Any chance of some feedback on how development is progressing on Universal Binary version of Snapz Pro X?

Thanks in advance
NCAJ

Hello-
No real news to report as of yet.

Doesn't sound too hopeful for a release in the short term...Would you recommend those who are holding off on projects which need to be completed in the next month or so to seek an alternate method of screen capture?

All the best
NCAJ

Hello-
I don't believe the update is going to be ready within the next month - though that is completely a guess on my part.

I do hate to say it, but if you are able to find another solution, that may be the way to go for you.

Hello David

Thanks for the honest answer, looks like it's a Windoze solution for me in the short term as nothing comes close to Snapz functionality on Mac OS.

I assume all registered users will be notified when beta or final release available?

Best of luck with your development efforts.

All the best
NCAJ

why not using iShowU.... maybe better than SnapzPro... and already UNIVERSAL... :


http://ishowu.cloudnine.net.nz/iShowU/Home.html

Hello-
Welcome to the Ambrosia forums. Nice way to make a good first impression.

I think SP X will compare quite favorably to this application - Universal Binary or not.

I fully disagree. iShowU is leagues ahead in terms of functionality for doing video captures in OS X. I gave up on SnapzPro because it took forever to go from capture to capture. You do a 20 minute capture and you're stuck there unable to do a damn thing for an hour or more. I asked for a queue to put compression off for later and it was never added in two plus years. I got annoying audio clicks when I used by PBG4 to do the captures.

With iShowU as soon as I click finish, I have a complete capture and can go again. The temp files aren't some voodoo proprietary form that can't be resurrected when SnapzPro crashes once again. SnapzPro has had zero improvements since v.1. Bug fixes are rare and usually only a partial fix requiring end users do the dirty work. I'd love for Snapz Pro to function as it should, but it never has and with this non-existant development cycle it likely never ever will.

Thanks pixel_ for the suggestion.

Hello-
Sorry SP X was not the solution for you.

We'll take your feedback into consideration.

We will be implementing batch processing in the next major revision of SP X. It's taken this long to implement because the way SP X works now it's going to take a major amount of engineering to accomplish and it's a feature only a small group of users want. Those users who do want it almost need it, but the vast majority of the users out there aren't making batches of movies on a daily basis. We have to balance the use of our resources vs the needs of our user base.

And as for the audio clicks while recording, if you have any interest I'd be glad to work with you on a solution.

The clicking is either coming from internal audio in which case it would be in the Mac audio track, or it's picking up some kind of hardware click in the Mic track. Recording a movie with one and then the other would determine which track and help determine the source.

I did a few test runs with IShowU, and it's a decent little app. It only records either a Mic track or a Mac audio track, not both (unless I'm missing something). I couldn't seem to get more than a bit over 7fps and I'm on a dual 2.7G G5 with a lot of shearing, and no access to the settings for each codec, but if you're on an Intel Mac and need to record the Mac Audio, IShowU may be the way to go. Of course I hate to say that, and I'm not happy that we don't have a Universal Binary of SP X out the door, but we began our update/development cycle based on Apple's scheduled release dates of the Intel Macs. We're working as fast as we can, my wishes can't make our programmers work any faster.

Keep in mind, Adobe won't be releasing Universal Binaries for quite some time, and even Apple's own Final Cut Pro isn't Universal Binary yet. And yes, Adobe products and FCP are far more complex and larger pieces of software than Snapz Pro X, but Adobe is that much larger than Ambrosia and has teams of engineers. Apple of course is also larger with teams of engineers, and they also have the benefit of knowing what Apple is actually going to do, not what they've announced they're going to do.

[edited for improved attitude and better customer service]

[edited again to address nit picky posts that have been deleted]

Thanks.

Hello-
You're welcome.

Hello David

Over a month has gone by since my last request for a progress report on Snapz Pro X for Intel, any news?

Many thanks
NCAJ

Hello-
I'm afraid not.

If you like, send me an email to help@AmbrosiaSW.com with the subject Intel Snapz Notify or something similar and I'll send you an email as soon as I have news.

I understand the above perfectly. But what I think a lot of users would appreciate is some kind of time schedule. It doesn't have to be 100% accurate but I think most users of Snapz Pro X would like to know whether the universal binary version will be ready within the next 2 months or in the third quarter of 2007 :-)

Cheers,

Søren Ladegaard
Owner of www.thinkcommodore.com

Recent apple convert, trying to put together videos for our 'guides' to the video game my guild plays (WoW).
Was referred to Snapz, saw that the intel macs are not supported.
Does it plain just not work or are certain features broken/*odd* ?
Thanks

Well, the mouse pointer is yellow or just outlined. I think you can't record Mac audio. But recording from the line/mic works fine.

At least that's what I've heard.

Hello:

I do not wish to sound harsh or unduly critical - but I am concerned. I've been using Snapz Pro X and previous versions for years. Snapz Pro X has been lacking in its development and has had has fallen behind in its Mac OS X support (capturing menu headings is a clear example that has been a problem since 10.3 (or 10.4??)).

Through this thread and others I've learned that Snapz Pro is developed by someone outside of Ambrosia who, it appears, is uneven in his/her commitment to this product.

Ambrosia may market terrific gaming software, but Snapz Pro is an important business application. As I see it, there are not any alternatives (perhaps there's a business opportunity here) that match Snapz Pro X in functionality just as Snapz Pro X is severly lacking similar programs on the Windows side.

This thread has gone on long too long. Even putting aside the Intel transition, as I mentioned, there are other issues that have been long outstanding without any timetable for rectification. I count on Snapz Pro X for business reasons - and my business has been held-up due to this ongoing delay.

I'm looking for some sort of timetable and a commitment from Ambrosia. If that's not coming, I'm looking for alternatives.

Wayne

I second that. There are people who rely on me to make some tutorials. I want to make credible and dependable promises. I think a good software company should be able to deliver a dependable timetable, too.

Best regards,
Christian Meermann

Hello-
I'd love to be able to give a firm timetable or release date for the Intel compatible version of SP X, but I just can't make a promise that I may not be able to keep.

Snapz Pro X is written by Andrew Welch, the president of Ambrosia. There is some outside input, but he is the lead developer on it, and always has been.

I'll notify him of this thread, and see if he is able to give at least an estimate of the release date.

When Apple announced the Intel machines, we began planning our development cycle based on their announced schedule.

Andrew began working on a major rewrite of SP X that would be universal binary and also have a whole slew of feature upgrades.

As soon as he got elbow deep into the update, we began to hear rumors that the Intel machines would be out sooner than announced.

When it became clear the Intel machines would be out much sooner than announced, he redoubled his efforts but the update was still a long way off.

What to do? Keep working on the update, or put it on hold, go back and try to make a Universal Binary of SP X as it was, or keep slogging away on the update as scheduled? Keep in mind, SP X runs very close to the metal - it's *very* dependent on the hardware and architecture of the system for that hardware, so updating SP X to universal binary is way more involved than just a recompile.

Also, with software development, once a certain amount of momentum has been generated, it's very difficult to put things away, go back, and virtually start over from the beginning.

That said, the UB, feature updated version of SP X just wasn't going to be ready for some time. So the developer has gone back to the original code base and is working on making that version fully functional under Rosetta. As soon as this version has been released, he can go back and finish the UB version of SP X 2.

Please keep in mind that Adobe isn't going to be releasing a UB version of Photoshop until sometime next year, and Apple's own Final Cut Pro isn't Universal Binary yet either. Yes, both of those programs are far larger and more complex than SP X, but both Apple and Adobe are significantly larger than Ambrosia, and have much more resources at their disposal to dedicate to a project.

I do apologize for the frustration you are all going through and feel the pain of all early adapters, but we are working as hard as we can and want this update out the door easily as much as our customers.



Hello-
The kernel extension SP X relies on to record Mac audio is not compatible, so SP X cannot record Mac audio with movies. It should be able to record from a microphone or line in. The only workaround would be to take a line from the audio out (headphone jack) on the Mac, and feed that back into the audio in (microphone jack) of the Mac and record Mac audio as a Microphone track.

If the movie guides option is checked in the Movie palette, the vertical lines of the guide will appear as a series of lines in the movie. The only workaround would be to take a line from the audio out (headphone jack) on the Mac, and feed that back into the audio in (microphone jack) of the Mac and record Mac audio as a Microphone track.

Cursors in movies are hollow. We do not have a workaround for this problem.

Could I possibly trouble someone for a link or directions to the instructions for SX?
The FAQ says to look in the read me, but all I have is the application itself (still learning the Mac OS so i'm clueless to were read me files and other such things get stored during install).

edit:
duh, nevermind, i just saw the snapxpro icon in the applications folder and thought it was the app itself.

Wow...I hate to say "give me a break", but give me a break! Everyone knew that the dates that Steve Jobs originally announced were much later than they were actually going to release the Intel Macs. This was speculated from day one and all signs pointed (ironically enough) to the proper time period and the "rumors" got more and more accurate as time went one. This is nothing but a major oversight on your part. I am not a current user of this product but I was looking for a solution to the problem your application aims to solve. Unfortunately, due to your short-sightedness I think you will lose a lot of customers to iShowU. Even if your product is ahead of it at the moment it won't be for long if you continue your current development mentality. The fact that they have a Universal Binary and you don't shows that they have a much tighter development cycle and likely a more responsive development team. It's time to quit making excuses and get some code out the door.

David,

Give Andrew our best cheers!

I mainly wanted to say that Final Cut Pro, the Suite actually, has been Universal for well over a month now, maybe 2. I have it on my G5 and all of the apps report they are Universal.

I certainly would not compare myself to Photoshop either. Those just sound like excuses. We don't need excuses, just assurances that there will be a SXP for Intel.

I do miss it - I've had times I could not make progress movies this spring until I got home, much to the boss' chagrin

Keep up the good work!

Hello-
It's hard to argue with a lot of what you're saying.



Hello-
I'll give Andrew your regards.

I guess the FCP and Photoshop reference does come off poorly - pointing at others to justify our mistakes isn't a good way to go, doubly so since I was incorrect.

We still need some kind of estimate as to when a working version will be ready for Mac with Intel chips (even if it's under Rosetta). Will it be this summer? The end of the year? Next year?
We use SnapzPro extensively at Freevlog and need to make some kind of arrangements to deal with this. This isn't an early adopter issue. The only Macs you can buy with PPC chips are the G5 towers and the XServe. I just upgraded my old PowerBook to a MacBook Pro and Photoshop, to use your example, works fine and my universal copy of Final Cut Pro is on it's way. It looks like I'll have to keep my old machine around just for SnapzPro. I'd just like to have some idea how long that might be.
Thanks

Hello-
An estimate on my part is before the end of summer. That is an estimate, but I think a good one.

Thanks!

well, way i see it, with wiretap 1.20 out, snapz pro has already been updated. Use Pacifist to install extension from wiretap and snapz works fine in recording mac audio from intel mac...

This doesn't work here. I installed WireTap, logged off and on again and started capturing. SnapZ Pro let me at least seelct the "Mac audio" setting, but it didn't record anything. The movie remained absolutely silent.

Take care,
Christian

I find iShowU way too slow for video frame capture, so for me snapz is the only option. I am anxiously waiting for the Intel version which I will purchase as soon as available.

I think you should show a little more respect. No one knew the Intel Macs would ship when they did, although I would point out that Steve didn't say when they would ship, only that they would start shipping by a given date, and many people correctly assumed they should ship before that. On the other hand, some people assumed it would be closer to the "by" date than it was.



I take it from your tone that you've never been guilty of an oversight or misjudgement. Is that correct?



Misjudgements and unanticipated challenges on the part of Ambrosia aside, your comments are mean-spirited and that isn't warranted. No one at Ambrosia is trying to cheat anyone or disappoint anyone. Okay, so they didn't anticipate something as well as they could have. Apple's done the same thing. Remember when they didn't have any iMacs to sell for a while? Remember Copeland? It sounds like folks at Ambrosia doing their best to deliver the best product they can, and fussing at them as if they've done something despicable isn't warranted or going to get anything released any faster. Sometimes it just takes as long as it takes. Sometimes you encounter issues that take longer to resolve than you expected, and the fact that some other developer may have his product out before you doesn't change what you have to do or how much time you have to do it. Ambrosia has more than one product. It may be that Andrew has more on his plate than the author of iShowU since that's the only product listed on their site. Let's stop judging and comparing and let them work.

I always find it funny when people who've never used something lay out that many complaints.

Now, in all politeness there have been a few worthwhile notes brought up in this topic. I've noticed that the 2.02 version of Snapz, despite the various bug reports and whatnot, hasn't received an update in quite some time. Simple features that could have made it into the code base (bypassing the setup screens on keypresses to take movies or images according to default settings would be an easy one to implement and I'm surprised that feature wasn't in the 1.x releases) are "considered" but without any upgrades or some sort of indication on development I can understand why other paid customers, like myself, sometimes feel their money went the wrong direction.

There are other things... the audio has never worked for me, in that no matter the settings or how little is going on on-screen it always goes out of sync. (I get around it by redubbing movies in iMovie, which also allows creative recutting of audio, so in all actuality this bug doesn't bother me so much.) The aforementioned writing of frames to an internal format which is often unrecoverable after user or program errors is fairly galling.

Even so, I still love Snapz for the things it does well (and it does them better than nearly anything I've come across yet). I'm not on the intel bandwagon, so I could care less about a universal binary, but the old bugs do concern me, as does the slow development cycle. If there's only one developer I can understand why these things are the way they are. I assume that you also don't currently have the resources to put another developer on the project to help him out?

One last thing: this upgrade -- will it be a for-pay one or not? I don't recall seeing that part mentioned. If the dev period goes longer and irons out the bugs, but the upgrade is $20, I could probably be persuaded into forking that cash over. (Over $20 would be a deal-breaker, and the closer to $10 you got, the more exponentially agreeable I'd become.) Also, if you need a beta tester with a 1.33GHz powerbook g4 12", hit me up. And while I fell off the map trying to get my last issue ironed out (where recording video in Blender stalls at random intervals, locking the program without warning, only to restart as if nothing has happened), I'd be happy to take a crack at getting it working too. I'll start a new BB post for that, though.

Hi!

My personal opinion: I would NOT pay for a "compatibility" update that enables SnapZ to run on Intel Macs but doesn't add new features.

As for beta testers, I offered my service quite a while ago but never received an answer. This does either mean they don't want (or need) beta testers or that there is no version of the app anywhere near beta status.

Take care,
Christian

Christian,

I understand where you are coming from, however, as a developer (who released a free Intel update), I do support charging for these kind of updates.

1) Ambrosia did not force you to buy a new mac
2) Ambrosia did not force you to upgrade to os 10.x which might break their app

In general it is good CS to offer these updates for free, but on the other hand, sometimes this work is immense and people have to eat while they scramble to support new hardware/operating systems.

I was just migrating to my new MacBook and thought I'd go over my apps and find out which ones are incompatible. The number is surprisingly low, but I certainly understand that some developers need more time for the Intel migration. Still, I hope "end of summer" will be soon, in this respect. I guess I'll have our G5 when doing screen captures for the coming weeks.

Good luck on your endeavors.

Hello,

upgrade work for Intel is hard work for hardware-near apps. It will take some time and this is OK with me. For the upgrade charges: Only when new features are included. It is the responsibility of the developer to keep the product up-to-date with latest operating systems, otherwise he will lose most of his customers and not get new ones. This work has to be part of the original price-calculation of the product.

I do not mind to be charged for new major features, though.


Thanks,

Jan Fuellemann

I haven’t bought Snapz jet but are interested in doing so. As the Intel Macs are out and a upcomming version of SnapZ is already announced, I would like to know, if I have to pay for an upgrade to the new version, if I buy SnapZ today. In other words: is there something like grace period and if has it started already?

Thanks for any answer.

Hello-
This next update will be free. We only charge for upgrades when we do major feature enhancements.

Hello David

It's now over 3 months since I originally started this thread, any news?

Best regards
NCAJ

Hi David,

Just wanted to tell you THANK YOU. Having read this forum has answered all my questions. Keep up the work, your product is the best and I have no doubt that the update and/or new features will be coming soon.

Oh, and by the way, iShowU stinks!

Have a great summer.

Sincerely,

-Tim

Just want you folks at Ambrosia to know here's one more person eagerly awaiting the update. Like many, I didn't ask for an Intel Mac -- it's what was available when the company had money to buy tools with. I didn't come to complain, just to add my voice to those yearning to have solid capture abilities once again. In my work, I sometimes am called on to make screen caps of on-screen video for teachers to use -- it's fair use, there aren't many ways to get it done, and until I got the Intel Mac, I knew I could rely on Snapz Pro X 2. Best wishes for a successful Intel version.

1 more thing: if I understand posts in this thread, it would be possible for me to make screen capture movies on my Intel Mac, but I wouldn't have audio, or the cursor. I plan to try that soon, since there are some occasions where I can find a workaround that I can use. In that case, I thank you so much for keeping this thread up so I can see what's possible for now.

Hello Devid the Administrator
Thank you for your Excellent work, I love SnapzPro very much.
It's from Japan and I'm japanese. This colum takes for hours to understand, I have no good at english.
I use it for making online manuals with screen shots in my own detabase programs on FileMakerPro8. And sometimes snatch still-pictures of DVD movies for CD labelling (Apple's Grab in iBookG4 won't work while DVD playing, as you know).
So I only want SnazsPro to take fine screenshot. I cannot understand about movie caputuring problems.

Now I use MacBook Core Duo and your SnapzPro work well on OSX10.4.6. I know you anounced it's not copatible to Intel, I miss that "SnapzPro menu" and miss "selected area capture", (Do you guess what, sorry I use japanese version and don't know accurate naming). Without showing menu options, full screen snapshots appears on desktop as png format with numbered PICTURE, I handle them with Adobe Image Ready to shape up and no problem. (SnapZPro works well on 10.4.7.)
...PS. Is it just a buildin function of OSX by shift+commmand+3 keys? Anyway SnapzPro appears on startups and it had accepted last license code change normally. I was believing that these screen captures ware of SnapzPro.

Recently I had a problem on MacBook itself. OSX10.4.7 intel updater harms "KOTOERI" , Apple's standard japanese front end processor. After updating, Japanese characters won't show up on time after key punching.
Some says underlining applications can make improper updateing. So that I search about SnapzPro, my only underlining application.

Do you know something about problems with SnapzPro and 10.4.7 Intel updater and Japanese language? If so, please show me.

Sorry for everyone, IT'S BAD JAPANESE ENGLISH, I know.

Diver_aki from Japan

David

Just like NCAJ, I'm also curious...any news from the western front?

Cheers

Dan

Would like to buy SnapzPro to record Windows sessions via Parallels... but Parallels requires Intel and Snapz requires PPC.

Chalk up another potential buyer waiting for the Intel version.

I'm going to have to buy some crappy Windows software instead (I've trialled it, it's crappy, but I have no choices here).

Macintosh announced that the Intel chips would be available in the middle of the year, so I can understand you software not being ready at the start of the year. But it’s past the middle of the year and we don’t have a shipping date yet.

I’ve tried other screen caputure (ishowU, snapngrab) they are nowhere near as nice to use as Snapz Pro, so I’m going have to continue to wait. I’m frustrated with the waiting... Can’t you please tell us a bit more than you are at the moment?

It seems the support staff has decided not to answer such questions anymore. I have no idea why. This reminds me of overstrained (correct word?) restaurant personnel who prefer to ignore their customers that just want to order a meal. That's just bad and unwise behaviour. If you want to keep people calm, talk to them! Be friendly. Show sympathy. Explain the problems. Ask for understanding. Not once, not twice, but as often as people demand it! That's polite and that is clever.

I have purchased iShowU recently, and I tend to use it for my Macintosh motion screen captures. It is not half as good as SnapZ, but it works for this purpose. If you had been a bit more diplomatic at the forums, I might have held my money back. I am using using the Screenshot Plus widget for my still screen captures.

You have already lost 50% of this customer. The other 50% will go as iShowU evolves. But maybe you don't really care...

Take care,
Christian

If ASW had anything new to say they would.

Agreed. It might get a little repetitive seeing David Dunham being the poster every other post saying the same thing: "Before the end of the summer."

We need an update please.

It was great to hear that you thought the Intel version would be done by the end of summer. Now as we approach the end of summer we haven't heard any more news. Is the end of summer still a reliable time frame? If things are on track, can you give us an estimated ship date yet? Do you need some Beta testers? I, like many others, rely on this software and are keeping older machines around just for the purpose of running it. Please communicate with us.

Thanks,
Michael Verdi

Maybe you guys are at WWDC getting some help?

What's the deal?

Please let us know.

I say you use all your technical support incidents for Snapz Pro X! ;p