We announced Multiplex back in October, and the IndyHall Labs team has finally wrapped up the app in a sparkling public beta for everyone to check out. What is Multiplex? It’s a beautifully visualised virtual library for your ripped DVD movies. Think of it like a much fancier iTunes, that was designed from the ground up for movies, movies and movies.
How it works
If you remember when Jobs demoed Core Animation for Leopard at WWDC 2007, it was a large AppleTV intro like UI, the thumbnails of which were searchable. Multiplex takes the same concept and applies it to your DVD collection. Of course, you will need to rip your DVDs first (it recognises a Video_TS folder) using any DVD ripping software but it works best with IndyHall Labs’ own “Ripit”.
Once a DVD has been ripped using Ripit, it automatically shows up in Multiplex. In fact, there’s no ‘add new’ or ‘import’ function in the entire app, it’s all ‘automagic’. You can then enter in the UPC code (found at the back of the DVD cover) or search for it by title. Both options work very well, I’m waiting to see how the upcoming Discident feature works for auto recognition of DVDs.
The UI splits out to full screen, from where you can search and watch as the virtual covers begin to swoosh all over. You can then take a look at the data that was pulled from Amazon for each of the movies that you have, including synopsis, actors and other such info. Found the movie you want to watch? Hit play, and sit back as it loads in the Apple DVD player.
The Future is where it’s at
As of right now, Multiplex is just a pretty face over your movie collection, but they’ve got some great features in the pipeline. The 1.0 version will bring in groups (or automatic grouping), move ‘views’, network support, and the Discident service. The 1.1 version on the other hand will add streaming to PS3s, networks, and support for other media formats.
Who is it for?
If you have a lot of DVDs, Multiplex will put things in order. Buy yourself a cheap external hard drive and rip all your DVDs there. The UI is slick, and well laid out so it won’t get in your way of movie watching. If on the other hand you don’t have a large DVD collection, I’d suggest you wait out a play the field for a bit. The devs are promising support for other media, so we’ll have to wait and see how that works out. Although, for now, even if you don’t care about movies, you must check out this app, as it is a benchmark for spiffy Core Animation effects.
Note that the current price of $25 will only last till it’s in beta, after which it will go up to $35 for a single user license, so you’re gonna have to make that decision quick. A fully featured 7 day trial is available for both Ripit and Multiplex.
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