Snow Leopard In Depth: QuickTime X
QuickTime has been around since well before OS X, dating back to 1991, but this old dog gets new life in the next version of the Mac OS. QuickTime X, as the new release has been named, follows the theme of Snow Leopard by incorporating both refinements and new technologies. QuickTime player has a new interface that simplifies playback and new capabilities that enhance performance and allow you to create and share video content.
Black Bezels Are the New Black
The new QuickTime X features a simplified and “uncluttered” interface for playback. The playback controls have been removed from the bottom bar and have been moved to an on-screen layer when you mouse over a video. The general effect is that you only see the black title bar in Snow Leopard and the rest of the interface disappears so you can focus your attention on the video itself. A nice little touch and I think very easy for most people that are used to the keyboard controls from previous incarnations of QuickTime Player or iTunes.
Video Killed the Radio Star
Or maybe video created the next YouTube star? In QuickTime X, the player application has been expanded to include video capture, either from the built-in webcam in your Mac or from a USB-tethered camera. QuickTime includes simple controls for trimming video so you can get just the right amount of lead-in for your next YouTube masterpiece, and then cut the lead-out just before your neighbor pops in to ask if they can borrow a cup of sugar. Just drag the yellow handles left and right to set the clip that will be exported.
Sharing these videos to YouTube, MobileMe, email, or your iTunes library is a one-click affair.
Technological Enhancements
QuickTime X is optimized for the critical HD codecs H.264 and AAC with a new foundation that should provide stutter-free playback on current computers. The player allows using hardware acceleration for H.264, which should help with HD video in that format. Also new is support for HTTP streaming, which allows QuickTime to stream content that is delivered by a web server, rather than just content from a specialized streaming server. This should help improve playback of videos from web accounts like MobileMe galleries. QuickTime X can also take advantage of new technologies in Snow Leopard like 64-bit addressing and Grand Central Dispatch to speed up performance.
Whither QuickTime Pro?
Absent from yesterday’s announcements was any mention of QuickTime X Pro. I am going to indulge my optimistic side and declare that the Pro version is no more and Apple is going to provide all the features of QuickTime Pro as part of the standard app in Snow Leopard. This is a welcome change in an age when multimedia playback, and even media creation, has been standard on the Mac platform for a good many years.
What About DVD Player?
I can’t help but wonder if DVD Player is going to get the same H.264 accelerated love from Apple, or if this feature is being folded into QuickTime Player. There is a new chapter navigation interface in QuickTime Player that would be great for DVD movies, too. Frankly, DVD Player needs to get caught up to the Blu-ray age and the H.264 improvements in QuickTime would be welcome in an HD-capable DVD Player.
Matt Large on June 9th, 2009 at 8:20 am
I doubt much will change in DVDPlayer, if you look at the first foot note in the 64bit section of the Snow Leopard pages you’ll find the DVDPlayer is one of the few applications which have not been re-written in 64bit code. It could still have been updated (one of the other non-64bit apps is iTunes) but the tech specs page also only lists SuperDrive as required for DVDPlayer.
I too would love some Blu-Ray love in OS X, but then as I have a 2007 iMac with a Radeon HD2600 I can’t even get OpenCL love in Snow Leopard :(
Derek on June 9th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Will Quicktime X be released for Windows, too?
Bryan on August 7th, 2009 at 10:04 am
Who cares ??????
Windows SUCKS !!!!!!!!!
W on August 24th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
You suck Jobs’ dick you faggot Mactard.
t on August 26th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
nice lingo guys
Kevin on October 10th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
I heard Windows 7 is going to be good
Brian Hogg on June 9th, 2009 at 8:34 am
The in-player capture is pretty cool, but I dislike the “controls over the video” thing. It’s a personal preference; I don’t like having playback controls over the content, as it blocks said content (even if for just a moment, but it bugs me).
Still, technological upgrades are technological upgrades, and that’s a good thing.
Ed on June 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I might be missing something, but how is this post different to http://www.apple.com/macosx/technology/#quicktimex ?
Dominic on June 20th, 2009 at 8:36 am
not only that, he didn’t test the beta to be sure, 10a380 still has the old quicktime logo.
Lucky on June 9th, 2009 at 8:57 am
I don’t like the title bar. Never did since I saw early leaks. It’s like a child made it. That gradient is so wrong. It’s probably going to be fixed by the end, if someone realizes it.
A softer gradient would be much better and closer to the gradient used in standard windows. Or maybe just a transparent black would be enough, like a HUD window.
str1f3 on June 9th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I likethe black title bar. More evidence of “Marble” that will be coming in 10.7 I pray that we have the Quicktime pro features in there or it will be a crippled QuickTime. At least give me the option of paying $20. QuickTime pro is invaluable because of its power.
AeroQ on June 9th, 2009 at 11:12 am
If much-needed QuickTime Pro features are no longer here, it’s time to try alternatives like SimpleMovieX.
Quick cut-and-splice editing, chapters, native mp4 and avi saving.
http://simplemoviex.com/SimpleMovieX/
Herbert Kornfeld on June 9th, 2009 at 11:58 am
NicePlayer just got Sherlocked.
Alex on June 9th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
The title bar disappears too, when you move the mouse out of the window playing video.
To quote the presenters, “your content takes center-stage”.
I’d imaging the Apple Remote could be used to control playback too, for those people who don’t want bezels with mousing controls showing up over their videos.
PIF on June 10th, 2009 at 6:26 am
#7 AeroQ
Thanks for the simplemoviex link.
2Shae on June 10th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Honestly…this is the FUGLIEST Apple design I have ever seen.
What reason could they possible have for ONLY making quicktimeX black.
Not a Vista hater, but way to go copying the Vista taskbar look.
Clod on June 14th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
no GUI preferences in Quicktime X !??!
hd444 on July 5th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Has anybody actually seen QT X? If so does it really play AVC Pro elementary streams?
Matthew Lowery on August 10th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I want to be able to have the black title bar on ALL the windows its so awesome!
bas on August 19th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Installed Snow Leopard and all seems well. The only disappointment for me so far is Quicktime X, which is not like QT Pro at all. No wide range of export possibilities, only YouTube, AppleTV and MobileMe… The editing functionality is also crippled. It was not that easy to use in the earlier QT, but once you got the hang of it, it was very powerful: adding / removing soundtracks, playing with Alpha channels, effects and whatnot. It is no longer there. The ‘Cmd-J’ hot key is no longer there. ‘Add to movie’ is no longer there. I will hang on to QT 7 for quite some time I guess..
debohun on August 24th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Why should there even be separate DVD and Quicktime (and iMovie ) applications (plus QuickLook). All of this functionality overlaps and could be incorporated into a single application, or at most two (an editor and viewer), which would be more in line with Apple’s philosophy of simpler is better. Ditto for Quicklook, Preview and iPhoto. Quicklook builds all of these players (viewers) into the system, so a unified editor for any specific media format should be the goal, shouldn’t it?
Was on August 25th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I love the trim feature.
I wish I had the option to split a video in two or more pieces and then could trim the ends of each part.
Keep smiling
paolo on August 26th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
The trim feature is RUBBISH! QT7 is much better.
What if you want to trim a clip to the tenth of a second. In QT7 you could nudge the clip along a single frame at a time and the ‘trim’ selctors move too.
Seems to me you just cant do it QT 10 (X)
I would love someone to correct me on this as I just cant seem to do it…
Freddy on August 26th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
But I read that uicktime 7 will get moved to the Utilities folder so if there are some things Qt X won’t do you can still use the old version 7. I’m not liking the sound of limited export options. I’ve just recently figured how to make 700 meg divx’s, would like to continue.
paolo on August 27th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Just deleted QTX – it’s just so unbelievably dumbed down!!!!
klip izle on August 28th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Who cares ??????
Windows SUCKS !!!!!!!!!
BonBon on August 29th, 2009 at 10:07 am
QuickTime X
1. Having two versions of quicktime is a bad idea.
2. QuickTime X has the control panel over the video. WTF, this is the worst design decision ever. Why would I want to look a control panel? I want to see my video. Maybe the designer was so impressed with their control panel they though everyone would rather look the buttons then the movie.
3. Too many complaints to list.
I will avoid using QuickTime X, and continue using QT7.
Sam on September 1st, 2009 at 7:51 am
quicktime X = widget
Long live QT7 pro
Bill Withers on September 1st, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Will Quicktime X have flash support?
Bill Withers on September 1st, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Will Quicktime X have flash support? Will I be able to use my geethree iMovie plugins that I spent all this money on?
oyun oyna on September 2nd, 2009 at 9:19 am
nice lingo guys
tim on September 2nd, 2009 at 10:01 am
NO A/V controls!! Getting rid of X.
BR on October 14th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
Apparently, holding down option and pressing fast forward will increase by .1x. Not as good, but better than nothing.
wesley Ronald BREWSTER on September 2nd, 2009 at 8:59 pm
where is the pro….?????
zizzle on September 3rd, 2009 at 1:55 am
If QTX is full-featured, where in blazes is the “open image sequence” menu item? Good thing I’d moved QT7Pro into a separate folder; it survived the upgrade, … I’m tempted to simply delete X but here’s hoping there’ll be a pro version available shortly.
andrew holzschuh on October 16th, 2009 at 6:45 am
im right there with you on that one!!! i hope someone answers this soon! this isnt the only problem ive had with snow leopard.
Fabio on November 20th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
agree
Derwin on September 4th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Is there anyway to trim multiple frames from a video without having to trim a frame at a time?
Derwin on September 4th, 2009 at 9:18 am
How can I trim multiple frames in the middle of a movie without having to trim a frame at a time?
dizi izle on September 5th, 2009 at 4:21 am
not only that, he didn’t test the beta to be sure, 10a380 still has the old quicktime logo.
Doogman1 on September 5th, 2009 at 7:33 pm
QuickTime X is definitely NOT an improvement. With version 7 I thought it was headed in the right direction, but not any more. I tried the Trim feature, and all that can be done is to select one span you want to keep? No controls to edit anything out? PUHLEEZE!! This MUST be fixed.
Hess on September 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Quicktime 7 is moved to the utilities folder. I think that it just needs to be loaded once then it can be set as the default player. I had QTPro before I upgraded and once i loaded it from the utilities folder it became fully functional again.
Lauriek on September 8th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
After upgrading to Snow Leopard, including checking to load QuickTime 7″ – one of the optional installs, I launched “QuickTime Play 7.app” and none of the QT PRO” features were enabled. I then opened the “Registration…” menu item under the QuickTime Player 7 menu and re-entered my QT 7 PRO license information and upon closing the dialog, the full set of QT PRO features were now enabled.
Lauriek on September 8th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I did not clarify that Hess was correct – if QuickTime 7 has been installed along with QuickTime X, the QuickTime Player 7 application is moved to the Utilities folder under the Applications folder
John Boy on September 9th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Apple has yet again dumbed down america with less features for more “ease” of use. SAVE YOUR QT7 PRO from the Utilities Folder!!!!
dizi izle on September 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Thanks..
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oyun
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oyunlar
KIZ OYUNLARI
Yunus on September 16th, 2009 at 4:52 am
Will Quicktime X have flash support?
Bonka on September 25th, 2009 at 8:29 am
I agree with all you guys. Hope QT7 will continue to be updated. At least – you still have it on your Snow Leopard install disk, it proves:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3678
PW on September 29th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Hey I need some help… I have some mpegs that I cannot get to play on my macbook… can anybody help…?
Heiner on October 9th, 2009 at 6:00 am
qt x is really a fake!
none of the pro functions is there, add to movie, export.
i find it bad consumer treatment, its a bit like that little apple keyboard with the missing num pads coming with the new imacs. but there at least you CAN buy a new keyboard – here you cant buy a full feature qt , they want us to buy final cut
Fernando on October 17th, 2009 at 10:52 pm
This is a JOKE!
Remove Export Video and Audio Options :( Why?
New QuicktimeX is beautiful but not special.
Apple is FUMBLE!!!
jokerman5 on October 24th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I’ve heard there are some wildlife groups trying to get Apple to do more stuff with the actual S.L.’s lol. I don’t know- people are saying it’s good PR for Apple- they should jump on that.
Mark on November 6th, 2009 at 7:52 am
With QT X, I can’t cut and paste the movie anymore like in QT 7. I don’t understand why these great features were removed in X version??
Jeff on November 12th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I just found that if you re-install QT 7, then rename it to “Quicktime Player” and rename version X to “Quicktime Player X” and then put both in the Applications folder, QT 7 will be the default player.