It seems lately like everything is a subscription these days. While there are some major software out there you can still buy, like Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve, a lot of companies want you to sign up for a permanent monthly or yearly subscription plan just to use its tools, even if you don't need any of the improvements.
Screen by Video Village is a wonderful video player app for film and video pros that once upon a time had a subscription. And it was well worth it.
But now you can get a perpetual license for only $149.
Here's why that's a steal.
Why Use Screen?
The "why" of Screen might not seem intuitive at first, since VLC is already an it-watch-everything app. There's also presumably a video player built right into your computer.
But if you are a film and video professional, Screen is wildly worth it.
Much like VLC, it also shows you everything but also adds some unique features only film folks can appreciate. This includes things like viewing Image Sequences, which before meant firing up DaVinci Resolve or GlueTools from way back in the day.
Control your colorspace without an NLE.
Credit: Video Village
Screen also shows frame-accurate timecode, lets you put a LUT on a shot, or lets you do a flip or a flop to your footage. This is helpful if you are digging through dailies and have a low-mode Steadicam or GoPro shot that you can preview it properly (and quickly).
On top of that, creatives can play raw video from ProRes RAW, RED, and Blackmagic sources, as well as a full range of industry codecs and file types. Or you can sample the RGB values of any pixel in their native bit depth from your footage. OR you can control gamma and exposure in real time, before or after a LUT. The features set is impressive.
Supported codecs and file types.
Credit: Video Village
It also allows you to make pixel-accurate screenshot from your video. If you happen to have the Touch Bar on your MacBook, it can also use that.
At least for however long your current Macbook lasts.
As of November 2023, we say goodbye to future iterations of the Apple Touch Bar.
Credit: Apple
Overall, Screen is a powerful tool that combines all the professional features filmmakers need into one package. Sure, you could find them in different software suites, but making movies is all about efficiency.
In this world, time is money, and we want to save every penny we can get.
Screen shows you detailed information about your footage.
Video Village
What Happens If You're Already Subscribed?
If you have already subscribed to Screen, you are all set!
Just keep doing what you are doing, and you won't be charged in the future—your license persists. If you want to buy it in the future, you'll need to just pay once.
In a funny bit of circumstance, this happened on a day in my life when a commonly used credit card expired (this card expired in the past, so I feel OK revealing that level of information publicly, though I still am worried that somehow that will be used to scam me).
I got a dozen emails that day asking for new credit card info to be kept on file, and I assume the email from Video Village was the same.
That's it. That's all it costs now.
Credit: Video Village
Let's Talk About Doubts
However, I had a moment of doubt: Is Screen good enough to keep paying for?
But quickly, I thought, Yep, and was about to enter my contact details to renew before noticing, nope, no need. Video Village made the license perpetual, and I was already set.
Obviously, this is a very nice thing they are doing. If we want to know why, my best guess is that they realized that there aren't that many features or updates coming to justify a subscription.
There really aren't that many features you can constantly add to a video player, and Screen already has most of the ones we want. So, I'm assuming the company decided to let it go and probably take the pressure off themselves to constantly feel like they need to update the app. There are so many other apps in the Video Village suite that are subscriptions, and this will presumably let them put more energy into those tools.
If you are working with video all day every day, Screen is worth a look.
