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Dear News.YC: please review my Mac app, Evom (thelittleappfactory.com)

41 points by Disparity ↗ HN
As I imagine a lot of people have Macs here, I thought it appropriate to post this. It's a desktop app for ripping videos from the web and converting movies to a format suitable for iTunes & iPod. So those bittorrent videos can finally find a place in iTunes & your iPod. You can rip movies straight from YouTube by dragging the url icon into the app.

47 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 90.1 ms ] thread
jmtulloss
A few things:

Your site needs a favicon

I don't understand how to get videos off the web.

From your web page, it's not clear to me what your product does. Convert & transfer movies from your computer and the web. could be simplified to something like "Get your movies anywhere."

When I open the app, nothing happens. It should open the "Open" dialog by default, I think.

The site looks great, and the app is quite clean. Nice work!

hbien
I like the window that says "Drop movies, folders, or movie links" with a big drop icon, no need to have the open dialog by default =]. I would probably hate having a dialog open right when the app starts.
jmtulloss
I didn't see that. When does that come up?
Disparity
Thanks for the feedback about the clarity & the ease of use. I'll definitely look on making it easier and clearer.
Derferman
I was pleasantly surprised when dragging a Youtube link into the drop area worked exactly as I had hoped. The video even downloaded in 1280 x 720. The next time I need a video off Youtube, Evom will be the app I use.
patio11
I have seen a few of this types of apps come through the Business of Software forums. Generally, a large portion of the enthusiasm for applications like this seems to be that people want to go to Youtube and download movies for free. These people are, for obvious reasons, not the best people in the world to sell software to.
jpcx01
Thats a good point. There's tons of free youtube downloaders anyways (I especially like keepvid.com). But I sort of like how Evom is a dual way helper, plus it'll re-encode the video for iPod.
jedc
A quick usability thing... your main icon features an iPod, so my immediate thought was that it was something to manage photos/videos on an iPod/iPhone. That doesn't quite match to your app which is web & desktop based.
psyklic
You should package it as an installer rather than a ZIP! Didn't get a chance to try it though.
geuis
You need a text input in the app for pasting urls. Should be next to the Open button. Not everyone has screen real estate to have the browser and your app open.

In FF3, highlighting and dragging the URL doesn't work. I have to drag the favicon.

It worked really well on a couple of test porn videos. =)

mj1903
Thanks for your feedback! We are looking into adding a bookmarklet to make opening URLs easier.
pieter
It would be nice if you describe on the page what Evom converts _to_.. Why would anyone need this app? That's not clear from the text, a bit more clear from the screenshots.

That said, I haven't tried it yet, but will try it later today.

derefr
I thought it was pretty evident from the icon: portables, like iPods.
taitems
It's really not. You have to cater to your dumbest user, not your smartest.
cubicle67
May I suggest packaging it as a dmg instead of a zip? Doesn't make much difference other than that's what's usually expected
jpcx01
I hate DMGs. I know it seems to be the most common way of installing stuff, but, really, what's the point? I have to mount, drag, unmount. Zip's automatically get extracted by Safari, and you just drag it where you want it (or launch it from Downloads). One step, vs 3 steps.

A short example: my uncle's been using a mac for 5 years and still has absolutely no idea how to install programs on mac because of this convoluted process. DMGs need to die.

mj1903
You make an interesting point although our target market for Evom is people who aren't necessarily the most competent at using their Macs. We may consider switching to DMGs in this instance... may being the key word. :)

Thanks for your feedback though!

dchest
Please continue using ZIP.
andrewf
I don't have a Mac in front of me to check, but isn't mount-after-download default behaviour for Safari?
CrazedGeek
Not only that, but if the app's the only thing in the DMG, it copies the app to the download folder then unmounts automatically.
Angostura
That's your opinion. But as another Mac user - dmg please.
Zev
Why use a dmg instead of a Zip? See Apple's docs, http://developer.apple.com/documentation/developertools/Conc...

Also, you could have taken 30 seconds in the past 5 years to explain to your uncle how to install Mac apps. Instead of, you know, ranting about how its convoluted the entire time. All you have to do is say "Double click it and drag and drop the file to /Applications." — Though thats irrelevant now, since Safari now handles dmg's with a .app the same as if it would when extracting a zip.

jpcx01
Gee, what a great idea. I've explained a hundred times. It doesn't stick.

An icon comes up, and people click on it. It's natural and there is no indication of what you've done wrong. Then later, they have no idea where the app went.

DMGs serve no practical purpose. They are confusing to new users, and wasted clicks for power users.

jpcx01
Btw, that apple link you pasted shows no such reason to use a DMG over a zip.

If I missed it, please explain.

Also funny how so many developers provide zipped dmgs.

dhimes
Clean site and nice design. I don't have a Mac so I can't comment on performance, but on your home page "Macs spare power" should be "Mac's spare power" under "Built for speed."
jpcx01
I love it. I can just drag my Youtube links from the browser address bar over to the Evom dock icon and it queues it up for download. It would be nice to be able to set a "default" capture type so it was automatic.

Also, some kind of bookmarklet would be nice. Maybe you can set your own system url handler which would make it easy to catch the links.

The popups are royally screwed up. There's no way to get rid of them (close). Examples are the beta notice, and the "Register..." popup.

Disparity
Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, there is a bookmarklet and we'll be adding it to the website soon (or straight into the app). If you want it now, add this to your bookmark bar:

javascript:document.location.href='evom://'+escape(document.location.href)

And we'll look into getting those popups fixed.

jawngee
A couple of things...

First, great app. Very useful.

But, since most of these videos are already H.264 mpeg-4's, why the need for the conversion step, instead of simply wrapping it up in a quicktime container (if you even need to do that)? Conversion is painfully slow.

The popup dialogs are annoying.

Is there a bookmarklet? That would be awesome.

costan
The conversion is useful so the videos take up less space on iPhones / iPods. I use TubeTV, and I definitely appreciate the feature, because most of my iPhone's memory is taken up by music videos off of YouTube right now.
Disparity
Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, there is a bookmarklet and we'll be adding it to the website soon (or straight into the app). If you want it now, add this to your bookmark bar:

javascript:document.location.href='evom://'+escape(document.location.href)

pieter
OK, after testing I have mixed thoughts. The interface is OK (though you really need a way to close the registration pane / beta warning), but the conversion process is painfully slow. It's been converting a 22 minute movie for the past 40 minutes now, and the bar is only at ~15%.

Also, do you really need the 'step 1 of 2' thing? Can't you just leave that out, and adjust the progress bar accordingly? Using multiple steps is confusing, as you have no idea how far the conversion really is.

pieter
OK, I'm going to stop this now. It's been running for more than 4 hours, and still isn't halfway through step 1.
jpcx01
Conversions stalled for me too. This app is busted
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kierank
You're using FFmpeg in there somewhere so you'll need to offer your copy of FFmpeg's source if you've used the LGPL version. If you've used the GPL version then your whole app will need to be GPL.
dchest
FFmpeg binary is compiled with "--enable-gpl". So yes, either author should recompile it with GPL disabled or release the source code of his application.

Anyway, with LGPL (I assume the point of your comment is educational, and you don't really need the source code for FFmpeg SVN-r17142), author can just provide instructions for downloading the source code for this revision from FFmpeg SVN, as written here: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#AnonFTPAndSendSourc...

kierank
Yes, assuming they haven't modified FFmpeg.
wolverian
He only needs to offer the ffmpeg sources is he has made any changes to them.
pingswept
Well-chosen name! If anyone ever creates a gripe site about your app called noevom.org, you can destroy their credibility by calling them nothing more than a front for moveon.org! Brilliant!
jarrodtaylor
How about making the 'add to iTunes' step optional? Laptops and large video collections just don't mix.
Zak
Very convenient, though I do have a feature request: make export as only audio an option. Yes, the most common use of that may not be entirely legitimate, but your users will want it. Trust me.
Disparity
Yes, we're adding that feature soon. Thanks for the feedback! :)
nick007
sweet app... i'd pay money for this
Disparity
Thanks for your valuable feedback. :P
ivankirigin
Can it convert avchd .mts files?

I'd love it if it did. One big reason to get a Flip over other camcorders is the ease of putting the vids online.

whughes
You should consider adding support for ripping mp3s/aac from the videos, if it's not there already. Besides the obvious pirated music part, there are the various amateur performances and talks which people might want to listen to from YouTube.
aupajo
Awesome icon, did you make it yourself or get it made?