iVideo
Waterfall Software
Price: $19.95
Pros: Library sharing, full-screen playback without QuickTime Pro, and satisfaction until Apple addresses video organization directly.
Cons: Limited by content and metadata available, interface could use more attention.
by Gerrit Dalman
There's a lot of talk these days about Apple creating an online video store. Logic would dictate they also make a program for managing that content (if they don't expand the features of iTunes). For those who eagerly await such a product, as I do, there is already an app out that can fill many of our desires!
iVideo is to movies as iPhoto is to pictures and iTunes is to music. Quite simply, it stores, organizes, and facilitates playback of all your QuickTime compatible movie files. Of course that leaves out Real or Microsoft encoded media and all formats suffer from a lack of metadata, but that's the content creator's fault!
The iVideo interface could use some improvement, but is familiar and easy to use. It offers thumbnail and list views as well as a gallery view that merges the two. In general it is very reminiscent of iPhoto.
It displays playlists in a sidebar alongside thumbnails of video clips. A slider at the bottom of the window controls the size of the thumbnails, you can quick search at any time, and ratings are displayed beneath each clip. An info button will bring up clip details and can be used to attach notes or assign keywords that can then be used in the creation of smart playlists.
Playlist support makes it very easy to watch sequential clips in order. Such as subsequent episodes of the popular web series "Red vs. Blue" or torrented TV episodes for example. With a single click you can even watch clips full screen with an over-sized pop-up remote.
One last feature borrowed from Apple's own iApps is library sharing. After turning on the appropriate preferences you can share your video collection with other iVideo users on your network using Bonjour. Waterfall even offers a three-user license option, making it easy to share favorites around the office or family.
iVideo handily fits in the gap between user's expectations of an Apple-branded movie organizer and the lack of content tailored for such a solution. Even though the recent addition of video support to iPhoto and iTunes makes that gap a little smaller, iVideo still stands out as a pure video solution. Anyone with a big collection of video files should take advantage of the free trial.
System Requirements:
* Mac OS X 10.2 or higher
* QuickTime 6.0 or higher