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10th Anniversary of Quicktime
An anonymous reader submitted a story about the 10th anniversary of QuickTime which might not seem like such a big deal unless you set your mental wayback machine to 1991 and remember what we didn't have back then. Bits from Brian Eno and others. Worth reading.
You are also confusing codecs or players with QuickTime. MPEG is a codec, Windows media has is wma codec and player...QuickTime is a Media Layer providing all the necessary tools to deal with hundreds of formats and just as many codecs supporting wide ranges of playback and presentation options not just limited to audio, video, graphics, vector graphics, VR...
I could got on, but instead you should go read up at on specifics here.
There was a time when I just wished MS ripped QT's codec and put it in their media player.
I mean.. For a player, all you need is a play button and a stop button.
We do not need animated menus or sweet shading. Just a simple old box.
Guis.. There should be an option to "turn all the options off".
Base skin should be no skin. Naked.
Just like a pen does not need some purty little bunnies on it to write effectively.
Still. Happy 10th', QT. You've put on some weight lately, but fortunately I still have an older version on my Lodoss War cds.
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
DivX is simply a codec. It is not a media layer. Codecs can be added and removed from applications and media layers. Example: I watch DivX movies under Quicktime using a file conatining the codec (although there are a few differing bastardised versions of MPEG4, generally the 3ivx, 4ivx, and 5ivx codecs I have installed here handle most formats.
Furthermore even with windows if you want support for many of these codecs you still have to go out and hunt down the codec. One of the most annoying things with avi files is the you never know what format they are in. The avi format actually can use as many as 15 separate formats (codecs) which are incompatable with each other.
What I have yet to see anywhere else is a single multimedia layer comprising MIDI synth, picture, video, panoramas, etc.
/rant/
It really is not Apple's fault that Linux developers have payed so little attention to developing Linux based solutions for Apple formats. I finbd it amazing how much of the horrible proprietary windows junk finds it's way to my linux/BSD boxen and how poor support is for Apple things. And then the galling thing is that Apple takes the blame for it here. One example was a suggestion that Apple by using their own filesystem for the iPod was horrible and proprietary and they should have used Fat 32. (reality check here) Apple should ditch their own file format and use Microsofts? kidding, right?
Microsft calls GPL evil, and Apple hires OSS developers and gives source code for core of their _current OS_ away and some of you guys still bash Apple for M$... go figure...
/rant/
AFAIK the codec is patented, so even if someone RE's it, it's illegal to use without a license. The reason why there are no good open source video players is because there's big money in keeping all the codecs closed.
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
they treated it as multiplatform product, ignrored what the competition was doing, updated it frequently to accomodate new technology and changing hardware/software bases, didn't try to make a fortune off of it, and worked with their user/developer base to make sure they got what they needed to deploy it, and treated it as an "open standard" to a large degree...
And yet, in the end, Microsoft's inferior technology will again win. Look at the marketshare figures for WinMP vs. Quicktime. More importantly, look at how any large organizations are deploying WinMP streams vs. Quicktime. It's only a matter of time before the non-Microsoft web (including QT-based sites) goes dark.
Yes, it sucks. But geeks gotta learn that good technology doesn't always win. In fact, in my cynical old age I'd tend to say that the probability of commercial success is inversely proportional to technological quality. But, still, I will continue to fight the battle, even though it seems hopeless, because, in the end, I still have to live with my choices. But it still sucks...
That is all.
QuickTime is an API framework for passing data through converters. These converters are called codecs (from encode, decode.)
Sorensen is probably the highest quality video codec with good compression for QuickTime. But there are a dozen other free codecs, including the widely available H.263 codec.
QuickTime is available on Linux, it's only the Sorenson codec that is not.
Given these simple facts, why does the Linux community continue to bitch about the absense of QuickTime for linux? Where are the open-source codecs to replace Sorenson? Why isn't the community insisting that web authors use a more widely available codec than Sorenson?
Or, to invert the question, why aren't the few open-source codecs that _are_ being developed being developed as QuickTime codecs? Why can't I get OggVorbis as a QuickTime codec? If the open source world built codecs for QuickTime, they would be usable with a minimum of fuss on Mac OS, Windows, and Linux, which would have a huge impact on adoption. Plus, so much of the boilerplate work, like authoring and playback software, would already be done for them!
It's sad, the opportunity being wasted like this.
-pmb
Converting a single three-minute music video from videotape to a digital video could literally take several days... It required an expensive video editing system, that included a $10,000 professional video card called a HyperCard, a Macintosh and a laser disc player.
Admittedly, I originally presumed Apple's graphical programming language (based on an index card metaphor) was hardware, but that was when I was in Jr. High. These guys could use some fact checking.
hey've opened part of it, so far. the streaming server is open source.
Yup, and it runs on Linux, NT and MacOS (X).
Second, contrary to WMP and REAL it is completely free.
And with the MPEG4 codec you'll have the best streaming video solution on the market.
Didn't you understand what the author was saying? Of course the features of those products have been handed down to new software; that is what always happens. QuickTime is different because it, not a product derived from it, is still around and still innovating.
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
I have found QuickTime to be every bit as stable as Real, and much more stable than WMP. I have had movies played through the plug-in crash the browser, but the browser will also crash for no reason on its own, as well. Plus, in the short time that I actually tried to use Real's browser plug-in, it never worked.
Sure, QuickTime isn't perfect, but it's the best alternative, IMO.
Mr. Sharumpe
-- The above comments are just my opinion. If you are going to flame me, save your time. I am fireproof.
On2 (formerly Duck) VP3 is an exceptionally fine codec, certainly a rival for Sorenson Video 3. If the open source want superb QT quality, they should organise an Ogg QT codec and a VP3 that runs under linux? These must be among the simplest OSS projects imaginable! On2 have already made VP3 QT codecs for MacOS and Win32, and will give you the source. Ogg is obviously the same and Apple have a new found interest in OSS and would LOVE to see QT adopted by the linux community. It's up to you developers to do it, how much more help do you need?
That was classic intercourse!