Files
hyperframes/packages/producer
James 7d1d8ead60 fix(producer): sample PSNR checkpoints from common duration of rendered+snapshot
Four regression tests (font-variant-numeric, many-cuts, missing-host-comp-id,
variables-prod) failed on this PR with `Unable to parse PSNR output at <last
checkpoint>s`. Root cause: the harness derived all 100 checkpoints from the
*rendered* video's container duration, then asked ffmpeg's PSNR filter to
compare the same frame index from both videos.

The encoder changes earlier in this PR add `-avoid_negative_ts make_zero` to
the mux step. With AAC audio that shifts the first audio sample to t=0
instead of the encoder-delay offset, extending reported container duration
by ~20ms without changing video frame count. For the four failing tests,
the i=99 checkpoint then landed on a frame index that exists in the rendered
video but not in the snapshot baseline (e.g. round(2.98998 * 24) = 72 in a
72-frame baseline). ffmpeg's PSNR filter ran on zero matched frames and
emitted no `average:` line, so the parser threw.

Fix: probe both videos and use min(rendered, snapshot) duration when
spreading checkpoints. This is the correct semantics for symmetric PSNR
comparison anyway — both videos must have a frame at every sampled time.
The change is local to the harness; no encoder behavior changes, no
baselines regenerated.

Other regression tests with audio (chat, sub-composition-video,
vignelli-stacking) passed because their checkpoint-99 frame index landed
inside the baseline's frame range with several frames of slack. The four
failing tests had round-number durations where a 20ms drift was enough to
push the last checkpoint past `nb_frames - 1`.
2026-05-05 04:18:32 +00:00
..
2026-05-04 14:37:16 -07:00

@hyperframes/producer

Full HTML-to-video rendering pipeline: capture frames with Chrome's BeginFrame API, encode with FFmpeg, mix audio — all in one call.

Install

npm install @hyperframes/producer

Requirements: Node.js >= 22, Chrome/Chromium (auto-downloaded), FFmpeg

Usage

Render a video

import { createRenderJob, executeRenderJob } from "@hyperframes/producer";

const job = createRenderJob({
  inputPath: "./my-composition.html",
  outputPath: "./output.mp4",
  width: 1920,
  height: 1080,
  fps: 30,
});

const result = await executeRenderJob(job, (progress) => {
  console.log(`${Math.round(progress.percent * 100)}%`);
});

console.log(result.outputPath); // ./output.mp4

Run as an HTTP server

The producer can also run as a render server, accepting render requests over HTTP:

import { startServer } from "@hyperframes/producer";

await startServer({ port: 8080 });
// POST /render with a RenderConfig body

Configuration

RenderConfig controls the render pipeline:

Option Default Description
inputPath Path to the HTML composition
outputPath Output video file path (or directory, for format: "png-sequence")
width 1920 Frame width in pixels
height 1080 Frame height in pixels
fps 30 Frames per second (24, 30, or 60)
quality "standard" Encoder preset ("draft", "standard", "high")
format "mp4" Output container — "mp4", "webm", "mov", or "png-sequence". See Transparent Video Output below.

Transparent Video Output

The producer can render HTML compositions to formats that carry a true alpha channel — not chroma key. The same composition that renders an opaque MP4 renders a layerable overlay when you set format.

format Codec / pixel format Alpha Audio Use case
"mp4" (default) H.264 (yuv420p) or H.265 + HDR10 No AAC Streaming, social, default deliverable
"webm" VP9 + yuva420p True alpha Opus Web playback as overlay (<video> over background); supported in Chrome, Edge, Firefox
"mov" ProRes 4444 + yuva444p10le True alpha + 10-bit AAC Editor ingest (Premiere, Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve)
"png-sequence" Numbered RGBA PNGs in a directory Lossless alpha Sidecar audio.aac After Effects / Nuke / Fusion, or pipelines that post-process frames before encoding

Example

import { createRenderJob, executeRenderJob } from "@hyperframes/producer";

const job = createRenderJob({
  inputPath: "./my-composition.html",
  outputPath: "./output.webm", // or a directory for "png-sequence"
  width: 1080,
  height: 1920,
  fps: 30,
  format: "webm", // "mp4" | "webm" | "mov" | "png-sequence"
});

await executeRenderJob(job);

What "transparent background" means here

The producer captures Chrome screenshots with the page background forced transparent (html, body, [data-composition-id] { background: transparent !important }) and the CDP default background override set to RGBA 0,0,0,0. The captured PNGs carry a real alpha channel and that channel is preserved end-to-end:

  • VP9 (webm) is encoded with -pix_fmt yuva420p, -auto-alt-ref 0, and alpha_mode=1 metadata.
  • ProRes 4444 (mov) is encoded with -pix_fmt yuva444p10le.
  • PNG sequences are written without re-encoding (zero-padded frame_NNNNNN.png).

This is not chroma keying. There is no green/blue background to remove and no "key" tolerance to tune — pixels that were transparent in the browser are transparent in the output.

Caveats

  • Linux + alpha forces screenshot capture. Chrome's BeginFrame compositor (the default deterministic capture path on Linux headless-shell) does not preserve alpha; the orchestrator falls back to Page.captureScreenshot, which is slower per frame. macOS and Windows already use screenshot mode by default, so they are unaffected.
  • HDR + alpha is not supported. Setting hdr: true together with an alpha-capable format logs a warning and falls back to SDR. Use format: "mp4" for HDR10 output.
  • png-sequence does not produce a single muxed file. When the composition contains audio elements, an audio.aac sidecar is written alongside the PNGs in outputPath.
  • Safari + WebM alpha is incomplete. For broad browser playback of an alpha video, ship format: "mov" to your editor and re-encode for the codec your distribution target supports.

Authoring transparent compositions

Don't paint a fullscreen background in your HTML. The default body background is overridden to transparent automatically — any body { background: ... }, #root { background: ... }, or [data-composition-id] { background: ... } rule is force-overridden during alpha rendering. Backgrounds on inner elements (cards, scenes, components) are kept.

How it works

  1. Serve — spins up a local file server for the HTML composition
  2. Capture — opens the page in headless Chrome, seeks frame-by-frame via HeadlessExperimental.beginFrame (or Page.captureScreenshot for transparent / non-Linux renders), captures screenshots
  3. Encode — pipes frames through FFmpeg (with GPU encoder detection and chunked concat). Skipped for format: "png-sequence".
  4. Mix — extracts <audio> elements and mixes them into the final video. For png-sequence, audio is written as an audio.aac sidecar.
  5. Finalize — applies faststart for streaming-friendly MP4 (no-op for WebM, MOV, and png-sequence)

Documentation

Full documentation: hyperframes.heygen.com/packages/producer