We’re thrilled—beyond thrilled, actually—to announce the release of Usher 1.0 today. Usher is Many Tricks’ movie management and viewing application. If you collect videos—be they from cell phones, digital video cameras, internet downloads, ripped DVDs, or wherever, Usher is the tool to help you gain control over your collection.

The list of features is immense; check out the Usher web page to get a sense for its capabilities. We’ve really worked hard to make this a solid release, as yFlicks was a much-loved and much-used program that, sadly, stopped working a couple of major OS X releases ago. While Usher is the spiritual successor to yFlicks, the number of new and/or greatly improved features, along with the completely revamped interface, make it essentially a brand-new program. That’s why we tested Usher with our largest-ever group of beta testers—Usher is a large, complex program, and we wanted it to be as issue-free as possible.

Keep reading to see a small sampling of Usher’s features, and for full information on purchasing or upgrading to (including free upgrades for many yFlicks users) Usher.

This list is by no means comprehensive, but it gives you at least a sense of the scope of Usher’s feature set:

• Catalog (and optionally store directly in Usher’s library) all movies and videos on your machine.
• Manages videos stored iTunes (including TV shows, iTunes U, movies, etc. in iTunes).
• Manages videos saved in iPhoto, and even imports any associated keywords.
• Built-in search-and-download feature for both YouTube and Vimeo videos.
• A browser bookmarklet allows easy downloading of many other web videos with a simple mouse click.
• Downloaded web videos can be automatically converted for iPod, iPhone, or Apple TV use.
• Downloaded web videos can be automatically added to iTunes.
• Movies can be played back within the Usher window, in a separate window, or in full screen mode. In all three modes, playback controls can hover-and-vanish (as in QuickTime X, but we think ours are nicer!), or can be permanently visible outside the frame (as in QuickTime 7 and earlier).
• Plays back anything QuickTime can play, including QuickTime extenders such as Flip4Mac and Perian. (iTunes-protected movies cannot be played back outside of iTunes.)
• Usher includes basic editing tools, including cut, copy, paste, revert to original, and save later.
• Videos can be rotated and cropped, to easily correct for movies recorded while holding your camera in portrait mode, or to remove the black borders around a video.
• A lock icon in the playback window allows you to correct the aspect ratio by choosing from a number of presets, or via free-form resizing.
• Four view modes (list, preview frames, DVD covers, and Cover Flow) provide a number of ways for you to look at your collection.
• Tags (simple yes/no indicators, such as “Funny” or “Improv”) and Properties (which can store multiple entries, such as the entire cast in a Property named Cast) give you the power to really organize your collections.
• Auto-Properties uses an Amazon API to easily retrieve and populate many Properties (such as Cast, Director, Year, Rating, and Genre)—you can retrieve all these values for many movies with a single button click.
• Smart Playlists can be built based on values in Tags, Properties, and other fields (such as Date Added).
• A whitelist and a blacklist give you control over what types of content Usher will and will not look for.
• Use your Apple hardware remote (the skinny white one that used to come with certain Macs) to control Usher—pick movies and play them without touching the mouse or keyboard.
• Finally, for the first time ever, a Many Tricks app now includes a video tutorial. Check out the Favorites Smart Playlist for a 13-minute overview of some of Usher’s features. Also check out the extensive in-app help, available via the Help menu.

Usher is available as an unrestricted trial (all features enabled) for two weeks; after that, you’ll see a not-so-subtle reminder that registration is required if you wish to continue using the program. Usher costs $35 for new users, and those who purchased yFlicks after March 1st, 2009, can receive a free upgrade to Usher (send us an email to get information on the free upgrade program). Those who purchased prior to that date can upgrade for $15.

Thanks to all the testers who helped us put this large complex program through its paces. We’re really looking forward to your feedback, and to hear your wishes for future Usher updates.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 14th, 2010 at 11:23 am by Rob Griffiths, and is filed under Products, Usher, yFlicks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.