Product Reviews

The boom in digital camera ownership means asset management is no longer just a phrase used in professional design circles: home users want to catalogue, organise and share their media files too. It's with this growing home market in mind that iView has released Media, a cut-down version of its high-end MediaPro asset management tool.

Media works in the same way as its more expensive sibling: both cataloguing systems make a reference point which refers to the original file, rather than storing a copy of it, which keeps database size small. In terms of appearance there is little to tell them apart either: both feature a near-identical Catalog window, with a tabbed palette that toggles between thumbnail views. An Information bar on the left shows details of a selected item, such as EXIF information for a catalogued digital snapshot.

Even though iView Media is less than a third of the price of MediaPro, few features have been dropped. Those that are absent won't be missed by home users; Media can't catalogue native DTP files from InDesign, QuarkXPress or Illustrator, and AppleScript support appears to have been stripped from this version. Also, while both programs let you backup to CD and create Web galleries, you can't use your own HTML templates for the Web gallery.

Using QuickTime's import engine means iView can work with any file QuickTime can cope with - which means you can organise and preview

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MP3 audio files or DV video. The Mac OS X version also offers PDF support.

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On the value front, iView Media encounters tough opposition: Apple's free and ubiquitous iPhoto. Why would anyone trade iPhoto's integration advantages for a commercial product?

If you're dealing exclusively with imported images, it's hard to ignore iPhoto's seamless integration. In comparison, Media's method is clever, but circuitous: you must specify iView Media as the supporting application in OS X's Image Capture menu; you can them set iView Media to automatically delete camera images as they are imported. Equally, there are no image-editing tools in iView Media, although you can edit an original file by double-clicking its thumbnail, which opens the file in a third-party graphics application.

However, iView Media has two points in its favour, aside from the fact it isn't restricted to OS X users. First, its speed, which is impressive even before you pit it against the lumbering behemoth that is iPhoto. Second, its versatility. Not only can iView Media deal with a far greater number of file formats - 70 in all - but it's more flexible: while iPhoto's folder structure is strict, arcane and confusing, Media lets you create any number of discrete databases, and even allows you to keep images on external volumes, so you can keep track of images you've archived to CD. Best of all you can filter importation by a range of categories including media type, file size or name, so you can drop a folder of mixed files into a catalogue knowing only those matching the criterion you specify will be logged. Original images can also be organised through a batch rename feature, which can replace the inscrutable naming convention adopted by most digital cameras.

Sharp-eyed buyers might notice that Media's asking price isn't much less than that of MediaPro when it was released, but that doesn't alter this program's value for money: iView Media is the best low-cost asset management tool around.