Looking for: (personal) video database app

[ScottR]

I want to organize a large collection of personal videos--that is, not commercial movies.

I already have them sort-of organized in folders, but I want to be able to further organize them, mainly by keywords and such things. I don't need (or want) the app to be able to access online sources for info, since there's obviously no director/actor information--it's just stuff I've recorded over the past fifteen or so years.

I'd been using Usher, which had come closest to do what I wanted, but the developer (Many Tricks) stopped developing it a year ago, in part because it was based on QuickTime--not QuickTime X but the previous version--and since QuickTime wasn't being updated the developer decided to stop updating Usher rather than rewrite it.

One of the things I liked about Usher was being able to create Properties each containing unique keywords. That is, instead one giant field of Keywords where you had to stick everything (location, names, features) even they didn't relate to each other, you could create a distinct searchable Properties, such as Location, which would then have its own Keywords (San Francisco, London, etc.).

That's what I'm looking for: a way to organize my own stuff and not films or TV shows, which is what the video databases I've seen do. I don't need it to play videos: I'm fine if I can use the app to open the video in an external player.

Any ideas?

 

[Dave Braine]

Here are some to look at:
https://www.shedworx.com/cosmos-video

http://ivideoapp.com

http://www.xericdesign.com/cinematica.php

 

[BrianBaughn]

Have you tried Plex?

 

[ricosuave]

Have you tried the built in Photos app?

 

[ScottR]

Aside from being slow and clumsy Plex is pretty much useless for sorting such personal videos, especially with the sorting requirements I mentioned. I'd ripped all of my DVDs to my hard drive to free up space, and I've used Plex for that library, but I'm not a fan at all.

I'd bought Cinematica not long ago for other purposes but stopped using it; I updated my copy and tried again. It also has poor Keyword support--you can't organize them in any way, just have them all jumbled together in a single field.

I'd tried iVideo quite a way back, so I downloaded the current version to see how it's faring. As far as I can tell its keywording (called here "Tags") is even less robust than Cinematica's.

I hadn't been familiar with Cosmos, so I took a look. The manual said something about "Keywords are supported by the use of a Keyword hierarchy that can be created and navigated around in a similar way to the Album view." I had no idea what that meant so I tried the "Free download" link but the download won't start on its own and trying it manually gives a 404 error.

On a lighter note, since posting I happened to contact Usher's developer and was happily told: "We hope to have a 64-bit update out, so you can still use it in 10.14 this fall ... and we have plans to bring it back in some form in the future."

To give you an idea of what I was trying to replace, here's a shot (from the developer's site) of Usher's keyword support:

Those are just the defaults: all of those property categories can be added to, deleted, and customized, so instead of Cast/Director/Episode I can substitute those things I'd mentioned and more: I can have a Location field and populate it whatever places I need, and fields for whatever other identifying categories I need.

What distinguishes this from Cinematica, etc., is three things: one, instead of the keywords being jumbled all together, they're organized by what category they belong to; two, they auto-complete, which not only makes typing quicker it also ensures consistency of spelling, and three, having those categories preset is a prompt to ensure I fill out each one, and don't than forget to add a particular identifier. Plus I can use the Tags field for miscellaneous descriptors.

So, with some hope restored, I'm going to try to hang on to Usher for as long as possible and hope they do resume developing it.