QuickTime 7.3 User’s Guide Includes instructions for using QuickTime Pro For Mac OS X version 10.3.
K Apple Inc. © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Under the copyright laws, this manual may not be copied, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Apple. Your rights to the software are governed by the accompanying software license agreement. The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Contents Preface 6 6 6 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 10 Welcome to QuickTime What Is QuickTime? What Is QuickTime Pro? What’s New in QuickTime 7? New in QuickTime Player New in QuickTime Pro System Requirements Types of Files QuickTime Supports Checking for New Versions of QuickTime Using Onscreen Help Where to Go for Additional Information Chapter 1 11 11 11 12 15 16 16 17 17 17 18 18 18 18 19 20 20 20 21 21 22 Using QuickTime Player Opening and Playing Files Opening and Playing Movies in QuickTime Player Openi
22 22 Preventing Users from Changing QuickTime Settings Viewing Movies that have Flash Content Chapter 2 23 23 23 23 24 24 25 25 25 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 Getting Started with QuickTime Pro Getting QuickTime Pro Using Advanced Playback Options Playing a Movie on a Second Display Presenting a Movie as a Slideshow Changing the Color Around a Movie Loading Movies into RAM for Better Playback Creating Movies and Other Media Recording Video and Audio About Saving Movies Saving Movies from the Internet Creat
Chapter 4 42 42 43 43 43 45 45 46 46 47 47 48 48 49 49 50 51 51 52 52 53 54 54 54 Exporting Files with QuickTime Pro About Video and Audio Compression Exporting Files Using Presets Customizing Export Settings Customizing Video Export Settings Adding Special Effects and Filters to a QuickTime Movie Changing Image (Frame) Size Customizing Sound Export Settings Preparing Movies for Internet Delivery Preparing a Movie for Fast Start Preparing a Movie for Real-Time Streaming Creating Reference Movies to Optimi
Want to play movies from your hard disk or the Internet? QuickTime Player makes it easy. What Is QuickTime? QuickTime Player is a free multimedia player. You can use it to view many kinds of files, including video, audio, still images, graphics, and virtual reality (VR) movies. QuickTime supports the most popular formats on the Internet for news, sports, education, movie trailers, and other entertainment. QuickTime is also a multimedia architecture that other applications can leverage.
What’s New in QuickTime 7? Both the free QuickTime Player and QuickTime Pro provide a host of new features. New in QuickTime Player  H.264 video support. This state-of-the-art, standards-based codec delivers exceptional-quality video at the lowest data rate possible, across data rates ranging from 3G to HD and beyond.  Live resize. Playback continues smoothly as you change the size of the QuickTime Player window. (Some hardware requirements may apply.)  Zero-configuration streaming.
 Easy access to QuickTime Pro. When you use the free QuickTime Player, features available only in QuickTime Pro display “Pro” by their name. If you choose one of these items, you’ll see a definition of the feature and learn how to purchase QuickTime Pro. (To purchase QuickTime Pro, you must be connected to the Internet using the computer on which you want to install the software.
 Movie sharing. Easily create a movie file for sending via email or posting to a website.  Automator integration. With Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger or later, employ the easy-to-use interface of Automator for streamlining your QuickTime workflow. QuickTime 7 Pro users have exclusive access to a set of QuickTime-based Automator actions for easily automating such tasks as starting and stopping captures, hinting movies, enabling tracks, and more.
For a complete list of supported formats, see the Products area of the QuickTime website. To determine if QuickTime Player can open a file, choose File > Open File and select the file you want to open. You will be able to select only files that can be imported. Checking for New Versions of QuickTime From time to time, Apple releases new versions of QuickTime. If you’re connected to the Internet while using QuickTime Player, you’ll be notified when there’s a newer version of QuickTime available.
1 Using QuickTime Player 1 This chapter explains the basics of using QuickTime Player. Opening and Playing Files You can open and play QuickTime movies in QuickTime Player or in your web browser. Opening and Playing Movies in QuickTime Player You can use QuickTime Player to play media stored on your computer’s hard disk, a CD, a DVD, or the Internet.
QuickTime Player has onscreen controls similar to those found on CD players and DVD players. Use the controls to play, pause, rewind, fast-forward, jump to the beginning or end, and adjust the volume of a QuickTime movie. You can also use the controls to move forward or backward in a movie. To go to a specific point in the movie, drag the playhead (the small black triangle) in the timeline.
With QuickTime Pro, you also have the option of saving the movie to your hard disk (if the author of the movie allows it). To save a movie from the web, click the downwardpointing arrow on the right and choose “Save as QuickTime Movie” or “Save as Source” from the QuickTime Pro menu. If the movie is a Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) movie, it is saved as a small “reference movie” that points to the actual movie on the Internet.
QuickTime automatically detects your Internet connection speed so that you get the highest-quality QuickTime content that your Internet connection can support. If movies you’re watching on the Internet don’t play properly, however, it may help to change the connection speed setting. To change the connection speed setting in Mac OS X, open QuickTime Preferences and click Streaming. In Windows, open QuickTime Preferences and choose Connection Speed.
To use HTTP streaming (in Mac OS X): 1 In QuickTime Player, choose QuickTime Player > QuickTime Preferences (or open System Preferences and click QuickTime). 2 Click Advanced. 3 Choose Custom from the Transport Setup pop-up menu. 4 Choose HTTP from the Transport Protocol pop-up menu. To use HTTP streaming (in Windows): 1 In QuickTime Player, choose Edit > Preferences > QuickTime Preferences. 2 Choose Advanced. 3 Choose Custom from the Transport Setup pop-up menu.
Some QTVR movies have hot spots that take you from one scene (or node) to another. As you move the mouse over a hot spot, the cursor changes to an arrow. To see all the places where you can jump from one node in a scene to another, click the Show Hot Spot button (an arrow with a question mark in it). A translucent blue outline of any hot spots within the currently visible VR scene appears. (If there are no hot spots, clicking this button has no effect.) Click a hot spot to jump to a new scene.
Opening Recently Used Files You can easily open recently used files. To open recently used files: m Choose File > Open Recent > [option] To change the number of items that appear in the Open Recent submenu (in Mac OS X), choose QuickTime Player > Preferences, click General, and choose an option from the Number of Recent Items pop-up menu. In Windows, choose Edit > Preferences > Player Preferences.
Viewing Information About a File QuickTime Player can display information about a QuickTime file, such as its compression format, size, and frame rate while playing. To view information about a file: 1 Open the file. 2 Choose Window > Show Movie Info. With QuickTime Pro, you can see additional information about a movie by choosing Window > Show Movie Properties. For more information about movie properties, see “Changing Movie Properties” on page 38.
 Play sound in frontmost player only: Select to play the audio for only one QuickTime Player window (the active window); deselect to play the sound of all playing movies simultaneously.  Play sound when application is in background: Select to play audio even if QuickTime is not the frontmost application; deselect to mute the audio when QuickTime is not the active application.
You can also set options for all movies playing at full screen. For example, you can hide the movie controls or change the amount of time they’re displayed before being hidden. To set these options in Mac OS X, choose QuickTime Player > Preferences and click Full Screen. To set these options in Windows, choose Edit > Preferences > Player Preferences, and then click Full Screen.
Using Frame Number and Time Codes When you’re viewing a movie in QuickTime Player, you can display the current movie time or frame number, or the SMPTE time code if the movie has a time code track. (Some applications, such as Final Cut Pro, automatically add a time code during capture.) Displaying Frame Numbers, Movie Time, or Time Code The area next to the timeline in QuickTime Player displays the time information for the current movie. 1 Click the time display area.
Finding Text in a Text Track Some movies contain text such as titles, credits, subtitles, or section headings. You can search for text in a movie so that, for example, you can find specific frames in the movie. To search for text in a QuickTime movie: 1 Choose Edit > Find > Find. If this command is unavailable, the movie does not have a text track. 2 In the Find dialog, type the text you are looking for and click Next.
2 Getting Started with QuickTime Pro 2 Learn how to use the advanced playback options in QuickTime Pro, create movie postcards, and share them via email or the web. Getting QuickTime Pro To get QuickTime Pro, choose a QuickTime Pro menu item and click Buy Now, or choose QuickTime Player > Buy QuickTime Pro. You must be connected to the Internet using the computer on which you want QuickTime Pro installed. You may need to restart QuickTime Player to make the new options available.
To play a movie on a second display: 1 Open a movie in QuickTime Player. 2 Choose View > Present Movie. The two displays are shown side by side; one contains the menu bar. The letter “Q” appears on the display on which the movie will play. To play the movie on the other display, click it. 3 Choose an option from the pop-up menu. To play the movie without displaying the QuickTime Player controls, choose Full Screen. 4 Select Movie or Slideshow mode.
Loading Movies into RAM for Better Playback QuickTime has two memory (RAM) options you can use to improve playback performance. Preload puts the entire movie into memory before it is played; Cache keeps movie data in memory after it has played. This option is useful for small files you want to loop. With QuickTime Pro, you can adjust memory options for a QuickTime movie track. To adjust memory options for a track: 1 Choose Window > Show Movie Properties.
Setting Recording Options When you first use QuickTime Pro to record video or audio, settings are automatically chosen for you. If you want, you can change settings such as which recording device and format to use, and where recorded movies are stored. To change recording options: 1 Choose QuickTime Player > Preferences. 2 Click Recording (or Audio Recording in Windows). 3 Choose the desired options for your video source, microphone, and quality, and then choose a default location to store recorded files.
Saving Movies from the Internet With QuickTime Pro, you can save (download) a movie viewed in your web browser to your hard disk. (The movie must be authored to allow for saving.) If it’s a streaming movie, QuickTime Pro saves a small “reference movie” that points to the stream. To save an Internet movie on your hard disk: 1 When the movie finishes loading (when the entire progress bar is filled with gray), click the down arrow in the playback controls. 2 Choose “Save as QuickTime Movie.
You can add music to your slideshow by adding an audio track to your movie before saving it. Open an audio file, select the portion you want to add to the slideshow, and choose Edit > Copy. Select the slideshow (or a portion of it) and choose Edit > Select All, then choose Edit > “Add to Selection and Scale.” The audio is sped up or slowed down to fit the length of the paste destination (the pitch remains the same). For best results, make the slideshow length match that of the audio as closely as possible.
Sharing Movies by Email or the Web With QuickTime Pro and Mac OS X it’s easy to create movies that are just right for sharing with others by email or on your .Mac HomePage. Simply select how you want to share your movie, and QuickTime Pro automatically creates a file suitable for that delivery method. (To use the Share feature to put your movie on the web, you need a .Mac account.) To share a movie: 1 Choose File > Share. 2 Click Email or HomePage. 3 Choose a name and size for the movie.
3 Editing and Authoring with QuickTime Pro 3 Learn how to use QuickTime Pro to edit movies, manipulate movie tracks, and much more. Simple Editing With QuickTime Pro, you can perform movie-editing tasks. Selecting and Playing Part of a Movie To perform editing functions such as Copy and Delete, in most cases you need to first select the desired portion of a movie. (If you don’t select anything, the edit commands work on the current frame.
Note: By default, the selection markers hide when nothing is selected, making it easy to determine whether or not a frame is selected. To turn off this option so that the selection markers appear even when nothing is selected, change the “Hide selection indicators for empty selection” option in QuickTime Player preferences. Cutting, Copying, or Deleting a Section of a Movie Selecting and moving, copying, or deleting (trimming) part of a movie is easy in QuickTime Pro.
Working with Tracks A QuickTime movie is made up of one or more “tracks.” Each track stores a particular kind of data. For example, a QuickTime movie could have a video track, music tracks, and sound effects tracks. With QuickTime Pro, you can edit tracks individually. You can move tracks from one movie to another, turn a track on or off, delete tracks, or modify the information contained in a track.
To extract a track (and add it to another movie): 1 Choose Window > Show Movie Properties. 2 Select the desired track or tracks and click Extract. You can select more than one track by holding down the Shift key when you click. QuickTime creates a new movie containing the extracted tracks. 3 To add the extracted track to another movie, select the movie (or the portion of it you want your pasted media to fit into) and choose Edit > “Add to Movie.
Note: If your audio and video are created by the same device, such as a DV camera, and are created at the same time, the audio and video will be synchronized. Changing Sound Track Volume Levels and Other Audio Settings With QuickTime Pro, you can change the volume and balance of audio and music tracks. For example, if a movie has more than one audio track, you can adjust the volume of the tracks relative to one another. You can also change the bass and treble levels.
Pasting Graphics and Text into a Movie With QuickTime Pro, you can paste graphics and text into a QuickTime movie. If a pasted graphic is larger than the movie’s dimensions, QuickTime Pro resizes the movie to fit the dimensions of the graphic. For best results, size graphics (using a graphics program) to match the movie size before you insert them. You can export a single frame from the movie to use as a guide for text placement. (See “Creating a Still Image from a Movie” on page 28.
Overlaying a Movie with Text With QuickTime Pro, you can use QuickTime Player to overlay (superimpose) text on a specific part of an existing movie. To overlay text: 1 In QuickTime Player, choose File > Open File and then select the text file. 2 Choose Edit > Select All and then choose Edit > Copy. (In Windows, click Options, select the Keyed Text checkbox, and copy the track). 3 Select the part of the movie on which you want to overlay the text. 4 Choose Edit > “Add to Selection and Scale.
The duration for each line of text in the text file appears on a separate line before the line of text. The time you type is the length of time after the movie has started at which this line of text will appear. Timestamps are specified as hours:minutes:seconds:fractions of a second (the default Text to Text export setting is 1/600th of a second). For example, if you enter the time 00:02:11:00, the text on the following line appears at 2 minutes and 11 seconds into the movie.
Changing Movie Properties The following sections describe how to resize or rotate a movie, set a movie’s poster frame, and more. Adding Annotations to a Movie With QuickTime Pro, you can add annotations to document information about the movie, such as its author, director, and copyright information. You can annotate the entire movie and any of its individual tracks. To annotate a movie: 1 In QuickTime Player, choose Window > Show Movie Properties. 2 Select an item from the list and click Annotations.
Changing a Movie’s Shape with a Video Mask With QuickTime Pro, you can change the shape of a movie from rectangular to other shapes using a video mask. In combination with a media skin; you can “skin” a movie so that it plays in a non-rectangular region (for example, a movie could play from within a ship porthole), and then use a mask to restrict the movie’s shape to the desired playback region.
3 Choose File > Export. In the Export pop-up menu, choose “Text to Text.” In the Use pop-up menu, choose “Text with Descriptors.” 4 Click Options. In the Text Export Settings dialog, select “Show Text, Descriptors, and Time”; select “Show time relative to start of Movie”; and set fractions of seconds to 1/30 (the default is 1/1000). 5 Click OK, then click Save to create a text file with descriptors.
18 Select the text track, then select “Preload this track” (to make the chapter track load first). 19 Deselect the new text track so that it doesn’t display on top of the video. The new track will still function as a chapter track. 20 Save the movie as a self-contained movie. You can now choose a chapter title from the pop-up menu to the right of the timeline.
4 Exporting Files with QuickTime Pro 4 If you want more control over how QuickTime creates a file, use the Export feature of QuickTime Pro. With QuickTime Pro, you can export a movie to a number of different file formats, such as QuickTime movie (MOV), MPEG-4, 3GPP, 3GPP2, AVI, and DV. In addition, you can export an audio track to several different audio formats, export the individual frames of a movie as separate image files, or export a text track to a text file.
Exporting Files Using Presets QuickTime Pro offers a myriad of settings and options for compressing video and audio during export. To help simplify the process of compressing and exporting, QuickTime Pro also offers export presets. Different presets are available for each file format. To export a movie using presets: 1 In QuickTime Player, open the movie you wish to export. 2 Choose File > Export. 3 Choose a file format from the Export pop-up menu.
4 In the Video area of the Movie Settings dialog, click Settings, and then choose your settings. Â Compression type: Choose the video compressor (codec) you want to use to compress your video. For the highest quality at the lowest data rate (or the smallest file), H.264 is recommended. Â Data rate (bit rate): In general, the higher the data rate, the better the quality, but the bigger the file. In most cases, you’ll want to set a data rate based on the way your movie will be viewed.
Movies with higher frame rates show motion better but have larger file sizes. If you choose a frame rate that’s lower than the movie’s current frame rate, frames will be deleted. If you choose a number that’s higher than the movie’s current frame rate, existing frames will be duplicated (not recommended, since it increases file size without improving quality). When choosing a frame rate, use a simple fraction of your current frame rate, such as 1/2, 1/3, and so on.
Customizing Sound Export Settings To customize sound settings for export: 1 Choose File > Export. 2 Choose “Movie to QuickTime Movie” from the Export pop-up menu. 3 Click Options. 4 In the Sound area of the Movie Settings dialog, click Settings and then choose your options: Â Format: Choose the compressor (codec) you want to use for compressing sound. For general use and Internet delivery of music, MPEG-4 Audio (AAC) is recommended. Â Channels: Choose between mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 channels).
Preparing a Movie for Fast Start With QuickTime Pro, you can set up a movie to start playing from a web server before the movie has completely downloaded to the user’s hard disk. This is called a “Fast Start” movie. Set the Fast Start setting just before you distribute your movie; making other changes and resaving may undo the Fast Start setting. If the movie is in the format you want, you can set it up for Fast Start by choosing File > Save As and then selecting “Save as a self-contained movie.
If you want to stream a QuickTime movie using QuickTime Streaming Server, you should use a web-optimized video or audio compressor to compress the movie file. All QuickTime compressors are compatible with QuickTime Streaming Server, but the compressors listed here are optimized to give the best results for delivery over the Internet. For a complete list of compressors that QuickTime supports, see the Products area of the QuickTime website (www.apple.com/quicktime/products). Â Video compressors: H.
4 Choose a poster frame option for the movie. The poster frame determines the still image viewers will see when they load the web page with the embedded reference movie. If you want to set a new poster frame before exporting the versions, click Cancel. Then navigate to the frame you want to use and choose View > Set Poster Frame. 5 Click Export to create the files necessary for the options you selected.
 Video Format: Choose the video compressor (codec) you want to use to compress your video. For the highest quality at the lowest data rate (or the smallest file), H.264 is recommended. If you need the file to play on a device that supports MPEG-4 video, choose MPEG-4 Basic or MPEG-4 Improved, depending on the target device. If your source movie’s video track is already compressed, you can choose “Pass through” so that the video doesn’t get compressed again.
 Data Rate: As with video, the more kilobits per second, the better the audio quality.  Channels: Choose between mono (1 channel) or stereo (2 channels).  Output Sample Rate: Available only with AAC audio. It’s best to match the sample rate to that of the target device.  Encoding Quality: Available only with AAC audio. The Good setting is optimized for the highest-speed encoding, for higher-quality, choose Best for 16-bit audio, or Better if your audio source is 24-bit.
3G File Format Export Options After you choose File > Export and click Options, the first two items in the File Format pop-up menu are the standard formats.  3GPP is for GSM networks. With this format, you can use:  MPEG-4, H.263, or H.264 video  AAC or AMR audio  3G timed text  3GPP2 is for CDMA 2000 networks. With this format, you can use:  MPEG-4, H.263, or H.
 Image Size: If you’re sending the file to a mobile phone, choose one of the standards. Current maintains the source material size; the resulting file may not play on a mobile phone. To choose a size not listed in the pop-up menu, choose Custom.  Preserve Aspect Ratio Using: If you are changing the image size, use this option to specify an option in case the movie needs to be scaled to the new dimensions.
3G Text Options When you export a movie to 3G format (by choosing File > Export and then choosing “Movie to 3G”), you access the following options by clicking Options and then clicking Text. These options are available if your movie has a text track (credits, titles, subtitles, and so on). Some mobile devices can’t play text in a movie. To allow the movie to play only if the text can be displayed on the receiving device, select “Require text capability on handset.
Appendix Shortcuts and Tips Learn keyboard shortcuts and other tips for using QuickTime efficiently. QuickTime Player Keyboard Shortcuts QuickTime Player and QuickTime Pro provide keyboard shortcuts for most playback options. When available, each of these shortcuts appears to the right of its associated menu item. A few keyboard shortcuts have no menu equivalents.
For this control Press (Mac OS X) Press (Windows) Play/pause Space bar Space bar Play or pause all movies Command-Return Control-Enter Play movie backward Shift–double-click Command–Left Arrow Shift–double-click Stop playback and go back one frame Left Arrow Left Arrow Stop playback and go forward one frame Right Arrow Right Arrow Go to beginning of selection or movie Option–Left Arrow Control–Left Arrow Go to end of selection or movie Option–Right Arrow Control–Right Arrow Turn volu
To do this Press (Mac OS X) Press (Windows) Enter full-screen mode Command-F Control-F Exit full-screen mode Command-period or Esc Control-period or Esc Play movie at half size Command-0 Control-0 Play movie at normal size Command-1 Control-1 Play movie at double size Command-2 Control-2 Play movie at full size Command-3 Control-3 Move In marker to playhead location I I Move Out marker to playhead location O O Extend selection to the left Option–Shift–Left Arrow Extend selection
Automating QuickTime Player on Windows In Windows, you can use JavaScript, Visual Basic, or other Active Scripting languages to automate QuickTime Player functions. As with AppleScript on Mac OS X, you can control movie playback, convert movies from one format to another, adjust movie and track properties, and more. There are three QuickTime Player objects available for use: Â QuickTimePlayerApp The application object.
Glossary Glossary AIFF (Audio Interchange File Format) An audio file format used widely on the web. aspect ratio The relationship between the height and width of an image. audio channel Audio tracks can contain one or more channels of audio data. Each channel represents the sound directed to a particular speaker. For instance, stereo tracks contain two audio channels. audio channel label Each audio channel may be labeled to specify where its sound should be directed.
Fast Start A method of delivering a movie so that it can start playing before it is fully downloaded. frame A single image in a movie. frame rate The number of frames displayed per second. GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) A file format for images. hint track In a streamed movie, a hint track specifies for the server how the movie’s content is to be transmitted. hot spot A place in a virtual reality movie where the user can interact with the movie using the mouse.
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) A file format for images. poster In QuickTime, a still image, usually a single frame from a movie, used to represent the movie to users. protocol A set of standards for sending and receiving information on a network. QTSS (QuickTime Streaming Server) A technology used to deliver media over the Internet in real time. QuickTime Player An application that opens and plays QuickTime movies, as well as many other kinds of files.
3G files exporting 51–53 A A/V Controls 18 animations 27 annotations 38 AppleScript 57 audio adding an audio track 33 audio controls 18, 34 B balance changing for an audio track 34 balance controls 18 bass level 18, 34 bit rate.
locked media files 17 looping 20 rotating a movie 38 RTSP 14 M S media keys 17 memory options 25 MIDI 16 MIME Settings 15 Mirror Displays 23 monitors.
