tl;dv alternative

The tl;dv alternative for meeting notes instead of clips.

tl;dv is built around video: clips, highlights, a bot in the call, recordings in its cloud, and AI behind paid tiers. If you want clean notes in a folder you own, with no bot and plain .md your AI can read, Quietly is the simpler tool, for $49 once.

macOS 13+ No bot Markdown export MCP shipping next
What you get
A folder of meetings.

Plain .md. Front-matter has attendees, calendar, duration. Body is clean, LLM-polished Whisper output.

14:32
2026-05-04-q3-launch-review.md 42 min · 5 attendees
2026-05-05-1on1-jane.md 28 min
2026-05-06-customer-acme.md Recording
Why notes-first users move

A bot in the call, video in their cloud, and AI gated by tier.

tl;dv's bot joins. Customer calls, candidate interviews, internal 1:1s: each one gets a third participant.

Full video recordings sit in tl;dv's cloud. Good for highlight reels, bad when an exec's 1:1 turns up in a vendor breach.

Pro costs $29 per seat, Business $98. AI summaries, custom reports, and multi-meeting analysis all sit behind paid tiers.

Notes stay inside tl;dv's web app. Cursor, Codex, and Claude can't reach them without an export.

Side-by-side

Quietly vs tl;dv.

Quietly tl;dv
No bot joins the call Bot in every call
Output Markdown notes Video clips + transcript
Where it lives Your Mac tl;dv's cloud
MCP for Claude / Cursor / Codex Shipping next
Open in VS Code / any editor
Works fully offline
Sharable video timestamps No Yes
Pricing $49 once Free / $29 / $98 seat
Trade-offs

Where tl;dv is better.

If you need these, stay on tl;dv.

Video

Sharable video clips.

tl;dv's best feature: trim a 30-second clip from a customer call and drop the link in Slack. Quietly does notes only, with no video clipping.

Cross-platform

Mac, Windows, web.

tl;dv runs on all three. Quietly is macOS-only today.

Free tier

Generous free tier.

tl;dv's free tier covers a lot if you can live with the bot, the cloud, and the upsell.

Why people switch

Where Quietly wins.

No bot

No bot in the call.

tl;dv makes sense when sharing clips with the team is the point. If you want your own notes searchable in your own tools, the bot is a cost with no upside.

Local

No video uploaded anywhere.

Quietly captures audio on your Mac and writes Markdown. tl;dv records full video and uploads it to its cloud, which is exposure you may not want.

$49 once

One seat pays for itself.

tl;dv Pro costs $348 per seat per year. Quietly costs $49 once. After two months on a single seat, you are ahead, and you stay ahead.

MCP next

AI editors read your notes.

An MCP server for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Codex CLI ships next. Until then, your editor reads the plain Markdown as files. tl;dv's AI features stay inside its app.

In-person

No meeting URL needed.

Hallway chats, in-person customer meetings, voice memos: open Quietly and press ⌘R for the mic. Pick Transcribe a file… for any audio file. tl;dv expects a Zoom, Meet, or Teams link.

Plain Markdown

Open in anything that reads files.

Plain .md in your repo, your iCloud folder, any folder you pick. tl;dv's notes live inside its UI. Quietly's notes start out as files.

Migration

Switching from tl;dv in 10 minutes.

01

Export your tl;dv data. Settings → Export. You get transcripts and metadata. Video clips can stay on tl;dv if you still want them.

02

Disable the auto-joining notetaker. tl;dv → Settings → Calendar → toggle off. Remove pending bot invites if needed.

03

Drop the export into your Quietly folder. Cursor, Codex CLI, and Claude Desktop can read your back catalogue.

If you need clip sharing, run tl;dv's free tier alongside Quietly for that one workflow. Questions: support@meetquietly.com.

FAQ

Things people ask before switching.

Does Quietly do video clip sharing like tl;dv?
No. Clip sharing is tl;dv's strongest feature and we won't try to match it. If your team's workflow is “share a 30-second clip in Slack,” stay on tl;dv or run its free tier alongside Quietly. Quietly covers the notes, search, and AI side of the same problem.
Why is Quietly better for AI-assisted recall?
Your notes are plain Markdown, so the AI tool you already use can read them. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Claude Desktop, Cursor, and Codex CLI ships next; until then those tools read the files through filesystem MCP or file readers. Either way you ask “what did we decide about pricing in last week's standup?” inside your own AI tool. tl;dv's AI features run inside tl;dv's app and don't flow into your editor.
How does the pricing compare to tl;dv?
tl;dv Pro costs $29 per seat per month, or $348 per seat per year; Business costs $98 per seat. Quietly costs $49 once per person, covers two Macs each, and never renews, so a single seat breaks even in under two months. For a team, email support@meetquietly.com about multi-seat licensing.
Will I lose my call recordings?
No. tl;dv's account export gives you transcripts and metadata. Video clips can stay on tl;dv's free tier if you still want them. From then on, Quietly captures audio and writes Markdown.
Does Quietly send a bot to my Zoom, Meet, or Teams calls?
No. Capture happens on your Mac with macOS-native system audio capture (Core Audio Process Tap and ScreenCaptureKit). No third-party participant joins the call.

Clean notes in a folder you own.

Free 7-day trial · No account, no card. 7-day refund. $49 once, no subscription.

$ 49 once · 2 Macs
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