Third Edition, baby
First Edition
QuickTime 4
Second Edition
QuickTime 5
Third Edition
QuickTime 6
Updates
QuickTime 6.5 Released
QuickTime 6.5 and 6.5.1 for Windows and Mac OS X have been released.The CD has not been updated to describe these releases.
QuickTime 6.5.1 has some improvements over version 6.4, most notably: improved DV playback with deinterlaced fields; support for the Apple lossless audio codec and iTunes 4.5; support for more mobile phone multimedia, including AMC, 3GPP, and 3GPP2; and support for Unicode text. See the release notes for details.
This release fixes the bug that prevented chapter lists from displaying properly on Windows. It does contain a bug that causes high-ASCII characters, such as accented letters, to display incorrectly when the text track is created on a Windows PC. The suggested workaround is to export the text track on a Macintosh, correct any errors, and reimport.
Full-Screen Playback in a Browser
The QuickTime plug-in doesn't support full-screen playback from within the browser. Consequently, the usual way to launch a full-screen movie from a browser is to open the movie in QuickTime Player, as described in Chapter 5.However, it is possible to open a new browser window with no toolbar, address bar, status bar, etc., move it to 0,0, resize it to fill the screen, and open a movie with the EMBED tag set to width=100% and height=100%.
This gives you something very close to full-screen playback. For a good example of a website that uses this technique, see panoramas.dk.
To do this yourself, write a JavaScript function in the HTML <HEAD> element that opens a new window with no bells or whistles. Here's a code sample:
<script language="JavaScript">
function bigwindow(moviename)
{
window.open(moviename,"moviewindow","top=0,left=0,resizable=yes,height=200" + ",width=200,toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menubar=0,scrollbars=0");
}
</script>
Call the function from the body of your HTML page, passing-in the URL of a Web page with your embedded movie:
<script language="JavaScript">
bigwindow("bigmovie.html");
</script>
In the HTML of the page you open in the new window, include JavaScript that moves the window to 0,0, resizes the window to the available height and width of the screen, and embeds your movie with height and width set to 100%:
<script language="JavaScript">
self.moveTo(0,0);
self.resizeTo(screen.width,window.screen.availHeight);
</script>
<\HEAD>
<BODY>
<embed height="100%"
width="100%"
src="Your.mov"
bgcolor="black"
scale="aspect"
autoplay="true"
controller="false">
That's all there is to it. To see an example, click to fullscreen/sortafullscreen.html.
QuickTime 6.4 Released
QuickTime 6.4 for Windows and Mac OS X has been released.The CD has not been updated to include this release.
QuickTime 6.4 has some improvements over version 6.3, most notably performance improvements, but also some new features that support authoring media for 3rd generation mobile phones (3GPP), including 3G text and AMR audio.
Unfortunately, QuickTime 6.4 also introduces a few bugs, the most significant of which, for Web developers, is that the QuickTime browser plug-in (and ActiveX control) for Windows does not correctly display chapter lists; the pop-up list contains blank entries instead of chapter names.
The recommended work-around is to target movies with chapter lists to play in QuickTime Player, as described on Page 55, and in more detail on pages 99-106.
QuickTime 6.3 Released
New Software
The first thousand copies of the book's CD-ROM shipped with:- QuickTime 6.2 for Mac OS X
- QuickTime 6.1 for Windows
- QuickTime 6.02 for Mac OS 8/9
- QuickTime 6.3 for Mac OS X and Windows
- QuickTime 6.03 for Mac OS 8/9
Two Appendixes Updated for QuickTime 6.3
Appendix D--Compatibility Issues, and Appendix H--New in QuickTime 6, have been updated for QuickTime 6.3. The updates are available in PDF format.The updated appendixes are included on the newer CDs. If you have an earlier CD, you can download the updated appendixes here:
AAC Encoding Tip
When saving audio using the AAC audio compressor, you have three possible settings: good, better, and best.Good means that rapid compression/decompression and low latency are paramount over quality. Use this setting for live streaming (and some other time-critical applications).
Better means that encoding will conform to the quality of 16-bit sound, such as CD audio. The encoder may disregard audio characteristics below the signal-to-noise limit of 16-bit sound. This is the default setting, and almost always what you want for recorded sound.
Best means that encoding will work with sound at 24-bit sample resolution, enabling greater dynamic range and a better signal-to-noise ratio. This can be useful for audio processing applications working with 24-bit sound. In most cases, however, this setting produces the same sound as the Better setting; it just takes a lot longer (if your source is 16-bit audio, changing to 24 bits will not improve it).