Filed under: Multimedia, Software
Quick QuickTime Q&A
QuickTime was one of the few apps which changed significantly in Snow Leopard. We've heard from some readers who missed the initial reports about it, so we're repeating it here, with some additional QuickTime information.Q: "What happened to QuickTime in Snow Leopard?"
QuickTime Player "X" has brought significant changes to the way the app looks and works. Most notably, there is no "chrome" to the player when a file is being played. This is intended to let you see as much of the picture as possible.
Q: "How do I get the old QuickTime back?"
You can install QuickTime Player 7 on Snow Leopard. Apple even posted instructions which boil down to this:
- Insert your Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Install DVD.
- Open the Optional Installs folder and double-click "Optional Installs.mpkg".
- Select the QuickTime 7 option and click Continue.
- QuickTime Player 7 will be installed in your Utilities folder.
Q: "I had QuickTime Pro before I upgraded to Snow Leopard, I want to use its features!"
That's not really a question, but we understand that you're upset. QuickTime Pro had the ability to do more than QuickTime X. If you installed Snow Leopard over your Leopard installation, check /Applications/Utilities/ QuickTime 7 should already be there. If not, you can install it as above.
Q: "I have QuickTime 7.6.3, and I tried to install 7.6.4 but it wouldn't let me."
That isn't a question either. You're not very good at this Q&A thing, are you? Nevermind. This confused me as well. The webpage for QuickTime 7.6.4 says that it is for "... Mac OS X 10.5 or later" but the download page for QuickTime 7 says that it is for Leopard or Tiger only. The installer for QuickTime 7.6.4 refuses to install on Snow Leopard.
Q: "What's New in QuickTime 7.6.4?"
That's a good question. From Apple: "QuickTime 7.6.4 includes changes that increase reliability, improve compatibility and enhance security. This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users." It's unclear why this isn't available for Snow Leopard. Perhaps the security and compatibility aren't applicable. I hope.
Q: "How can I take a screenshot of a movie in QuickTime X?"
One gripe about the new QuickTime X is that when you pause a video, the on-screen controls stay visible, making it impossible to grab a clean screenshot. TUAW reader Gwion Daniel wrote in to tell us that you can make the controls fade by double-clicking the picture frame. I have had mixed results with this. I have had the most success double-clicking on the far right side of the window (where the scrollbar would be, if there was one). Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes it takes a few tries. If you can't get it to work, fire up VLC and use the menu item Video > Snapshot.
Q: "What happened to QuickTime X's preferences?"
Thery aren't any clearly visibe as there's no preference menu. However, if you install the Secrets preference panel which we mentioned earlier you'll find hidden preferences for:
- Autoplay movies on open
- Allow multiple simultaneous recordings
- Always hide title bar
- Autohide titlebar/controller
- Autoshow titlebar/controller
- Automatically show subtitles and closed captioning on open
- Exit fullscreen when switching apps
- Use square corners
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
vandil said 3:12PM on 11-05-2009
QuickTime Player X should be looked at for what it really is: a completely different media player/editor application that was given the QuickTime brand name.
Think of how the totally new iMovie '08 replaced iMovie HD in iLife.
QuickTime 7 is/was the last version of the "QuickTime Player" we've been using all these years/decades. It's there for us to play with in Snow Leopard, but it will die a sad death when QuickTime X finally gets its legs.
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Dave said 3:13PM on 11-05-2009
I want to like like QuickTime X. I really am trying. The problem is that is actually use QuickTime 7 Pro for more than just watching videos. I publish my church's podcast every week and QuickTime 7 Pro allows me to trim the start and stop points, edit out video clips we don't have rights to publish from the middle of the video, add bookends and export it. I can even export the audio as an AIFF for the audio podcast.
QT7 was fast, simple, and efficient for this type of work (I have iMovie and Final Cut, but iMovie sucks, and Final Cut is overkill for this type of project). Heck, you can even do watermarks with QT7.
Right now everything is fine because I still have QT7 available. But my fear is down the road it will eventually stop working or become too dated. Will a future version of QuickTime replace that functionality? Maybe (I'm -guessing- no).
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SpinThis! said 4:45PM on 11-05-2009
So use FCP. I bet you could find a more efficient workflow using FCP anyway. You also always have the option not to upgrade to future OS versions too.
But the fact that Apple is still supporting QT7 Pro says volumes about how unfinished the QuickTime X frameworks are. Many of Apple's pro apps and 3rd parties still rely on the older software and I would guess it may be 10.8 or later before Apple even begins to deprecate the current QuickTime libraries and all those apps break. This change isn't going to happen overnight.
brian said 5:09PM on 11-05-2009
>> I have iMovie and Final Cut, but iMovie
>> sucks, and Final Cut is overkill for this
>> type of project
> So use FCP.
Thanks. You're really helpful.
You'd be surprised how much editing (and other useful tasks) can be done with QT Player. Final Cut is indeed overkill for exactly what he's describing. Oh, and did you know it costs a couple hundred dollars? That's a lot compared to $0 or $30.
> I bet you could find a more efficient workflow using FCP anyway.
Did you read his post at all? Open, trim, edit, export in multiple formats, from one window. How much more efficient do you think he could be?
Dave said 5:36PM on 11-05-2009
Thank you Brian. You've summarized my points exactly.
Sky said 3:35PM on 11-05-2009
Q: "How can I take a screenshot of a movie in QuickTime X?"
If you click on the window once and don't move your mouse, the window bar and controllers disappear, giving you the opportunity to have a clean screen grab.
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Brian said 3:59PM on 11-05-2009
Q: "How can I take a screenshot of a movie in QuickTime X?"
I ran into this the other day. My movie file wouldn't open in VLC, so I opened it in Photoshop and used the timeline to scrub and find the frame I wanted. Not optimal, but it worked for me.
Joe said 3:45PM on 11-05-2009
I read somewhere that QTX is a complete rewrite of QT from cocoa to carbon (or vice versa, I always get them confused). Its my understanding that all of the features that were left out of QTX are eventually coming back. They all just need to be rewritten, which apparently is very time consuming.
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Joanna D said 4:22PM on 11-05-2009
I have to say Windows Live Movie Maker (the new version, not the one that shipped with Windows XP) for Windows Vista and 7 blows anything Quicktime used to do and everything iMovie does out of the water. And it's free!
Wonder how long it will take Apple to catch up?
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Sky said 4:51PM on 11-05-2009
Both Quicktime 7 and iMovie are free. And they come with the OS rather than having to download them separately.
From PC Mag: Windows Live Movie Maker lacks some of the snazzier features you find in iMovie, such as video stabilization and all the Hollywood-style themes with animated titles and sophisticated transitions. But for ease of use for simple, everyday tasks, Microsoft's program is hard to beat.
What does Apple have to catch up with?
puhsitch said 5:27PM on 11-05-2009
What makes it stand out so much? Just curious...I've never used Movie Maker before
SIP said 5:53PM on 11-05-2009
Troll Alert!!
Just ignore her -- she has nothing positive to say about Apple products.
brian said 5:04PM on 11-05-2009
Hate, hate, HATE the new player. I *like* my windows to have borders, and controls that cover content are NOT always ideal. I haven't seen ANY benefits of QTX. If Steve wants things to be borderless with content-covering controls, he could have turned them off by default in Player and given an option to use the old behavior in the preferences. Done. I have NO IDEA why this new thing was released.
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Information Central said 5:11AM on 11-06-2009
Yes, the new UI sucks. More holes in the Apple UI "elegance" myth.
Not only is it stupid to have controls blocking out parts of the image (for ANY amount of time), it's stupid to have the controls invisible unless you roll over the image.
And the lack of any frame or border: Gee, Apple, did you notice that artwork is FRAMED and usually has a MATTE AROUND IT?
Seriously, these guys are "visual" experts? This is amateur hour.
Larry said 5:09PM on 11-05-2009
The real question: When will Quicktime support .AVI - the most common video form on the internet? And when will Quicktime support real audio files? It is amazing that Apple's response to codec licensing (free codecs!) is to download some other program like perian or vlc or whatever. I still don't know how to easily play a real audio file stream from the internet, and there are a lot out there.
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TedJ said 4:02AM on 11-06-2009
To be honest, this isn't terribly different to the out of the box codec support for Windows... last time I checked, it was WMA/WMV and... oh, that's it.
I consider Mac users lucky that all it takes is a quick download of Perian and Flip4Mac to cover 99% of the codecs currently in use. Compare that to the nightmare of conflicting codec packs under Windows and I know which one I'm choosing.
@mark: I was also puzzled by the omission of the Apple standard JKL transport controls. Fortunately, these are still available, they've been remapped to command left and right arrow.
Gazoobee said 6:47PM on 11-05-2009
The new player is definitely a 1.0 kind of thing. Very shaky and buggy in my experience. I'm hoping they really push development of the thing as it's pretty annoying to have this broken implementation of one of the base features of the OS in your face all day.
My biggest gripe is that playing, or even using preview on certain AVI files, can result in the complete breaking of both the old and new players. I've had this happen three times now just by inadvertently clicking on the wrong file. The only way to fix it once this happens is to re-install all the quicktime components which involves extracting the package and a bit of technical know-how. It's something beyond the average user anyway.
A very "Microsoftian" experience overall.
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samuel said 9:15PM on 11-05-2009
I have a question about QTX: Can I still add metadata to movs? Is the interface changed?
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bill.g said 12:54AM on 11-06-2009
terrible article.
"...intended to let you see as much of the picture as possible." you've got to be kidding.
ars technica's incredibly thorough review of snow leopard in august 09 described the exact situation with quicktime x in excruciating detail. maybe the author of this post should have read it.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/08/mac-os-x-10-6.ars/6
or google ars technica snow leopard.
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shrakner said 12:59AM on 11-06-2009
One gripe I have with QT X is its inability to shrink the window smaller than 478 pixels wide, in order to have room for playback controls. Occasionally, I only want a 320x240 window playing something while I'm working.
One nice benefit I found to this scheme, though, is it makes a setup with a secondary small display a bit easier. I have a 7" LCD TV that I can use as a secondary display, and with QTX I don't have to worry about sacrificing strips of space to keep playback controls visible (fullscreen mode won't work since I want to be able to work on my main display at the same time).
A feature that all versions of Quicktime have so far lacked, though, is the ability to keep the player window above other apps. When I really need that, I use VLC now, but the Quicktime player has always performed better for me (no skips/tearing when processor or HD usage spikes due to another app).
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