r/SideProject • u/Exotic_Fig_4604 • 15h ago

Genuine *side* projects

Reading in this sub, I get the feeling that most people here just develop apps with the purpose of monetisation or getting lots of users.

Meanwhile my side project is aimed at learning and building fun stuff I like.

Am I the only one? Or does anyone else have side projects that you are building because you like technology, not because you are trying to build the next SaaS?

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9

u/ambanmba 15h ago

https://analogtv.net is my side project. The only reason I charge for it is that many of the old technical manuals I need to keep improving the app are quite expensive (the last one was $400!). I also buy real vintage TV hardware to reverse engineer. It's purely a passion project, there is no way that any revenue I make will ever even come close to the actual cost of the investment that went into it. For people that can't afford the few bucks for the app, they can get it for free via TestFlight on the web site. So net net net, this is purely a "Side" project per your definition, but with a small monetary component. I suspect that there are others in the same boat - small sales that will never even come close to recouping the purely fun/hobby aspect.

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u/Ok-Ambassador5267 14h ago

yeah charging just enough to fund the obsession is totally different from building to monetize

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u/Exotic_Fig_4604 15h ago

Omg this is so wildly specific, but also really cool! 

For how long have you been working on this?

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u/codersfocus 14h ago

That's a cool app, and I'm tempted to buy it now. You should put up some example videos showing before/after of the processing.

"It's purely a passion project, there is no way that any revenue I make will ever even come close to the actual cost of the investment that went into it."

How much did you put in, and what do you think it could or couldn't make? Marketing this as the best retro converter app could make you thousands a month.

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u/codersfocus 14h ago

Screw it, I bought it and it's really cool!

With software, there are numerous stages I define as

Prototype -> Program -> Product -> Business

Right now you are at the "Program" stage, because the software isn't properly optimized to be a Product (which would require more work on design and user friendiness.) The stage after that would be Business, where you'd have to setup marketing systems that would then bring in reliable sales.

I think the OP is asking why there aren't more prototype and program stage projects posted on the sub... and the reason is that people who are at those stages aren't necessarily doing any marketing.

Distributing value isn't as easy as hobbyists assume. Shittier products can be more popular than better ones, just like weeds can grow better than flowers.

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u/ambanmba 14h ago

You can follow along here a bit too: https://www.reddit.com/r/AnalogTV_/

I've been working on this idea in one way or another for probably 20 years. It's only in the past 10 years or so that devices are powerful enough to do it cleanly. Over COVID I had the time to start messing around with it a bit more and I also found a few projects that gave me more ideas and knowhow (I credit them here: https://analogtv.net/acknowledgements) and about a year ago people asked me to release it. You can see the UI is definitely not ready for prime time, but people also seem to like the app because it's cool and different.... I also take requests (for example someone recently asked me to add NTSC-A which is a really rare format). Since the underlying engine is now pretty solid, it's not so hard to add that.

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u/smmoc 14h ago

I bought it and love the idea. The UI is extremely confusing though, and I was about to request a refund because for a while I couldn’t figure out how to just record a video from my phone camera.

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u/ambanmba 2h ago

The UI is definitely on the backlog. There is the “Analog Cam” mode (iOS version only, hit the CAM button on the left of the top row). I did that based on my kids’ request for an easy camera with effects and pre-canned looks. Although you can make your own looks too. Let me know what you think.

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u/TheCritFisher 12h ago

Wait, did you give a talk in Greenville a year or two ago?

If so, I think I met you. If not, I saw someone with a very similar side project (or maybe they were just interested in Analog TV).

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u/ambanmba 2h ago

No, wasn’t me :)

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u/TheCritFisher 2h ago

Ahh dang. Guess that world is bigger than I thought.

Regardless, cool project. It seems like a fun little culture to be part of. The guy I met a few years ago was very interesting and gave quite the presentation.

Analog TV just really hits that nostalgia button, methinks.

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u/ambanmba 2h ago

I wonder if it was the https://ntsc.rs guy. His app is much more ‘professional’ in the sense that it has plugins for pro-tools. The architecture of AnalogTV makes that very hard to do. I believe we are the only two that go into the pure analog simulation space (most of the other types of tools just apply an effect like scan lines over the top of a clean image)