# Techspansion Closing Down (VisualHub, AudialHub, iSquint)



## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

Techspansion



> VisualHub, AudialHub, and iSquint have been discontinued.
> 
> ...After much soul-searching (it's not you, it's me), for personal reasons, Techspansion is closing its virtual doors.
> The Support Forum and Support E-mail will be available for a while longer to take care of any remaining issues for you.
> ...


This is a disappointing development - I've used VisualHub quite a bit and now it's gone and disappeared. So I guess the question then comes down to, what is there available that can take the place of VisualHub?

ffmpegX? MPEGStreamclip? I've tried both and I'm not a fan of ffmpegX. What are other ehMacers using?


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Wow, that's sad news. I'm a VisualHub addict as well. I purchased it about 2 years ago. (I'm guessing)

You would think with the release of the iPhone, the software would be a lucrative business.. I guess not enough.

That said, I'm interested as well. I wonder if they'll open up the code so that someone can take it under development as open source? I'm sure there's many of folks out there that would love to keep it in development.

Sad day indeed!


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## shonline (Nov 9, 2007)

What a shame. I have AudialHub as well and both are fantastic products.... 

Well, looks like the search is on for a full replacement. Thank goodness for Handbrake!


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

Just because it's no longer available doesn't mean it stops working


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## EvanPitts (Mar 9, 2007)

It's too bad, since I use iSquint quite a bit. I can add that to the list of software that is no longer available.

I lost my word processor earlier in the year, but still haven't settled on Mellel as a replacement.

The Mac world also lost Azureus as well, though [NoVuze] bailed me out a month or so ago, and so did FireFox pass over the bar. There are entire categories of software that have no equivalents, and the categories that did have Mac software seem to be becoming more sparse as the days pass.

And the gaps are widening, since I am in a position where I will need to run AutoCAD, which is not available for Mac. QuickTime and iTunes have also passed into extinction, well, for those of us that do not want to spend thousands of dollars in upgrades for trivial updates to that software. Apple also gave up on AppleWorks, and they do not offer anything that can do quick flat file databases (In fact, databases are a real missing element on Macs these days).

Looks like I'll end up suffering with Windoze garbage sooner or later. VisualHub and iSquint were very useful utilities, especially when one is faced with a myriad of garbage video file formats - when M4P is entirely adequate and non-proprietary.


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## monokitty (Jan 26, 2002)

John Clay said:


> Just because it's no longer available doesn't mean it stops working


Exactly. I'll still use iSquint for a long time to come.


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## chas_m (Dec 2, 2007)

Very disappointing, but I'm glad I got the latest update to VisualHub recently. Let's hope it doesn't "break" for a long time to come.


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## Phat Bastard (Jan 3, 2003)

This really sucks, Visualhub is an excellent program.

I wanted to point out to everyone that now would be a good time to back up your Visualhub preferences file which contains your registrations code, because it sounds like you won't be able to email the authors to retrieve it in the future. Instructions at the Techspansion website.


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## crazy (Feb 27, 2008)

EvanPitts said:


> QuickTime and iTunes have also passed into extinction, well, for those of us that do not want to spend thousands of dollars in upgrades for trivial updates to that software. Apple also gave up on AppleWorks, and they do not offer anything that can do quick flat file databases (In fact, databases are a real missing element on Macs these days).


I still don't understand that point. Yes, a full speced out Mac Pro costs thousands, but its not the only choice out there. If my car breaks down, I can't say that a Lamborghini costs 250K, so the entire car market is overpriced and must be abandoned....


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2008)

crazy said:


> I still don't understand that point. Yes, a full speced out Mac Pro costs thousands, but its not the only choice out there. If my car breaks down, I can't say that a Lamborghini costs 250K, so the entire car market is overpriced and must be abandoned....


Just ignore Evan like most of us do (whoops did I type that out loud?) The computing world is going to hell in a handbasket according to him with all the bits being stored backwards and everything costs too much money to upgrade and if software doesn't run on 4 year old machines anymore they are considered to be "gone" (even when there are new versions that run on newer hardware).

It sucks that VH is gone away. I use it constantly (and am running it right now in fact). As for a replacement nothing else out there comes close to the speed that VH can do especially on multi-core systems. I've tested a lot of the alternatives for video producing clients. The work that Tech Expansion did on the multi-threaded ffmpeg stuff was fantastic and will be hard to beat.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

John Clay said:


> Just because it's no longer available doesn't mean it stops working


It's not available for download anymore however. There are some places still with mirrors but it's not available from the creator anymore.

I'm pretty sure it'll come back or someone will make a competing app but as it stands it's just disappointing to know that the app won't be moving forward. No one likes a stale application. (Which is more mindset than anything)


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## makuribu (Oct 26, 2005)

*Stale apps*

I convert video files (DVDs, TV shows, VHS tapes etc) to compressed AVI files that play on my DVD player. I don't care about high definition at the moment. I'll use Visual Hub until the hardware craps out, sometime in the next decade or so.

I can still use WordPerfect 3.5 on an G3 iMac 333MHz running OS 9.2, and it does a pretty good job of saving documents as HTML files.

My Bricklin still runs, though the gull wing doors are a pain in the butt. 

If the tool does the job, it doesn't matter if the company is gone.

(Oh all right, I lied about the Bricklin  )


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## Silv (Mar 28, 2008)

Sure, you've got a Delorean right?


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

Silv said:


> Sure, you've got a Delorean right?


He will when "Future makuribu" goes back in time to give him one.


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## EvanPitts (Mar 9, 2007)

I wonder what will come along to replace VisualHub and iSquint?


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## Silv (Mar 28, 2008)

I'm writing an app called VisualSquint as we speak. Don't hold your breath though, disassembler wasn't quite what it was when I last used it on my Amiga.


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## whatiwant (Feb 21, 2008)

i purchased the visual/audio bundle about 3 months ago. This is a major bummer. MAJOR.


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## Chealion (Jan 16, 2001)

VisualHub and iSquint are now open source software.

SourceForge.net: TranscoderRedux

At the moment there are two projects available: FilmRedux which looks to be an updated version of VisualHub with more advanced options whereas PunyVid is iSquint.

Of note, you'll need to know how to use Subversion and how to press build in Xcode in order to get them up and running. There aren't any binaries available just yet but they can be made if requested.


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Chealion said:


> VisualHub and iSquint are now open source software.
> 
> SourceForge.net: TranscoderRedux
> 
> ...


Excellent! :clap:


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## eggman (Jun 24, 2006)

Chealion said:


> VisualHub and iSquint are now open source software.


Thanks Chealion - this is good news!

Any sign of Audialhub showing up this way?


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## crunchiespg (Oct 24, 2007)

hmm, not happy, just paid out for visualhub 2 weeks ago...


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2008)

Chealion said:


> VisualHub and iSquint are now open source software.
> 
> SourceForge.net: TranscoderRedux
> 
> ...


That's great news! I'm sure that the binaries will make an appearance soon enough. I'm glad that the multi-threaded ffmpeg will survive! (that's the magic behind these)


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## morespace54 (Mar 4, 2005)

Let's hope he's kind enough to make is code available for GPL...
So people can continue his wonderful work


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## morespace54 (Mar 4, 2005)

mguertin said:


> That's great news! I'm sure that the binaries will make an appearance soon enough. I'm glad that the multi-threaded ffmpeg will survive! (that's the magic behind these)


That's what I'm talking about!


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## Guest (Oct 16, 2008)

Well ffmpeg is GPL v2.1 and this new project is GPL v2 .. so the code should be freely available t some point if it's not already or they are violating the GPL license.

https://transcoderredux.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/transcoderredux/FilmRedux/COPYING.txt


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## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

I finally shelled out money for this a few months ago as well. My favourite part of the software is the notes that accompany most of the button-pushing, including: "Don't, you'll screw it all up."


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