Infuse pro 7 and beyond (payment)

Just to clarify a bit, this is as long as you haven’t already used a free trial to Infuse before. If a user has tried the subscription and received a free month or year before they can’t do another free trial.

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You don’t pay for that one.

When another one comes out, it’s no good.

You pay for a version if it’s 7 while it’s 7 is yours when it goes to 8, you’ll still be on 7.

I’ll be on 4 and 5.

If you purchase lifetime subscription it will cover all new versions 8,9,10…Because of the removal of standalone versions (like 6 Pro) there will be no one stuck on v7 when 8 comes out.

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8 years…. Who knows if Apple will still exist in 8 years.

It‘s a kind of bet.

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Well, that’s it now!

Because that wasn’t so.

You paid for only one.

The first time they started with subscriptions I think it was from 5 I bought the 4 for life and then it wasn’t true.

I wouldn’t trust me.

You better not bet :sweat_smile:

I paid for 4 for life and for life was up to version 5 :rofl:

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To clarify this. The in-app options in the free Infuse app (5.0 and later) have all included free automatic updates for future releases.

There have also been standalone paid apps (EG ‘Infuse Pro 6’) which include updates until the next major release.

With Infuse 7, there is now just one way to purchase Pro, and that is through the free Infuse 7 app. This will cover all future updates, even major releases.

First, a few quick questions:

I’m currently using Infuse 6 Pro (standalone) on an AppleTV HD (4th gen). If I install the ‘free’ version of Infuse 7, will it co-exist happily with the standalone v6? That is, will I end up with two separate & working versions to choose from, each using their own library etc & not interfering with each other - or will it replace, corrupt the library of, or otherwise render the existing installation of v6 inoperable?

Also, glad to see there’s plans to update v6 for when TVDB drops their old API. I also see that there’s playback issues with the TVOS 15 beta. If those issues are due to a permanent change in Apple’s APIs, will v6 standalone also see an update to continue working when TVOS 15 is released?

And is there a list of differences between the free and subscription versions of v7 available? I seem to recall there was for 5 & 6, but I can’t find anything beyond the vague “Additional video formats”, “HD quality audio”, etc mentioned on the Features page.

Secondly, a bit of a rant:

I’m not a regular visitor to either the Firecore website or these forums, so the release of v7 took me by surprise when I learned of it the other day. Even more so when I discovered that the stand-alone version had been dropped.

Put simply, I will not buy subscription software. Nothing against @James or Firecore; I’ve just been burnt too many times before with so-called ‘lifetime’ subscriptions that aren’t, subscriptions that stop working when the company closes or loses interest, and ‘updates’ that remove ‘little-used’ functionality I use or have become reliant on. Because of that, I’ll be sticking to Infuse 6 Pro (standalone) until it stops working - unless the free version of 7, or one of the alternatives I’m currently investigating, pans out.

That said, Infuse suits my use-case much better than the others I’ve tried so far (though Emby comes close). I could almost convince myself to treat a lifetime subscription as a one-off purchase, except for a few things like:

  • The price. ~$100 in my local currency; about 1/2 the cost of an AppleTV HD. The fact that there’s no discount for a lifetime sub, while those who choose a monthly or yearly sub get a free month/year, also rubs me the wrong way.
  • No guarantee of continued operation. It’s been clearly stated that, if a monthly/yearly sub lapses, Infuse will stop working (or fall back to the free version?). What happens when Firecore folds, gets absorbed, or changes direction, & Infuse is no longer available? Will existing subscribers - including those who’ve paid for ‘lifetime’ subscriptions - be able to continue using the software with all the facilities they’ve paid for for the period they’ve paid for? Or will the same mechanism that limits monthly/annual subscriptions cause everything to stop working? I can accept that any software may stop working or lose features as my hardware/OS changes, but I can’t accept that even potentially happening at the whim of the developer.
  • Asked-for features not implemented. For example, alternate sort orders, user-defined custom media types, and multi/combined episode handling are biggies for me. Some of those feature requests are 6 years old and yet to be addressed.
  • Partly-implemented features. There’s a few I’ve found over the last couple of years, but one notable one I struck the other day is that searching for people (cast or crew) only returns results from movies, not TV. Don’t know if anyone’s ever reported that.
  • There’s a few other things - particularly around documentation (e.g. for custom metadata and series/episode images) - which should really be fixed and made clear. Yeah, no-one reads the documentation, including me - except when they’re trying to see if something’s possible, or trying to make it work.

Anyway, here endeth the rant. I’m under no illusions that this’ll change anyone’s mind, but I figured I’d say it anyway. I hope the answers to my initial questions are “yes”, so I can at least evaluate the free version of v7 and continue to use v6 in the future.

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I believe you can have the two running at the same time just note that iCloud won’t sync between them.

If you can use both versions at once I have 5.6 and 7 but don’t buy for life they’ll never fulfill it.

He’ll ask you to pay again.

And the 6Pro is the best version there is now the 7Pro doesn’t work well anymore.

Continue with the 6Pro or wait for the problems to be solved, usually they don’t fix it. They stay the way the version comes out.

I used beta 7Pro but I stopped trying to see that many black screen problems and non-fluid reproduction are not fixed.

And there’s no improvement at least the most important ones haven’t fixed it.

That’s a shame.

Continue with 6Pro when and don’t pay for 7Pro when it works will have expired the year of subscription!

You can use both at the same time. However, on Apple TV if you launch something from the ‘Top Shelf’ it may open the other version depending on how the Apple TV feels that day.

After the initial iCloud import when installing v7 there will be no syncing between versions.

If a permanent change is required, it will likely be included when the TMDb change is rolled out. It will be fixed in the next update for Infuse 7, which should be out within the next week.

The TMDb change was original slated to be done in the spring and this is why we made the decision to back port the change to v6 (having Infuse 6 break so quickly after the release of v7 would have been weird). TheTVDB shutdown got pushed out to October, but we’re sticking with the decision to back port this to v6.

The Pro features in v6 and v7 are largely the same. However, Infuse 7 already has quite a few differences between v6, and a running list of all changes can be found here.

We try to communicate things as best we can. This was first announce on our blog in November, and we also sent out an email with this info in February alongside the release of Infuse 6.6. Apple doesn’t share personal any personal details about those who download apps with developers, but we do the best we can with trying to reach people.

There’s a range of feelings with regard to subscriptions, but Infuse is constantly being improved so with a yearly subscription you sort of get to decide if what we’ve added in the past year has been enough to earn your decision to renew. The lifetime license is available as well if you’re looking for a one-time payment

The lifetime license is not for everyone. Most people choose the monthly or yearly option.

I guess this is a risk with any company. If a company goes away, and the app is left unmaintained it will likely stop working at some point anyways.

IMHO, we have a track record of constant development (see release note link above) which you’re not going to find from most independent app developers on the App Store.

On the other hand, there have been quite a few which have been added. :slight_smile:

We’ve recently worked to organize the suggestions area a bit better, and combine multiple threads on similar topics. A tag system has also been added to give more insight onto what may be coming in a future update.

There is an existing thread in suggestions for this particular feature.

There is limited support for adding custom metadata for TV episodes, but the artwork is fully customizable. Info on this can be found in this guide.

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

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When I bought version 4Pro it was clear forever but it was not fulfilled then its policy changed.

This could happen with the 8th or 9pro deciding that it’s not worth the lifetime version of 7Pro.

This happened to me and you will say “is that I change the policy to subscription”

This could happen in 8Pro or 9Pro.

I wouldn’t trust me.

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The Lifetime option was first made available in December 2017 as part of Infuse 5.6.4.

If your invoice from Apple says Lifetime, it really means lifetime. :slight_smile:

No, I’m just getting to 6.

We must not keep talking about this, I am used to Infuse’s problems, many years already with Infuse and you do not fulfill.

I’ll be at 4 and all.

Technical service is good people give you some coupon and help you, but it’s not the solution I just want it to work.

I love the App but the 7 goes very wrong in appletv and on iPhone, I don’t use it anymore.

I don’t know when you’ll fix it.

And the life-long purchase thing never comes true.

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Still no Infuse Pro 7 available as one-time purchase?

OK, looking for alternatives now…

@james You need us, but we don’t need you. Think about it.

Oh, and thank you for preventing to install Infuse 6 Pro on my Apple Silicon Mac.

That’s bad style and bad advertising…

As far as now there is no one-time purchase option, is there any way getting Pro7 and paying the fee every year, at some moment stop the updating to the new version, keeping regular payment to keep everything working, but to stop the automatic update. Very often the new version may cancel the wanted features and add unwanted. Please advice.

Pay the lifetime fee and disable automatic updates.

No way if yearly?

It’s a subscription so once the yearly is up your pro will revert to the free edition.