CinemaDigest Desktop Manual

Getting started

CinemaDigest is a Windows desktop app. It processes your films entirely on your machine. After installing, open it and choose the workflow that fits your project and hardware.

Requirements

• Windows 10/11, 64-bit.
• Several GB of available disk space for the application and optional processing resources.
• An active CinemaDigest account (free or paid) to plan through the server.

The account section

In the Auto-Recap panel you’ll find CinemaDigest Account:

• Server — enter https://movierecapper.com.
• Email / Password — your account credentials.
• Sign in — logs in and stores a session token.
• Sign up — creates a free account.
• Forgot — sends a password-reset email.
• Usage — shows your plan, status, and monthly recap count.
• Devices — lists your active sessions so you can sign out other machines.

Once signed in, planning is handled securely for you and usage is metered against your plan. You do not need to provide a separate AI key.

Making a recap

1. Select your source video in the Input Video field.
2. Choose Recap Settings: duration (e.g. 3 min), pacing, style, clip count, and a Method (Standard / Action / Suspense / Thriller / Drama / Comedy / Mystery).
3. Set the narration language + voice (Language dropdown). English is the default, with additional language and voice options available.
4. Choose a Perspective: Third person (default), First person, or Documentary.
5. Optionally enable Hook opening to start the recap with the most arresting moment, then rewind into the story.
6. Click the recap button. The app analyzes the film, plans the clips, writes narration, and renders the video. Your film never leaves the machine.

Auto-recap queue

You can queue multiple videos for batch processing. Progress shows in the log and progress bar, with resources released between projects.

Plans & pricing

New accounts start with a free tier (a few recaps per month). A 14-day Pro trial is available at signup with a card on file. Creator and Pro plans unlock unlimited recaps, premium voices, batch processing, and watermark-free output.

Captions & styling

• Enable Captions to burn subtitles (drawtext or libass for Arabic/Hindi shaping).
• Adjust font size, outline, alignment, and fade via Caption Style.
• Translate narration into fr, de, es, it, pt, nl, ru, ja, zh, ar, hi.

Soundtrack

Optional Auto Soundtrack creates a background score. Enable AI Lyrics to generate custom lyrics that match the story. You can instead add your own music files to the Music queue.

Updating

The desktop app checks for updates on launch. When a new version is available, it downloads a small delta patch (only changed files) and restarts automatically. No need to re-download the full installer.

Desktop app

All recap creation runs in the desktop app. The in-browser planner has been retired. Download the app for professional narration, animated captions, soundtrack, and 4K output. See download.

Quality & alignment

CinemaDigest uses visual evidence to keep narration aligned with the footage. The planner sees which timestamps have actual action scenes before picking beats. When a clip’s narration describes the wrong scene, it gets rewritten from the picture. Narration is also truncated at word boundaries to fit each clip’s duration, preventing mid-word audio cuts.

Config & data

• Settings are saved to ~/.video_recap_config.json.
• Transcripts and plans are cached per video in .video_recap_cache next to your movies.
• Use Save/Load Profile to share settings presets.

Troubleshooting

• Processing unavailable — check browser or desktop requirements and try again.
• Planning fails — check you’re signed in and your plan has remaining recaps (see Usage).
• Slow first run — initial preparation may take longer than later projects.
• For anything else, see the log pane and contact support.