Maintained by: R. Mark Fleming. Your comments and suggested changes are welcome. e-mail me at: markf@kagi.com.
Contributers are many, including Apple's great QuickTime Team.
If you don't find an answer here, you can/should also search the list archives (http://public.lists.apple.com/search.html before posting a question.
hint: start the search clause with '+quicktime-talk' for only this list's postings.
Help, Setup and Updates: Still Images: Internet Based Media: Authoring:
History:
15 Feb 2000 - Created by RMF
2 Mar 2000 - Added links to documentation for content developers and mor SMIL info.
7 Mar 2000 - Added information about other related list, and targeting the QuickTime Player
14 May 2000 - Added inforamtion about Still images, MPEG, a MP3 Streaming, and Streaming Chapter tracks.
21 June 2000 - Added information about: downloading QT stand along installer, Still images, Detecting QT Plugin, and mp3 playlist files.
11 Jan 2005 - Added information about long file names / paths on windows.
General:
QT - QuickTime, QTW - QuickTime for Windows, URL - Universal Resource Locator
QT Streaming Related:
QTSS - QuickTime Streaming Server, FTP - File Transfer Protocol, HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol, RTSP - Real Time Streaming Protocol, SDP - Session Description Protocol, SB - Sorenson Broadcaster, SMIL - Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL, pronounced "smile").
For Archives/Subscribe/Unsubscribe and Help: http://www.lists.apple.com/quicktime-talk.html
or mailto:quicktime-talk-info@public.lists.apple.com
Note: The quicktime-talk list is not for discussions related to: (1) QuickTime API (MacOS and Windows), Quicktime for Java, (2) QTSS development, installation and maintenance, (3) compression techniques with Media Cleaner. If you have questions about any of the technologies listed about, please send them to the following lists:
A. You need to license it from Apple. The cost is FREE. Once the license has been signed you will be e-mailed information on downloading it and customizing the installer. Check the software licensing page here: http://developer.apple.com/mkt/swl/agreements.html#QuickTime
A. http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/ is fine, and hopefully the download widget at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ is obvious enough that the front page would be a good target as well.
QuickTime standalone (CD) installer is posted at:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/support.
No Internet Connection is needed for this installer.
If you licence QuickTime installer for including on a CD-ROM, Apple will provide you with download instructions and customization instructions.
Also, there are Apple graphic file/image you can use for the link:
http://www.apple.com/about/webbadges/
A. In the current release of QuickTime (V4.12), if you are using QuickTime to look at a movie on the web (streaming or otherwise), then when you are done (if it has been more than a week since the last time we checked) we check to see if a new announcement has been posted.
Previous releases have done it slightly differently, and future releases will probably change in this regard as well. Also, if you select "Check For QuickTime Updates" in the QTPlayer Help menu, we check to see if a new announcement has been posted.
This menu item is slightly misnamed; it should be "Check For QuickTime Announcements". Just because a new update to QuickTime has been posted doesn't mean there has been an announcement. For example, with 4.1.2, we waited about a week after posting the update to post the announcement, so developers could try it out before it went REALLY public.
A. By combining JavaScript, VB-Script, and ActiveX, you can detect QuickTime (any version) in a Netscape browser (any version, any OS); you can also detect QuickTime (any version) in Internet Explorer (version 5 or later for the Mac OS); and you can detect Quick-Time (version 4.1.1 or later) in Internet Explorer (any version for Windows).
See QT v4.1.2 tech note: http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn1197.html
You can't use scripts to detect QuickTime in versions of Internet Explorer for the Mac OS prior to version 5, but it�s generally safe to assume that users of the Mac OS have QuickTime.
You can't detect QuickTime in Internet Explorer for Windows if the version of QuickTime is prior to version 4.1.1.
The good news in all this is that you can detect QuickTime using scripts, as long as the user has a current browser and the current version of QuickTime, so things should work well going forward. A lot of legacy cases also work--older versions of Navigator are fine, as are older versions of QuickTime on the Mac OS.
The only problems exist with older versions of Explorer on the Mac and older versions of QuickTime with Explorer for Windows.
You can also detect QuickTime using a combination of the META "refresh" tag and QuickTime itself. Use the refresh tag to redirect users to a You Need QuickTime or alternate content page after a few seconds. Embed a QuickTime movie that immediately redirects viewers to the QuickTime content page. This works with all browsers on Mac and Windows. You can tailor it to work with all versions of QuickTime from 3.0 forward, or to require a specific version of QuickTime.
A. Apple currently (as of 21 June 2000) does not support client playback on Unix.
3rd party libraries make it possible for limited playback of some QuickTime movies. Most codecs are not support, so the answer in general is no.
Supported video is MJPA, JPEG Photo, PNG, RGB, YUV 4:2:2, and YUV 4:2:0 compression.
Supported audio is IMA4, ulaw, and any linear PCM format.
QuickTime Movie Stream over RTP with H.261 and H.263 formats can be played by a selection of non-QuickTime viewers such as Video Conference Tool (VIC), and Audio Conference Tool (VAT)
A. QuickTime 4 supports the following export image formats:
BMP (Windows BitMaps), JFIF/ JPEG, MacPaint, Photoshop, PNG, QuickDraw PICT, QuickTime Image, Silicon Graphics, Targa and TIFF
Some image file formats can store the image resolution.
In QuickTime 4, the BMP, JPEG, Photoshop, PNG, QuickTime Image, and TIFF graphics exporters support the resolution setting. If you do not set a resolution explicitly, the original image's resolution is used.
Third-party developers may also write their own graphics exporters for other image file formats.
For complete details about still image formats supported by QuickTime, check out Apple's website at:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/ffsi.html
A. Resolution tests on Image Importers & Exporters
Some tests where run by Yan Calotychos, using QT 4.1.2 on importing and exporting images at different resolutions.
| SGI | - - the only resolution supported is 72 dpi. |
| PHOTOSHOP |
- - all resolutions work fine |
| BMP |
- - importer always reports 72 dpi regardless of the actual resolution (!) file created can't be read by Photoshop, fine with other image editors. |
| JPEG | - - importer & exporter work fine at all resolutions |
| PICT |
- - importer works fine at all resolutions exporter can do all resolutions BUT CallComponentCanDo(ci, kGraphicsExportSetResolutionSelect) returns 0 instead of 1 (!) |
| PNG |
- - importer & exporter work fine at all resolutions resolution of file created is misread by Photoshop, fine with other image editors. |
| TIFF |
- - importer & exporter work fine at all resolutions importer fails to render CMYK images at resolutions other than 72 dpi, when using QTNewGWorld(...) type 'cmyk'. works fine with conventional NewGWorld. (tried setting the resolution of the gworld but GraphicsImportDraw() still fails). |
| TGA |
- - importer & exporter work fine at 72 dpi. importer displays wrong value at higher resolutions (!). |
| QuickTime Image |
- - importer works fine at all resolutions exporter can do all resolutions BUT (as in PICT) CallComponentCanDo(ci, kGraphicsExportSetResolutionSelect) returns 0 instead of 1 (!) |
A. For finished work, I recommend JPEG for photos and PNG for computer graphics to retain quality and greatly reduce file size and loading time.
For work in progress, JPEG is not a good format, keep them in Photoshop or TIFF format.
PNG is a good replacement for GIF, with no licencing issues (Note: QuickTime contains a licence for reading GIF).
Note: In order to make the minimal installer smaller, authoring features such as the JPEG compressor aren't installed unless you (a) choose Full when installing, or (b) run the updater to download and install them.
A. You need a server and to save the QT movie correctly. The server can be a web (HTTP) server (Sun, Linux, Windows NT/2000, MacOS) for archived content or Real Server 8 or QuickTime Streaming Server (free, see next question) for streamed content - Video on Demand (VOD) content or live* content.
Details:
The key thing you need to do is make sure to save your movie self-contained to a new name from QuickTime Player, which will ensure that it has the Movie Header at the beginning rather than the end of the file, and can thus be played before it has completely downloaded.
For instructions on sending a QT movie *to* the streaming server?
Checkout:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/qtss/pgs/qtsspb01.htm
The "movie header" or "movie resource" is the description of what constitutes the movie -- the types of tracks, when and where those tracks should play, and where the media data (images for video tracks, audio for sound tracks, Flash data for Flash tracks, etc.) resides. This movie header is stored in a QuickTime movie file and must be read by QuickTime to play the file since it is the roadmap to the media.
When you make a "fast start" movie what you're actually doing is moving this description to the beginning of the file so it's the first thing read. By compressing the movie header, you're shrinking the movie header's size so that it is downloaded more quickly.
QuickTime 3 and 4 both support compressed movie headers.
However, there are implications with using this option when hinting a movie for streaming via the QuickTime Streaming Server. Currently, compressed movie headers aren't supported there so you'll want to turn off this option when preparing for streaming.
For live content you need a machine for encoding the live stream as well as the server.
A. There are links to them at: http://www.publicsource.apple.com/projects/streaming/
Note: There is a list for questions about QTSS, please use this list for questions. Not the QT Talk list. QuickTime Streaming Server list: http://lists.apple.com/lists.taf?function=showlistsdetail&Layout_0_uid1=32820
A. The tutorial on how to make alternate data rate movies is available from http://developer.apple.com/quicktime/quicktimeintro/tools/datarate.html
A. No. The URL data handler implementing the FTP and a HTTP protocols do not currently support file creation and writing file to server (as of QT V4.1) . They only download files.
A. Steven Gulie's 'Quicktime for the Web : A Hands-On Guide' Book.
http://www.mkp.com/qt/ or http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/012471255X/ref=rm_item
A. Check out the Tutorial for PowerPoint 2000 at BYU Instructional Media Center, http://imc.byu.edu/tutorials/videopower.html
Another good thing about assigning Quicktime Player as a preview app is in BBEdit that saving files with the .smi suffix automatically sets the creator to Quicktime Player ('TVOD').
This behavior is governed by the QuickTime control panel, Quicktime Exchange setting.
File extension(s): .smil, .smi, .sml
NOTE: On the Windows operating system and the Macintosh platform, the ".smi" extension is used by other formats. To avoid conflicts, it is thus strongly recommended not to use the extension ".smi" for storing SMIL files on these platforms. The extension ".smil" would be a good choice.
Actually, the SMIL media type WD ( http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-hoschka-smil-media-type-04.txt) touches upon this issue.
Also see:
SMIL section of the W3C:
http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/
An excellent tutorial on how to write your own SMIL presentations
http://www.helio.org/products/smil/tutorial/index.html
Also see: Apple's QuickTime 4.1 Specification Document below
A. QuickTime V4 only support Flash 3, export your Flash 4 files as Flash 3 compatible files.
Sterling Ledet & Associates has started an open email discussion list for content creators concerned with integrating Macromedia Flash with QuickTime.
A. Apple's Authoring Tutorials:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/tutorials.html
QuickTime VR Online Tutor
http://www.letmedoit.com/qtvr/qtvr_online/course_index.html
Info on embedding QT in HTML at:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/embed.html
Apple's QuickTime 4.1 Specification Document:
http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/quicktime/qtdevdocs/PDF/QuickTime41.pdf
A. This is not a complete list and a moving target, please no flames.
QuickTime content playback and Interactive QuickTime check out:
iShell by TribeWorks,
Flash and Director by Macromedia, and
LiveStage Pro by Totally Hip
For movie production and post production:
iMovie (free from Apple, MacOS only), Media Cleaner Pro, LiveStage Pro, QuickTime Player Pro, FinalCut Pro and EditDV,
See http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/ for other products.
A. using the EMBED tag. When set, the QuickTime Plug-in will launch QuickTime Player as a helper application (if it is not already running) and opens the url of the movie file. In order for TARGET="QUICKTIMEPLAYER" to work, there needs to be an href attribute in the embed tag which points to the movie file.
For example:
<embed src="poster.mov" width="200" height="240" href="sample.mov" target="quicktimeplayer">
See the page explaining all QT related attributes of the EMBED tag at: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/embed.html.
A. MP3 Playlist files are simply a text file containing a list of mp3 file locations, saved with a .m3u suffix, "playlist.m3u".
the file looks like this:
http://www.domain.com/file1.mp3 http://www.domain.com/file2.mp3 http://www.domain.com/file3.mp3Then you point to the m3u file with a poster movie to open and play the list in MoviePlayer:
This is nice because its easy to see how, with a bit of perl and some cookies, custom content can be selected by generating individual m3u lists on the fly for listening pleasure.<EMBED src="poster.mov" width="150" height="80" controller="FALSE" href="http://www.domain.com/playlist.m3u" target="quicktimeplayer"> </EMBED>
From Tobie Kerridge
A. The key is not the length of the filename, but the length of the entire path (internally, QuickTime canonicalizes all names before attempting to resolve them). The nominal maximum path length should be 255, but QTML actually fails on paths longer than 253 (I suspect it's allowing for a drive letter at some level in the code).
Don't bother using short (8.3) pathnames to try to get around this; they aren't always created, and anyway QT's canonicalization code also expands the short names. You run into similar heartache with pathnames containing international characters.
The only stable solution, which is quite a headache, is to temporarily create your files in a temp directory near the root, then move them to the destination after you've written to them with the QT API. This works for outputting movies, but loading them is also problematic; you could move them to a temp directory, but you might not have the privs to do so, and if you created a movie referencing your temp copy, it's very likely to get badly confused. The best I've come up with is a gatekeeper to check whether paths will work with QT, _before_ I make any QT calls, so I can at least give the user an intelligent error message.
Good luck, Seth Porter, Software Engineer,EyeSee360, Inc.
A. API-level access to the AAC encoder is not provided in the standard QuickTime software for Windows. If you want to explore this further, you should first contact the good folks at Via Licensing (http://www.vialicensing.com/contact/). They are the license administrator for the AAC patent pool and can provide you with the necessary info to enable you to do AAC encoding on Windows.