quicktime
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Flip4Mac begins beta testing Universal Binary WMV QuickTime components
For Intel Mac users who either love or hate WMV but have to deal with it one way or another, Flip4Mac has just begun beta testing the long-awaited Universal Binary version of their WMV QuickTime components. Announced in their forums today, it is more or less an invite-yourself program, as I had to contact them weeks ago to get on their email announcement list.After briefly testing on my MacBook Pro, it seems like everything is working just fine. I'm able to play embedded WMV files with no problem, but I unfortunately don't have any locally saved WMV's to try at the moment. So far, the beta seems like a success, and while I hate the WMV format just as much as the next Mac user, it's nice to no longer receive that 'plug-in not found' error.
Software Update: Quicktime 7.1.1
Apple released an update to Quicktime this afternoon, version 7.1.1. According to the support page, it "addresses an issue with 3rd party start-up items on Intel Macs. This release also fixes an issue exporting to Keynote presentations to iDVD. Also delivers numerous bug fixes, support for iLife06, and H.264 performance improvements."Does anyone know specifically what 3rd-party startup items this is talking about?
Apple Store panoramic
This will probably be my last post about Apple's new Fifth Avenue store, but I'm not making any promises. The Cult of Mac points us to this very cool Quicktime panormic image of the store on opening night. It is very cool.
Firefox extension: VideoDownloader does just what it says
VideoDownloader is a slick Firefox extension that allows you to save content from websites, including embedded videos at sites like YouTube. The extension adds a small icon to Firefox's status bar that, when clicked, offers a pop-up window with a download link of the actual file you want. Simple and painless. The one catch I've run into so far: the files from some Flash-embedded sites like YouTube are .FLV, and while I have the latest Flash player installed, I can't seem to find it, and not even Safari will open these with a File > Open command. Other than that, this extension has worked great for grabbing all sorts of media so far.The list of sites this extension works with is lengthy, but really it should allow you to grab embedded content from just about anywhere. Unless, of course, the site has already been turned on to haxies like this and they've already launched countermeasures. Until then, enjoy.
Quicktime 7.1
Fire up Software Update, kids, Apple has just released Quicktime 7.1. This update 'delivers numerous important bug fixes and addresses critical security issues.' It is highly recommended for all Quicktime users (and yes, there is a Windows version available as well).It clocks in at 51 megs (on my G4 Mac mini).
Macs to show off planet Earth
SpaceDaily has a story out of Australia about a company called AstroVision using Apple's technology to provide real-time, full-color, high-res images and video of planet Earth in all her glory. Apparently AstroVision (which has nothing to do with the dog from the Jetsons) has been working with Apple Australia for a while on this project, which will create a supercomputer from Xserves, and using Xgrid and QuickTime, provide those beautiful images we all love to digg. According to the article, Apple Australia will provide: construction of a state of the art High Performance Computing (HPC) environment using Apple's Unix-based Xserves and Xgrid computing software expertise in design and development of HPCs for parallel computing QuickTime, the global digital media standard an architecture for online distribution of multimedia content the research and design for the development of new consumer electronics products and product channels.
Easy iPod/PSP movies with Instant Handbrake
When it comes to turning a DVD into a movie file, Handbrake's name is hailed far and wide for its ease of use, speed and overall quality. Recently, Handbrake's developer took these praised aspects and raised the bar by releasing Instant Handbrake (beta), a one-stop, brain-dead-easy app for converting a DVD to iPod/PSP-compatible video.By default it's set to crop the video when necessary (4:3 for iPod, 16:9 for PSP), depending on which device you specify, but you can elect to maintain the video in its original size. Video formats are MPEG-4 or H.264 for the iPod, and MPEG-4 for the PSP.Like its big brother, Instant Handbrake is free and available here.
iSquint 1.4.1 with 'MPEG-in-.mov' goodness
iSquint, the fantastic little iPod video converter that we've mentioned before, has been updated to version 1.4.1 with a big new feature: handling QuickTime files that contain MPEG video that most other players/encoders will balk at. Various other code tweaks have brought some big speed improvements and fixes for issues with 10.3.9.iSquint is surprisingly still donationware and available from iSquint.org.
Software Update: GarageBand 3.0.2
TUAW reader Mark H noticed that a software update is available for GarageBand. Version 3.0.2 weighs in at 32.2 MB (though both Mark H and I are on Intel Macs so your mileage may vary) and: "addresses issues with video handling, podcast exporting, and importing QuickTime markers. It also addresses a number of other minor issues."Enjoy.
QuickTime Components 101
Ever wondered what happens when you can't view a QuickTime movie, and Apple's QT player prompts you to "download the missing component?" Essentially a QuickTime component is QT's version of a plug-in. Similar to how Flash plug-in allows you to view Flash content, or Windows Media Player used to do play WMV's in your browsers on the Mac. Apple long-ago started using an API of sorts for 3rd party developers who wished to extend the functionality of QuickTime. Extend it? Isn't it pretty fully-featured, what with the support for QTVR (yeah, what happened to their authoring tool anyway?), and 3DMF (haha, that's an unfunny joke there)? Even with all the toys packed inside, QT needs room for growth. Send in the clowns of multimedia: your 3rd party component developers. For example: I live a stone's throw from where venerable Web 1.0 company iPIX used to exist. iPIX, for those who remember, pioneered a way to record and play back immersive video just like QTVR. Initially their tech was only available via RealPlayer, which, at the time, had the most open architecture. Eventually they made a QuickTime version, as did about a dozen others. Recently I tried to play a training video, and I needed the TechSmith codec. I had to download the component, and everything was viewable. Perhaps the best known and widely used component is the MPEG-2 codec, which is needed for DVD authoring.Components can be codecs, but they don't have to be. The categories of QT components can be found here, although it's a bit technical. The hard part, honestly, is figuring out which components to install. But since there are only 11 on Apple's QT components page, I suggest installing them all and enjoy yourself. And shame on you lazy devs out there who have yet to implement a Mac version! In some cases, the open source community has taken up the gauntlet. Witness XiphQT, an effort to bring Ogg support to QuickTime. A lot of the furor over components has been laid to rest, however, as we see more specialization. For instance, video via Flash is now a popular method of putting videos on the web. This obviates the need for 3 different format buttons (remember those, along with hi and lo bandwidth versions?). Also, specialized content is being embedded in everything from Adobe's PDF format to specialized readers anyway, making the discussion less relevant every day. One special note of caution: the Apple page lists PowerPC components. Unfortunately, you have to check each component on their home site to find Universal Binary editions. The PPC versions will NOT work on an Intel Mac.
Patent infringement lawsuit hits Apple
In a move that screams 'I was waiting for the right time to mention it,' Burst.com yesterday filed a patent counterclaims lawsuit against Apple Computer, claiming that their iTunes, iTMS, iPod and QuickTime Streaming infringe on four of their patents.It appears that this time around Apple actually fired first. Earlier this year, Apple asked the courts to render Burst's patents invalid, which sparked this counterclaim they filed yesterday. Burst has stated that they had hoped to avoid the courts and negotiate a "reasonable license fee," but it seems that a court is exactly where these two companies will need to settle the dispute.Check out Macworld's article if you're interested in more details surrounding the case.
MacBreak on video compression with Quicktime
The second episode (iTunes link) of MacBreak has been unleashed to upon an unsuspecting world. This episode covers using Quicktime to compress video. Join Alex Lindsay and Emery Wells (who looks like he might want to harm someone in the screen grab I did) and discover the joys, and the power, of Quicktime Pro.
Brain Age footage
Etoychest has a video up of Jason Dobson taking a crack at the upcoming Brain Age. The video shows him explaining the interface of the game and going through some drawing and calculation exercises. While Jason admits his Brain Age is not very high, it's likely due to his lack of stylus use (seriously, you'd draw a lot better and get more numbers right it you used the stylus). So while upon start his Brain Age is only in the 40s, it's very possible this could be improved by switching that finger with a stylus on the touch screen. Regardless, the video has a lot of information and should interest everyone looking forward to getting their brain in shape come later in April.[Note: the video requires Quicktime]
Security flaw found in iTunes and QuickTime
Apple has announced a security flaw has been found in the latest version of iTunes 6.0.1 and 6.0.2, as well as QuickTime 7.0.3 and 7.0.4 that affects both Mac OS X and Windows. The flaw could allow an attacker to run code as the currently logged in user, which is typically worse news for Windows users, but is still not something Mac user should take lightly.While Apple is working on a patch, I thought this sentence from a PC Pro article was somewhat interesting: "[Apple] will have around two months to issue a suitable fix before it comes under pressure, as the flaw is only at the initial report stage of the process." I wonder what exactly that means - is there some kind of industry consensus that has to be met? Or do they just mean that most people who exploit flaws like this don't use RSS readers and won't find out about the flaw for a month or two? Hopefully, we won't have to find out.[via MacMinute]
H.264 gains on Windows Media
I'll be the first to admit that I am no streaming video expert, but I have used H.264 for some personal projects and I really like the results I get. It looks like, according to a report by StreamingMedia.com, the H.264 codec (which is the bit that you use to encode videos into H.264) is more efficient than the Windows Media codec, however, both fall behind RealVideo (yes, you read that correctly).RealVideo may be 'better' than H.264 but the Quicktime player doesn't make me cry, so I think I'll stick with H.264.
Flip4Mac breaks QuickTime export?
Some users, myself included, are reporting that the 3rd party Flip4Mac plugin Microsoft recently purchased and offered for free seems to break QuickTime Pro's ability to export movie files. This morning I was trying to compress and export to H.264 some AVI files I shot with my Canon digicam over the weekend, but was met with relentless "error -2126" messages. Some research revealed a few articles and Apple Support threads, like this one, that have found this and various other buggy issues with the WMV plugin, but most of them pointed to this Flip4Mac support topic on the grubby process of uninstalling and/or Flip4Mac. A future release of the plugin promises a true, automated uninstaller option, but for now: if you're having QuickTime issues like this after installing Flip4Mac, try going through their uninstallation process to reclaim the software's abilities.
Quicktime 2 RSS
According to the Guardian Apple is working on something called 'QuickTime 2 RSS,' which will allow someone (in this case a teacher) to record a lecture and then have it automatically encoded for playback on a video enabled iPod and seeded to an RSS feed, which would automatically be populated on the iTunes Music Store. The best part of this? It would be free, you just need to buy the camera and the Mac to run it on.Unless I miss my guess, this will be an addition to QuickTime Broadcaster, though I have been wrong before.And a word of warning, this article is a 'Guardian Advertisement Feature,' so make of it what you will.
Automator action: Export movies to iTunes/iPod
Since the 5G iPod landed, an army of scripts and mini-apps have answered the call for a simple, painless way for getting video into iTunes and ready for your favorite little music video player. Since I'm always up for more options, here's an Automator action that accomplishes the same task for Tiger users. You can select a group of files, run the action (it's meant to be installed as a Finder plugin), and it will use QuickTime to export the video and add it right into iTunes for you.While I haven't tested this out yet, I'm excited about being able to do with with an Automator action as it opens up the possibility of adding more steps to your workflow, such as batch renaming files, or anything else Automator can do. Plus, just like one of the reigning favorites - iSquint - the Export Movies to iTunes action is free.
iTunes 6.0.2 does automatic video conversion without Quicktime Pro
Even more newness in that almost 19MB update to iTunes 6.0.2 this week: automatic conversion of your videos to play on your iPod. Now you don't need any third party machinations or a license for Quicktime Pro to convert media for your happy little video playing iPod!The conversion is fairly slow (about the same rate as Quicktime Pro) but is really quite handy. Simply open up the Videos section in iTunes, right click on the video you want to convert in your video playlist, and choose "Convert Selection for iPod". If the video is already compatible with your iPod, iTunes will tell you that it doesn't need to be converted.Now if only I could do direct DVD to iPod inside iTunes. A girl can dream right?
Microsoft offers Flip4Mac for free
Flip4Mac is a plugin for Quicktime that allows you to watch Windows Media files in Quicktime itself, and that's pretty cool. However, what is even cooler is that this great little plugin is now available for free thanks to Microsoft.You read that correctly, Microsoft is freely distributing Flip4Mac thought they are only offering the viewer, if you want to create WMV files in Quicktime you'll still need to pony up the cash.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
