vhupdaterTechspansion, Tyler Loch's now-defunct company that created VisualHub, has released a small update to the software to allow it to run properly -- for the moment -- under OS X Lion.

VisualHub was a very popular OS X application to convert video files to any number of formats, including optimizing video for iTunes, WMV, or Flash. In 2008, Tyler closed the company and stopped selling or supporting VisualHub or Techspansion's other products.

When VisualHub broke with the release of Lion, Loch released a very slight tweak that would allow VisualHub to work once more, but required some technical knowledge to implement. Techspansion's old payment processor, Kagi, began selling a $5, unauthorized, Lion updater for VisualHub that implemented the same fix, but in a much more user-friendly manner.

Loch was very upset with this unauthorized use of his code, and was especially displeased because Kagi used his old customer records to email every user who had purchased VisualHub through them. Once Loch expressed his unhappiness, Kagi stopped selling the update and Loch released the last official update for VisualHub on his website, with this note:

It's been nearly three years since Techspansion closed and these programs were last maintained.

VisualHub and AudialHub are no longer supported. And they won't last forever. Whatever breaks from here on out will be the end, sadly. I hope this update squeezes a little more life out of these two apps for you.

Loch does continue to write Mac apps, with his app FlashFrozen, which notifies users when Flash uses too much of their CPU power, available on the Mac App Store for $0.99.

Top Rated Comments

kolax Avatar
175 months ago
The drag drop and no fuss with VisualHub is why I still use it. I dislike HandBrake's queuing system, and its clunky interface.

Never had audio sync issues with VisualHub either. I wish he'd keep working on it..
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
pspwesty Avatar
175 months ago
any recommendations to video converters that are still being maintained & updated that actually work well? handbrake also stopped @ v.0.9 something

=/

Handbrake is still actively being developed. They have released nightly builds for a good bit of time now. These come w/ the caveat of not guaranteed to be stable, but I've had no issues w/ using them. Here's the build history: https://build.handbrake.fr/builds and here is the download page for the nightlies: https://build.handbrake.fr/
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mscriv Avatar
175 months ago
So instead with other phones, mp3 players & tablet, you need to convert every movie first to copy & play on an iOS device , but there is no software on osx to do that?

There's plenty of software to do that. VisualHub just happens to be a program that several people like using as it has a great UI and is fairly simply. Unfortunately, the programs creator decided to move onto other things and thus will not be supporting it any more. As others have mentioned in the thread Handbrake is another popular program that is still being developed and there are countless other options too.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mike457 Avatar
175 months ago
Handbrake does get regularly updated if you go for the nightly builds (https://build.handbrake.fr/). While these are not officially supported, they work well and often add features. I only download when the sun is present! :)
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GeekLawyer Avatar
175 months ago
That's really decent of him to offer the fix.

I've found nothing (yet) that replaces the ease of use and functionality of VisualHub. Though, to be honest, with it working so well until Lion, I haven't needed to.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Expected to Release iOS 18.3 Next Week With These New Features

Thursday January 23, 2025 6:41 am PST by
iOS 18.3 should be released to the public next week, following beta testing since mid-December. While the software update is a relatively minor one, it still includes a handful of new features, changes, and bug fixes for iPhones. Below, we recap everything new in iOS 18.3. Notification Summary Changes Examples of inaccurate Apple Intelligence notification summaries Apple Intelligence...
Apple Pay Walmart Feature

Walmart Stands Firm on Why It Doesn't Accept Apple Pay in the U.S.

Thursday January 23, 2025 7:32 am PST by
Walmart still does not accept Apple Pay or other NFC payments at its more than 4,600 stores across the U.S., and it stood firm on its reasoning for that today. A spokesperson for Walmart today informed MacRumors that its position on contactless payments has not changed since we last reached out about the matter in 2022. The big-box retailer said it remains focused on its own convenient...
iOS 18

Here Are Apple's Full Release Notes for iOS 18.3

Tuesday January 21, 2025 4:31 pm PST by
Apple provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 18.3 today, and with it comes release notes confirming what's new. While we knew about several of the features that are in the update, there are some lesser known tweaks and bug fixes. The update adds new Visual Intelligence features for iPhone 16 models, it tweaks Notification summaries on all...
truecaller

Truecaller iOS Update Rolls Out Real-Time Caller ID Support

Wednesday January 22, 2025 2:07 am PST by
Popular caller ID app Truecaller is rolling out an update that brings real-time caller ID support to its iOS subscribers. Apple introduced Live Caller ID Lookup in iOS 18, allowing third-party caller ID apps to securely retrieve information about a caller from their servers, hence today's Truecaller update. iPhone users can enable the Live Caller ID Lookup feature by going to Settings ➝ ...
iPhone 17 Air Size Feature

'iPhone 17 Air' With Rear Camera Bar Allegedly Shown in Leaked Photo

Tuesday January 21, 2025 12:46 pm PST by
A leaker known as "Majin Bu" today shared an alleged image of a component for the rumored, ultra-thin "iPhone 17 Air" model. The blurry, pixelated image shows a pair of rear iPhone shells with a pill-shaped, raised camera bar along the top. On the left side of the bar, there is a circular cutout that appears to be for a single rear camera. On the right side of the bar, there appears to be an ...
apple tv 4k new orange

New Apple TV Launching This Year With These New Features

Wednesday January 22, 2025 6:01 pm PST by
A new Apple TV is expected to be released later this year. In this article, we recap rumored features and changes for the device. The next Apple TV will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. He said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, which would be an upgrade over the current Apple TV's standard Wi-Fi 6 support. Wi-Fi 6E extends the...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
iPhone SE 4 Single Camera Thumb 3

iOS 18.3 Leak Provides Clue About iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and iPad Air 7 Launch Timing

Wednesday January 22, 2025 9:39 am PST by
New information has surfaced that indicates the rumored iPhone SE 4, iPad 11, and new iPad Air models are nearing launch. A private account on social media platform X today revealed that iOS 18.3 or iPadOS 18.3 will be preinstalled on all of those upcoming devices when they are released. It is still unclear exactly when the devices will launch, but this information suggests that Apple will...
iOS 18

5 New Things Your iPhone Can Do in iOS 18.3

Friday January 24, 2025 1:55 am PST by
Apple is set to release iOS 18.3 next week, bringing further refinements to Apple Intelligence features, a couple of neat new capabilities to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 devices, and bug fixes. While not quite as packed with new features as Apple's preceding iOS 18 point releases, iOS 18.3 still introduces capabilities that aim to make your iPhone smarter and more intuitive. Below, we've...