Watch, Identify, and Organize

Usher uses Apple's QuickTime technology, so it can play back any media file that you can watch in QuickTime Player. For media files that aren't directly supported by QuickTime, Usher allows you to choose an external player, such as IINA or VLC. You can watch video in Usher's main window, in a separate window, or in full-screen mode. In the first two modes, you can choose between the QuickTime-style hovering controls, or fixed controls outside the playback area.

Once your collection has reached a certain size, watching becomes difficult without some way of identifying individual media files…and this task is one of Usher's strengths. You can use Tags to help categorize movies, much like you use keywords in Photos to organize photos. Beyond Tags, Usher's Properties are multiple-value fields that can, for instance, store the entire cast for a movie in one Property. If your media files have existing metadata, such as Cast or Director, from a tool such as Subler, Usher can read those fields, too.

Usher also includes a free-form auto-expanding Notes field, so if you like to keep notes about your media files, you can store a near-limitless amount of text for each one. This text is fully searchable, too, meaning you can use the Notes field in Smart Playlists.

For the ultimate in organization, you can sort your media files into folders, and/or use playlists and Smart Playlists to create filtered lists based on Tags, Properties, and other values like last playback date.

Playlists and Smart Playlists in Usher work just like they do in Music and Photos, so if you're comfortable there, you'll be right at home in Usher. But the best part is that Smart Playlists can even be automatically subdivided by metadata fields you select, as seen in the Recently Added playlist in the screenshot.

With the power of Smart Playlists and subdivisions, your media file collection can be as organized as you want it to be—and as you add new media files and metadata, those files will automatically be properly organized.

Usher is created by Many Tricks.