VisualHub

Downloading and installing VisualHub is officially a web scavenger hunt now that it’s “abandonware” - “computer software that is no longer sold or supported, or whose copyright ownership may be unclear for various reasons” - Wikipedia

Many are claiming that VisualHub is now open source, (freely downloadable programming code hosted at SourceForge.net that can be used to build a working program), but, this is not true.

What has been released as open source code is not VisualHub, but a mish mash of code that compiles into a transcoder that… doesn’t actually work.  None of the blame lies at Techspansion for this sensationalism, it’s the various “tech sites” that are hyping this.

In theory it’s great that Techspansion has opened up some random AppleScript code that others can pick up to start building a transcoder to try and replace VisualHub.  In practice, TranscoderRedux, the name of this open source project, is 100% useless for about 99% of the population that simply wants to put videos on their iPods with ease. And with little doubt, the timeline of the project producing anything close to VisualHub is at least a year away.  Many cooks in a unorganized kitchen rarely produces spectacular software on short notice.

I’m not sure why VisualHub wasn’t turned into donationware or freeware like NewsFire did a while back.  At least that way people could still benefit from all the effort that was put into VisualHub, cram ungodly amounts of video onto mobile devices like iPods and iPhones, which puts development pressure on hardware producers (like Apple) to increase the capabilities of their hardware to serve the growing market.  Letting people flounder around with poor substitutes to VisualHub (iSquint excluded) just slows the eventual progress of the mobile video market, letting the weaker offerings survive to see another online day.

Perhaps the true programming code behind VisualHub is up for sale?  If that were true, those putting time into TranscoderRedux would be mighty disappointed…

Related posts:

1. VisualHub Alternative - iSquint
2. Play avi divx on iPod Touch or iPhone