I tried the demo version of Episode after feeling very limited by the lack of certain higher end features on applications like VisualHub and AudialHub, which i used for video and audio conversion respectively. They were both amazing applications for most purposes but have now regrettably been discontinued.

Despite the extremely limiting 20 second clip demo conversions i was extremely impressed by the clean interface, smooth and uncomplicated conversion workflow, wide choice of codecs and presets, and the speed and quality of the results.

This is definitely software that does what i need, and does it well, but there is one thing that is preventing me from purchasing. Yes the price is very high considering there are many decent cheap (or free) video converters out there, but you get what you pay for and Episode is a high end application with a smooth professional feel to it...

So why then do they cripple their $500 high end software by imposing a 25 item batch limit?!?! I mean you have this amazing conversion engine which is the same on the desktop and pro versions, and i can understand paying extra for the pro version to gain the pro features like high quality broadcast and surround applications, but for $500 i would expect unlimited batch processing and wont pay this price for such a limitation.

Downloaded this to evaluate and compare with Cleaner 6.5 as my video compression tool of choice, with a committed view to purchase if it excelled.

However, I ran into a short time-limit on conversions. Was this the case? 30 days is plenty to evaluate, even 15 days.

But a 30-second limit does not let me compare. I need to test the full capacity to render a couple files in total. Even a week's trial would be OK with a full version.

But don't be parsimonious (stingy) with the length of clip. So what if a few people use it once or twice for a job they need and don't buy. You lose more sales to folks like myself who say, "Well, if I cannot really tell how good it is, I will pass."

Or did I miss a setting somewhere?

Very serious question.

_
Looks good, but $400?!

Tried this version (4.0) as well as 4.0.1 from popwire website under 10.4.7 on a Dual G5 2GB system, but the application is closing down before the window can even open up. Also does not write ANY crash log. Tried uninstalling, turning off ANY other 3rd party applications, but still no go.

Any clue?

I had been messing around with cleaner 6.5 trying to perform some basic video conversion, and it would crash at every step...I tried to troubleshoot and isolate why this was happening, but to no avail. So after stumbling upon Compression Master, I thought I would give it a try... and WOW!!! It has a great interface, and was "blazingly fast"...with not even a hiccup I encoded 10 files, in both QuickTime and WMV. Highly recommended. Comparatively cleaner 6.5 is a joke.