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Why you should not be paying for VisualHub (Updated)
VisualHub was a video conversion application popular several years ago. The app was shuttered in 2008, but it continued to work in OS X until Lion rolled out. Lon Seidman, a Visual Hub customer, recently received an email from online payment processor Kagi that offered a Lion-compatible update to the video conversion app. That sounds great, except this email and the US $4.99 payment was not authorized by VisualHub developer Tyler Loch. Loch did update his app to support Lion, but this new version is available for free from the VisualHub website. Loch even put a warning on his website accusing Kagi of distributing an unauthorized version of vHub Updater and is telling people not to purchase this version. Kagi was the official payment processor for VisualHub when it was an active application so perhaps this is just a misunderstanding and not an attempt by Kagi to fleece VisualHub users. Either way, VisualHub owners should avoid paying Kagi and download the update for free. Update: [Mike Rose] Seidman spoke to Kagi CEO Kee Nethery about the 'unofficial' VisualHub update tool. According to Nethery, his payment processing company often handles simple support questions for software purchasers, even though the responsibility for support actually rests with the developer. In the case of VisualHub, since developer Tyler Loch has stopped distributing his app, Kagi pointed users to Loch's patch instructions on the Techspansion site. Despite the fact that the effort to patch the app is minimal, the process of showing the app package contents and replacing three script files was apparently beyond the "comfort level" of many users contacting Kagi for help. Facing what he describes as a "support nightmare," Nethery took the unprecedented step of building a patcher application that replaced the three script files and also updated the underlying version of ffmpeg used to power the app's compression features. He apparently is frustrated that Loch chose to "walk away from a business" when he stopped developing and selling VisualHub. Macworld also interviewed Nethery and Loch, with similar comments from the Kagi chairman. Loch, however, points out that while there is an open-source descendant of VisualHub (FilmRedux), the original app and the Lion-specific patch files are still copyrighted and closed-source. Loch had no advance notice of Kagi's intent to bundle and sell his patches and did not give his approval. While we can sympathize with Kagi's dilemma and the challenge of responding to upset customers, apparently Nethery forgot that VisualHub is not Kagi's product. The unofficial patcher app issued without Loch's permission is a slap in the face for independent developers who work with Kagi, as up until today they probably believed that their apps were theirs to support or abandon as they saw fit. Whether or not you agree with Loch's decision to close out VisualHub, it is his decision and his alone when to EOL a product. Providing the patches for Lion is a courtesy, not an obligation, and Kagi would be far better off saying "the product is no longer supported, sorry" than pulling this end run. At a bare minimum, a courtesy email to Loch letting him approve or deny permission for the updater app would have been the civil thing to do. Loch's notes on the Lion patch include a wry comment, "Enjoy VisualHub for a little while longer, until Apple discontinues support for AppleScript Studio apps or 32bit apps or non-sandboxed apps." Clearly the zombie support for this discontinued app is a fragile thing, and it can and will break. What will Kagi do then for its frustrated customers? Nothing -- and for better or worse, that's what it should be doing now. [Via Lon Seidman]
Evom beta takes up iSquint's mantle, effortlessly converts video formats
While still in beta, Evom (from The Little App Factory, makers of iPodRip) looks ready to pick up where iSquint left off. It easily and quickly converts videos to formats compatible with iTunes, YouTube, your iPod, and Apple TV. It couldn't be a simpler drag-and-drop operation: drop the video on the Evom window, and select a destination. After that, Evom does the heavy lifting and (optionally) adds the finished video to iTunes. The output quality is good -- it uses the same technical foundation as ffmpegX. You get the same high quality without all the fiddly controls of ffmpegX. Evom also includes a bookmarklet that lets you save off YouTube videos to your computer with a single click. The quality of the output there mostly depends on how good the source video is, but it couldn't be easier. iSquint, my favorite "as if by magic" video conversion tool, was discontinued after Techspansion (also the makers of iSquint's bigger brother VisualHub) shut their doors last October. The VisualHub codebase is still being developed, however, in a new project called Video Monkey that Aron covered in March, which is also well worth a look. Evom is in beta, but unlike iSquint, it appears like it may cost something when the final version is released. It also appears limited to converting 60 items until it's registered, and trying to register the app leads to a non-existent shopping cart area. Even so, the simple interface and easy installation will be worth a few bucks to me. [Via Daring Fireball.]
Techspansion closes, VisualHub discontinued
There are plenty of Mac tools for video compression in the marketplace, ranging from Windows Media-oriented tools (Flip4Mac) to professional workflow builders (Sorenson Squeeze) to hardware-assisted H.264 crunchers (Elgato turbo.264). Few of these products, however, have hit the sweet spot of wide-ranging capability, quality output and extremely affordable pricing like VisualHub from Techspansion. For less than $25, you got Flash and WMV output that rivaled products 3x the price, plus easy conversion to iPod and iPhone-friendly formats. Along with sister apps audio compressor AudialHub and iPod-only video converter iSquint, VisualHub was a prime example of a well-built, "Mac way" media app.Sadly, the past tense above is no accident. Techspansion's website has been shuttered and the products have been discontinued. Tyler Loch (Techspansion's founder) let us know that the difficult decision to close down Techspansion is a personal one, and he's readjusting his priorities to focus on other needs. His choice is understandable, but we will definitely miss VisualHub (not to mention the laugh-out-loud funniest release notes in software history). Best of luck to Tyler in his future efforts.Update: For those who are inquiring, there are no current plans to move VisualHub to open source. The underlying engine for much of the compression magic, ffmpeg, is already open-source and present in other Mac tools such as Handbrake.Thanks Brandon
AudialHub 1.0
We here at TUAW have expressed our love of VisualHub, Techspansion's great video encoding app, time and again. But what if those crazy folks at Techspansion decided to take the video part out of VisualHub? The resulting app would be very much like AudialHub, an audio converter that takes many UI and functionality cues from VisualHub. Read on for our full review. Update: I mistakenly quoted the special VisualHub cross-upgrade promotional price as the full price for AudialHub. This error has been corrected.
VisualHub 1.31 adds Surround Sound for "Take 2"
An upgrade to one of my favorite (and most useful) video compression and conversion utilities, VisualHub (which we've mentioned a few times), has brought with it support for 5.1 Surround Sound on the just-released Apple TV "Take 2." Despite not actually owning an Apple TV, I find myself happy for our video-converting, Apple TV-owning readers, and for the fact that any 5.1 AC3 audio I should happen to create won't be lost for that lucky audience. The release notes also include some speed improvements for artwork tagging large (150MB+) videos not intended for the 'net, as well as a fix for aspect ratio conversion on Tivo-destined video. VisualHub 1.31 is a free upgrade for registered users. And for newcomers for whom it would be of use, it's worth every penny at the palindromic price of $23.32. Visit the VisualHub website for more information.
