Usher4520

Seems extremely slow with a large library! I have around 3000 movies on my NAS, and Usher is so slow it's almost unresponsive! Am waiting to hear some feedback from the developer.

Unfortunately even if it seems a very nice and useful application alike all the others similar, it does't have any support for mkv which in my case makes this (and the others too, obviously) useless

Nice, but I can’t find a preference to always open movies in fullscreen — a glaring omission and deal breaker.

Good app but doesn't appear to watch the folders it imports videos from. Moving a video into a folder in Finder also needs that same video manually adding to Usher. At least I couldn't find a refresh option to automate the process.

I am a teacher & use this to organize many short clips I show in class. Works great, highly recommended!

New Usher User 1.1.3 from Apple App Store. I was hoping Usher would help me do batch updating to a large directory of video files on a hard drive (NAS) not controlled with iTunes. Usher's work flow seems to be Example.. I have two copies of the movie Faster. The filenames are "Faster (Apple TV)" and "Faster (iPhone)" to note the resolution during Handbrake ripping. 1. Click on a single movie in the Library pane 2. Right click -> Edit Metadata 3. Select Auto-Properties. (Dialog appears with Could not find "Faster (Apple TV)"... 4. Manually remove " (Apple TV)". Hit search. 5. Click on a match (now finds movie since its title is "Faster". Am I asking for a miracle here? Is there a faster/easier way to get metadata?

The remote control from my really old, first gen MacBook Pro works to start and stop my (downloaded) TV content. This is ace. If any of you download a lot of TV content, as I do, Usher is just an awesome tool/media hub. It remembers the exact playback position in a tv programme, just like TiVo

I see that it's possible to convert 'Web downloads' so they can be played back on the iPhone. Is it Adobe Flash to MOV?

I love Usher. I got the Mac AppStore version. It's ability to rip YouTube videos is a great little bonus. Are there any restrictions? Sometimes I get a message saying the YouTube download failed. I wondered if it might be due to music Copyright, but it seems to work at other times. I like the way it created a recently added playlist/smart folder thing for each playlist. I note that some of my videos have become black and white (in the grid preview mode). Is that because I have deleted them, or because they have been watched or are x-weeks old? I would love the ability to be able to have a hot key to remove all visual distractions, when watching a tv program. I want all other windows to be hidden. I note that ⌘-U invokes Usher-control-window. It would be neat if I could press ⌘-U again to make it disappear. (So it's like a _toggle_ , rather than an 'on' switch)

Overall I am quite impressed. Improving the organization of my ever growing movie library has been long overdue. Usher has finally allowed me to seize control and efficiently organize my collection. This is a clear winner in my eyes. I should have done this a long time ago. P.S. Peter/Rob have been very responsive to my questions.

I do not typically take the time to review software. It's an extra "to do" I don't have time for. However, I have been an Usher user for a while and when I saw some of the comments on this page, I had to say I have had nothing but an exceedingly positive experience both with Usher and with the support team. I have tried all of the video clip managers out there, and for many reasons Usher is the best. It's library management cannot be matched, and it is -- of course -- the sexiest. My only problem is with large libraries, it can be slower. However, there are ways around that. Most importantly, the support team is unmatched. I have emailed for support and they have given it promptly, professionally, and with enthusiasm. Likewise, I have suggested features that will likely be incorporated. Great software, great company.

[Fix] Users with serial numbers (instead of license files) will no longer have upgrade-related licensing issues. Thanks, that was exactly my problem and it has been promptly solved. So far so good, nice to see this program and this company back in action!

Thanks for the taking another look, and please let me know if you have any qeustions! regards, -rob.

To be honest I've been skeptical after my experiences with yFlicks, which I bought some years ago - but the new version of yFlicks, now Usher, impresses me. All of the old issues seem to be solved. And an additional question I had to the Usher team has been answered in only one (!) hour on a Sunday. Perfect support !!

Yes, it's a sad truth that Many Tricks had quite a hiatus in the past, say, two years, together with an almost non-existent communication. But NOW I'M HAPPY to witness that Many Tricks is back online, with the great communicator Rob Griffiths (of MacOSXHints fame) joining the company. There have been RECENT UPDATES, they have an ACTIVE BLOG now, and I definitely know they ARE ACTIVELY WORKING on cool new stuff as well as on more updates to their existing software. See http://www.manytricks.com and http://www.manytricks.com/blog for more information. And no, I'm not married to Peter or Rob or Alex, and I'm not affiliated with Many Tricks, I'm just a happy user of some of their stuff, and I'm in contact w/ them over their blog.

This is the best of software, this is the worst of software... I use yFlicks because I've tried many, and this is the best software available on the Mac for organizing my video collection. It lets you tag, search, sort, create thumbnails, and play your videos in very flexible and useful ways. There was a problem with the first version of Snow Leopard, but I'm now using it successfuly on Snow Leopard 10.6.2, with about 3000 videos cataloged. Having said that... The software is terrible! It's frustrating, inconsistent, full of bugs, and slow as molasses . . . And unless you figure out many tricks (pun intended) for yourself, to get around the bugs, you may not even be able to get it to work for you at all. Basically, the software was never really finished. Worst of all, it's abandonware. For the past several years, the developer, Peter Maurer, will happily take your money, but he gives no support or updates and ignores all e-mail sent to him. Even the user forums on the website have been boarded up. I guess he got bored with it and moved on to other projects. But that is no way to treat your customers. It's really a shame, because yFlicks has so much potential. I just can't understand why someone would spend so much time and effort creating and marketing a product, only to just give up, stop fixing the remaining bugs and issues, and ignore all his customers. I'd say it's 80% of the way to being a really excellent piece of software. But that missing 20% means the user experience, frankly, s*cks. I use a Mac because "Mac users swear by their computers, while windows users swear at their computers". But this is one app that I swear at constantly. Unfortunately, there's no better alternative out there. I recommend the developer google "the clue train manifesto", and learn what is important about "customer service". I know a lot of people have a habit of not finishing what they start... but that's no way to run a business, and in business, your reputation and the trust you build with customers is the most valuable asset you have.

I've used this for a while and probably bought it as an MUpromo or similar. It was reliable when it worked, but needed freqent updates to keep up with youtube etc when they changed things. A few weeks/months ago, it stopped working reliably and updates no longer show up. The company's website (manytricks.com) no longer resolves. Google's cache shows the last page from early December 2009. Looks like they have infact gone under or are on extended vacation.

This company seems to have gone to the wall. YFlicks is incompatible with Snow Leopard and the company reps do not reply to support e-mails. Avoid buying any of the software they sell! Check out their website if you don't believe me. It has not been updated in over a year. None of their software appears to have been updated for over a year.

problem to synchronise well the subtitles, impossible to select the language if several subtitles files and impossible to enable/disable subtitles on the fly in a video.

Very unstable, constant crashed with the latest version 3.3.2.

I don't know what MacMelo's problem is; I have over 300 movies (flicks) in my library and yFlicks is blisteringly fast at opening and previewing them (mousing over the movie picture). I used to experience the "hanging yflickscrawler process" problem, but that is all. This update supposedly fixes it...so here's hoping. I haven't found another Mac movie catalogue/library viewing app which is quite so obvious (user-friendly) in its objectives.

I get a 'Segmentation fault' and 'Exited abnormally' when trying to run it. Why?

Forgot to rate it, so here it is...

I was really hoping this could be a good app... However, I have already tried to use it about ten times over the last couple of years, but I give up... On the surface it has the looks of a Mac application, but it has several annoying (or non-standard/confusing behaviors) and it's slower than hell... Slow to a point that it gets impossible to use, even with just a few movies in the library... I would really love to have a great looking yet fully functional alternative...

My experience with yflicks has been pretty good, i needed an iphoto for movies, and this is by far the nicest, and most mac-like i've found. I espesially like the way you can CHOOSE the thumbnail for each movie, rather than have a randomly chosen frame, that's something i was really after. I signed up to macupdate just so i could recommend it :-)

I tried to use the software, but it doesn't work, it is unbelievably buggy, impossible to play a movie it will never show any window, only the prefences ... Also it doesn't seem to be able to read subtitle file s what is desperatly missing in QuickTime. If I pya a software it's for feature that are missing in others, paying just to catalog my movies and see a nice front .... well I don't care. So why should I pay, vlc is working pretty well, of course cosmetics in less, but it works and ofers more features and and can read subtitles.

I ordered this at 8 this morning, paid, and received my receipt. 13 hours later, I haven't received a license from the developer. I can't load their site, either through mud or directly. Hmmm?

I"ve posted this on the comments and will reiterate it here: this provides a features i've dreamed of: categorizing my movies for Front Row. The Usher Me to the Front Row feature sets up the Movies Folder with groupings based on tags. Actors, Directors, Genre and more. Then in Front Row, instead of searching through a huge list of movies, you can pick and choose based on pretty much anything. I'm still exploring but this is really one hell of a useful feature for somebody with a growing library of movie downloads.

very buggy in leopard... won't download clips from youtube via browser bookmark, and upon quitting the app and relaunching, no window appears. dragging a video to the dock icon will play the video, but there is no library sidebar.

I am seeing issues similar to PORTKINS. Movie thumbnails go blank and movies don't play properly, either as thumbnails or full-size versions. My movies are large home movies; 1-3GB H.264 MP4 files converted from DVD using Visual Hub. These movies play perfectly in QuickTime Player. I like the user interface and layout of yFlicks, but it seems too buggy, at least with my movies, to purchase at this time.

I used yFlicks (Version 2.0.1) for a couple weeks now and I think this is an amazing piece of software and the best movie player i now of for the mac. I dislike VLC and MPlayer for the sluggish and not mac-like interface and sometimes the lack of stability and speed. I really like the approach the autor took with the movie library concept. You can rate your movie and organise them in folders and smart folders. Overall the app is beautifully designed and lets you choose from 7 different window styles. There are a lot of options to choose from. You can customise most of the apperance, the behaviour in fullscreen and the organisation of the library. A reviewer mentioned the lack of stability of yFlicks. In my experience the current version of yFlicks (2.0.1) is very stable. I had 1 or 2 crashes, and I use yFlicks alot. Maybe the other reviewer hat a Codec issue? What I really like: - The presentation of the clips as thumbnails (size can be changed). There is also a list-view, and the "play on mouse-hover" feature can be turned of. - It uses the Quicktime Codecs. If Quicktime can play it, so can yFlicks. In combination with Perian (Codec Suite) almost all files can be played (If not, you can add codecs) - While playing a movie you can jump a 5 seconds (can be changed) with the Cmd + arrow key forward and backwards in the movie, I use this alot. There are some other noteable features which I rarely use: There is a good integration of the Apple remote, you can access your whole yFlicks library over the remote interface. You can also download movie from Youtube and integrate yFlicks with your browser, I haven't used this yet. yFlicks can also convert videos to the MP4 format. Wish-List: - It would be very nice to have "watch-folders", which would monitor user-defined folders for new movies and the add them (not copy) to the library. I have all my movies on an external drive - The speed in movie-thumbnail view while scrolling could be improved. If I have a lot of movies in one folder, yFlicks tends to slow down oder lock up for a couple seconds. You really should try out this application, it can be started 10 times in demo mode. It definitely does not deserve the current 2-star rating here on MacUpdate. So go try it and write a review here. :-)

I purchased yFlicks a few months ago. I have several movies organized on the program. When I move the cursor over a still it starts playing as described. But then the movie freezes and the other movies go blank. I need to restart the program to see the movie I want. The biggest disappointment isthat I have E-mailed the developer several times and never hear back. Sorry, good idea lousy product. terrible support!

There was a small typo in the original source code for yFlicks 1.1 that prevented you from deleting groups. Just download yFlicks 1.1 once more if you're experiencing this problem.

I have a suggestion. Wouldn't it be great if we could do a search in the library while playing a movie ... I was playing a movie and I did a search but the sound didn't continued to play or just pause it and then add a button in the bottom toolbar to go back to player mode. Also, what about a support of the Apple Remote ? You can find a lot of informations about how to do this here ( http://www.martinkahr.com/source-code/ ) at Apple Remote Controller Wrapper Class section.

Congratulations ! This application is amazing. It is built with a lot of original ideas such as video preview when the mouse enters in one of them. The user interface is also very easy-to-use and beautiful. I can just advice people to test it and then buy it !

1. Launch Apple Script Editor 2. Enter this exactly as follows… tell application “QuickTime Player” present front movie scale screen end tell 3. Save the script as an application (I save it as “full screen” and just keep it on my desktop). 4. Open the movie you want to view in full screen in Quicktime and then double-click on the apple script application you created. 5. Enjoy

The new Video Player and Video Downloading/Converting/Management Tool yFlicks is really a great leap towards the perfect integration of the Web 2.0 Video Services which are Flash based into your mac at home. The management is very easy-to-use and also intuitive. Rating is also very helpful. The converting function does also help ver much, pointing out that with the help of Perian, you can convert all formats that Quicktime Pro does, and more, for a price that is lower than what Apple wants for QT pro. At first i thought i wouldn't really use such a tool, because i could find everything with the help of Google Video/Youtube Bookmarks in Safari, but after trying the software out i changed my mind. The Previewing and Organizing abilities of this little piece of software are really great. I would really recommend you to try it, even if you're not somebody who uses Video Services Daily like me.