Filed under: Software
Techspansion closes, VisualHub discontinued
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
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
ctrlaltdelete said 1:07PM on 10-03-2008
can i have my money back?
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Devon said 1:42PM on 10-03-2008
Why, does it not work any more now that the website closed?
SubGenius said 2:02PM on 10-03-2008
No. No. No. Its....
i can haz muni bak?
john said 4:52PM on 10-03-2008
It's still a great app and it already does what I need it to do. It just sucks for the people that don't own it already or when over time when all formats change and it no longer works.
BryanD said 4:33PM on 10-08-2008
Ok maybe you should read this post they will live on.
http://www.isquint.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6938;st=45
Dustin N. said 1:08PM on 10-03-2008
NOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo.........................
Very sad, VisualHub, you will be missed.
Can anyone who have used VisualHub offer alternatives?
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Tony said 3:24PM on 10-03-2008
Handbrake
Dustin N. said 3:28PM on 10-03-2008
Handbrake can't convert .flv files. In fact, can handbrake convert anything but DVDs? Sure, its great for that, but if the source content is not a physical disc, no dice.
Joseph said 3:53PM on 10-03-2008
ffmpegx & mpegstreamclip
Jason said 4:53PM on 10-03-2008
I never used this software, but have you used QT Amateur? I use it for all of my video conversion and it will do FLV. Oh, and it's free.
gabefung said 3:23PM on 10-04-2008
Could be Handbrake. The next version of handbrake support conversion from files like avi, mkv.
Ian said 6:19PM on 10-07-2008
yes handbrake does convert others that actual DVDs (try it out), but VisualHub was a much more robust.
Fernando said 1:11PM on 10-03-2008
Wow this sucks big time I love visual hub and I use it all the time. Damn I hope I still have a dmg downloaded in case I ever have to rebuild my mac. Crap, big downer news.
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iGO said 1:18PM on 10-03-2008
From Techspansion Site:
In order to get VisualHub working if you need to switch computers, you need to back up two things:
1: VisualHub itself
2: The conversion engine
To back up the conversion engine, Copy the folder at:
/Library/Application Support/Techspansion/
...for good measure, you can also back up your Preferences file, containing your registration info in case you lose the original purchase e-mail. It's at:
/Users/yourname/Library/Preferences/com.techspansion.visualhub.plist
andymc1989 said 1:13PM on 10-03-2008
I almost bought it yesterday...
Surely he should release it as freeware and an opensource group could work on it perhaps.
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Gewalt said 2:57PM on 10-03-2008
Open source what tho? There isn't anything worthwhile to take open source. There doesn't really seem to be anything in visualhub besides a bad gui on top of FFmpeg, which is already open source.
Chris said 5:02PM on 10-03-2008
I've used FFMPEGX for a long time and it's simply buggy and slow. VisualHub somehow took the same core and made it easier to use, faster, and more simple. It's a more pleasant and reliable experience. I even have Final Cut Studio with Compressor, and I still do as much compression as I can in VisualHub because it's so much easier.
Encourage the developer to make it open source at this URL: http://www.isquint.org/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=8;t=6938 Tell him how useful VisualHub (or AudialHub, or iSquint) have impacted your workflow and share why you want to see the development continue. With enough input, maybe he'll change his mind and release the source code!
DRW said 1:14PM on 10-03-2008
I wonder if they're going to release it for free now, or offer the source... It'd be a shame to let all of it disappear in a puff of computer smoke.
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KomputarGuy said 1:14PM on 10-03-2008
That sucks, I use VH all the time too....
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Andre said 1:15PM on 10-03-2008
Why not make VisualHub free, keep the programs online and simply just stop developing them? The loss of iSquint is huge.
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