THE INSIDE TRACK
by Kevin Quinn & Cliff VanMeter
When telling people about QuickTime, the first thing we say is, “It’s not just for movie trailers!” Since this is a VR magazine, you already know this, so to you we say, “QuickTime is not just for movie trailers and VR Tours!”
The definition of multimedia in the dictionary should include, “see QuickTime”, because QuickTime IS multimedia. It is video, audio, VR, and at it’s core is interactivity made with sprites, tweens and effects. As installed, QuickTime is capable of supporting more types of media files than either Windows Media Player and Real Player. And even those files it doesn’t support, could be supported at some point because of QuickTime’s component architecture that allows regular updates to increase its functionality.
In December 1991, Apple released version 1.0 of QuickTime, which was a system enhancement like Quickdraw. It was created to provide a standard way of dealing with data that changes over time. Three years later, version 2.0 was released with a Windows version. And in 1995 Apple shipped QTVR. For you QuickTime history geeks, here is the QuickTime History Timeline page and another to a Mac Tech article written in 1991 telling all about QuickTime 1.0
Since its release, QuickTime has set the standard for all other movie players that have followed. A fact that was bolstered by the announcement of the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG), that the new industry standard MPEG-4 format would be based on Apple’s QuickTime architecture.
How popular has QuickTime become? According to Apple’s website, QuickTime 5 has been downloaded over 100 million times! In the first 100 days that QuickTime 6 was available, it was downloaded over 25 million times, and that was 4 months ago. Part of that success is due to the fact that Apple was able to offer the Star Wars Episode I movie Trailer exclusively in QuickTime format.
Since then, many movies have first offered their trailers in QuickTime, making Apple’s Movie Trailer page one of the most popular stops on the web, even with Windows users.
Today, many electronic media devices use QuickTime as a part of their delivery solution. Does your digital camera also capture video? Most likely it is a QuickTime movie. Today, nearly all major motion pictures use QuickTime at some point of the editing process. Even if they don’t use Final Cut Pro, the QuickTime format is the export of choice.
Once you realize all the incredible things that QuickTime can help you to accomplish, it can be almost intimidating. Video, audio, VR, interactivity…where do you begin? Until recently, most QuickTime authoring tools were only for professional developers. QuickTime Pro has always had some powerful editing features for a mere $29 US, but they weren’t something your Mom or Dad would call easy to learn and use. Today, thanks in part to Apple’s introduction of iMovie, Tools for creating great content in QuickTime have begun popping up all over that are easy to use and inexpensive!
Apple’s iLife has opened the door to creating QuickTime content that your Mom and Dad actually can use. They can edit movies, add pictures and music, and then put it on a DVD for all to see. But there is a world of creativity that exists between presentations made with iLife, and those created with professional tools like Final Cut Pro and LiveStage Professional. Today, Freeware, Shareware, and inexpensive commercial titles are now available that can create QuickTime content that just 2 years ago could only have been created by professional developers.
Apple also offers 2 more QuickTime solutions that have incredible power, are easy to use, and are also free! They are the QuickTime Streaming Server and QuickTime Broadcaster. With QTSS, and it’s counterpart Darwin Streaming Server (for Windows NT Server, Red Hat Linux, and Solaris 8) you can deliver up to 4000 individual movie streams per server.
QuickTime Broadcaster is Apple’s live encoding software that lets you produce professional-quality live events for online delivery. Used together with QTSS you can have your own TV station…for FREE!
At our website QuickTiming.org, we help you to get more out of the QuickTime creation experience. If you are just starting out, we want to be there to hold your hand. If you’ve got the basics down, we want to push you forward. If you think you know it all, check back with us next week, because in this world you can never know it all.
And if you thought QuickTime was just Movie trailers and VR tours, think again!
email: kevin@quicktiming.org, cliff@quicktiming.org
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