely visual (like coding demos, data visualisations, or product walkthroughs).

So, I re-architected ReelDecks into a smart hybrid system:

First, it tries to use the transcript, which is fast and cost-effective. But if the transcript is missing or low-quality, it automatically switches to a visual AI model to literally 'watch' the video and create flashcards from the on-screen text, code, and diagrams. This means it works reliably on everything from a university lecture to a silent coding tutorial.

I just launched and this is the first place I am sharing it. I would be incredibly grateful for your honest feedback on the concept, the execution, and any features you think are missing.

Thanks for taking a look!

Keyboard Shortcuts

j
Next item
k
Previous item
o / Enter
Open selected item
?
Show this help
Esc
Close modal / clear selection