| |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  | |||||
Staff BlogsQuickTime Category
WWDC 2009 Summary 15" MacBook ProApple announced a new 15" MacBook Pro with a built-in battery like its 17" sibling. This results in dramatically improved battery life, performance and reliability at the expense of a battery you cannot replace. To me this is not a problem at all but to some it will be a dealbreaker.It also has an improved display with a 60% greater color gamut, allowing it to display a much greater range of colors. It's much faster, with up to a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo CPU and up to 8GB of RAM, with a 500 GB hard disk or 256 GB SSD. It's also cheaper, starting at $1699 for the base model. However, much like its previous notebook offerings, Apple gives with one hand and takes with the other. In a move that makes me question how in touch Apple is with its pro users, they have replaced the ExpressCard slot with an SD card slot. So that means no more native SxS support - you'll need to fork out for a USB adapter. And expect a drop in transfer speed over USB too. Removing the ExpressCard slot drastically reduces the flexibility of the laptop. They've replaced a versatile port with one that has few uses (at least for video professionals). It also means we will not be able to connect eSATA devices or monitoring / conversion devices such as the Matrox MXO2 to MacBook Pros, drastically reducing their usefulness. This is a ridiculous decision for Apple to make on a device with "Pro" in the title. Sure, you can get around this issue by buying a 17" MacBook Pro but I feel an ExpressCard slot should come as standard and not require you to buy a bigger, heavier and more expensive machine just for that feature. Another aspect that is sure to irk ProApp users is the base model. Although it is good that Apple has reduced its price, it only features onboard graphics, unlike all the others which feature onboard and discrete graphics. This makes it unsuitable for applications like Motion and makes me question how future-proof this machine will be when Snow Leopard with OpenCL comes out. I think a machine with "Pro" in the title should be appropriately-specced to run Apple's professional applications. 13" MacBook ProSpeaking of which, Apple rebranded the aluminum unibody MacBooks as the 13" MacBook Pro. Although the specifications are similar to the base 15" model and will therefore also result in limited ProApp usage and questionable OpenCL performance in Snow Leopard, I don't have a problem with that because this is something that was never there in the first place - this is not something Apple has taken away from us.There's also some good news - Apple seems to have paid attention to the protests over the lack of FireWire ports in the previous generation and has now restored a single FireWire 800 port. The models are available up to 2.53 GHz with up to 8 GB RAM, an SD slot and a GeForce 9400M. The high-end 13" model is identical to the base 15" model in specification, which reiterates my opinion that the base 15" model is underpowered. MacBook AirLike the others, the MacBook Air has received a speed bump. It's also had a huge price cut and there is now only a few hundred dollars difference between the regular hard disk and SSD versions.Snow LeopardApple demoed a few features but as the main changes were under the hood, these will probably be explored in more detail during the rest of the week.Worthy of note:
The biggest Snow Leopard announcement is that Snow Leopard will cost $129 retail like all the rest but only $29 if you are upgrading from Leopard. Yes, you read that correctly. It comes out in September, a month before Windows 7. Safari 4Safari 4 is out today and is available for download for Mac OS X 10.5.7. and Windows. This was one of my favorite announcements of the day - why? Because it makes Safari 4 the first shipping browser to pass Acid3 and support many new HTML5 web features.One notable feature is video and audio tags. These allow you to play supported video and audio content directly in the browser without the need for Flash, Silverlight or other technologies. Plugins are always slower and more resource-hungry than native support for a particular feature, and open standards are always preferable. See this page for an HTML5 video that plays directly in your browser without Flash. These changes have also made it across to MobileSafari, and it means Flash on the iPhone is even less likely than before (not a bad thing). iPhone 3GSIt is a new iPhone but the name is very similar to the previous iPhone 3G, probably because no external differences were made to the phone or perhaps because it is still on the 3G network. It is considerably faster, features a 3MP digital camera, can record video, has a magnetometer (compass), 7.2Mbps HSDPA (faster 3G connection), voice operation, available in 16 and 32 GB on June 19th. The iPhone 3G has been reduced today to $99 and will continue to be sold once the new phone is out.Tethering is not supported by AT&T and MMS will only work on the AT&T network at the end of summer (other networks do not have this handicap). Even Apple seemed fed up with AT&T's general incompetence, making frequent jokes at AT&T's expense. One other notable feature is called Find My iPhone. Mobile Me users can log in and locate their lost iPhone on a map, send messages to it or make it emit a sound so that it can be located (even if it is on silent). If the phone has been stolen, you can remotely wipe your personal data from it. This is a pretty nice feature. Final Cut Studio 3This was missing in action, leading us to wonder when it will be released. Will it be released in conjunction with Snow Leopard - who knows? All I know is that Avid and Adobe CS4 have edged ahead and are looking mighty tempting, and Nuke is looking like a great replacement for Shake. When it comes to making your living, you can't wait around forever for software that you don't know anything about in terms of new features and may not even end up being released. You have to buy what you need when you need it - Apple needs to realize this.So in conclusion, there's some great stuff there for consumers but professional users appear to have been sidelined once again. Categories: Apple, Analysis, QuickTime QuickTime 7.6 First, let's look at the change list: Video: * Improves single-pass H.264 encoding quality * Increases the playback reliability of Motion JPEG media Audio: * Improves AAC encoding fidelity * Audio tracks from MPEG video files now export consistently Almost all of the main features improve exporting, and so it only benefits Pro App users and people who purchased QuickTime Pro. Furthermore, they all improve quality and performance in one way or another. But Apple never details every single change made in detail. Discrete Cosine discovered that QT 7.6 can now demux MPEG-1 audio, meaning you can convert an MPEG-1 file to another format and the resulting file will have both video and audio. Meanwhile, on ProLost, Stu Maschwitz discovered that QT 7.6 fixes clipping issues on footage imported from the Canon 5D MK II. However, as he notes, this could drastically change the look of an existing project if you update in the middle of it. So in all, this looks like a pretty good update for Pro App users. However, the update has only been out for a day which doesn't leave much scope for discovering potential problems. If you look at the ProLost link above, some commenters are already complaining about slow playback performance with some codecs. The Golden Rules (TM) of UpdatingAs always, the Golden Rules (TM) apply: 1. Never update in the middle of a project. 2. Only update if this update fixes a problem you have been experiencing (i.e. don't install it if you don't use these codecs). 3. If you do decide to update, give it a couple of weeks for any significant issues to surface that would affect your workflow. 4. Make a clone or backup of your system drive before you install. Here are the download links: QuickTime 7.6 for Leopard QuickTime 7.6 for Tiger Important Update! MacFixIt is reporting many problems with this update. It would seem Apple has made significant changes under the hood that are causing compatibility issues with everything from the Finder to third party codecs - even to video games. The MacFixIt page lists several workarounds. My advice is to avoid this like the plague until Apple releases 7.6.1 or third party developers update their software to be compatible. Categories: Apple, Final Cut Studio, QuickTime Perian 1.1.1 released Changes: * H.264 in AVI fixed * Some anamorphic AVI files are now supported * Performance problems due to PIC fixed with Xcode 3.1 * Incorrect frame skipping on H.264 intra frames fixed * Better character set detection * The update checker is now much more polite * Several parsing and rendering bugs with subtitles fixed * Player freezing while loading subtitles with embedded fonts fixed * Audio fixed for some older MKV files with AAC/FLAC * Strange values in MKV chapters or video sizes are handled better * Initial support for SAMI subtitles added * Worked around a QuickTime bug (#5770288) causing frames to be lost during export * New codecs: DosBox ZMBV, VP6+Alpha, Nellymoser ASAO * FFmpeg: Crashing on PPC G3 fixed * Fraps decoding artifacts fixed Perian can be downloaded for free from Perian.org. [via TUAW] Categories: Software, Utilities, QuickTime QuickTime 7.5.5 releasedAs always, only update if it is absolutely necessary, NEVER update in the middle of a project unless there is a serious problem preventing you from completing the project, and always clone your disk before updating so that you have an exact copy of your original configuration to revert back to. QuickTime 7.5.5 for Leopard QuickTime 7.5.5 for Tiger Categories: Apple, Final Cut Studio, QuickTime Apple releases ProRes codecs for non-FCP machinesIt should be noted, however, that you still need Final Cut Pro 6 in order to write ProRes files. P.S. Sorry for the lack of updates but I haven't had internet access in about a month, which sucks big time. Categories: Video Editing, Apple, QuickTime QuickTime 7.5 releasedThe timing suggests it is related to the recent iPhone announcements so I doubt this patch does much for ProApp users. I have heard reports of crashes, choppiness and missing audio although of course your mileage may vary. It is always better to sit on updates for a while to check for problems before installing. I would not advise installing this one though because it probably won't offer ProApp users anything new. And remember the Golden Rules - never update in the middle of a project and always have a clone. Edit: This update points directly to the QuickTime site rather than a specific file on the server. This makes me think that Apple will no longer be keeping old versions around so make sure to back this up. Categories: Apple, Software, QuickTime Why does QuickTime report a different resolution? Welcome to the world of non-square pixels. NTSC and PAL use rectangular pixels to fill up space on the screen and save transmission bandwidth, which was more of an issue when the standards were invented. Computer monitors use square pixels and so QuickTime has to squeeze one side of the image in order to prevent it looking stretched. This is purely for display and the file is not modified. The pixel aspect ratio of NTSC footage is 0.889 meaning 720 x 0.889 = 640 so it is displayed at 640x480. For PAL it is 1.067 so 720 x 1.067 = 768 and it is displayed at 768x576. QuickTime also has some options for controlling how the movie is displayed. Open up your movie, go to Window > Show Movie Properties and click on the Presentation tab. You will see an option marked "Conform aperture to:" with the following options: Classic - Classic is identical to having the conform aperture setting switched off.   Clean - Scales the image to compensate for the pixel aspect ratio and crops it to mimic the overscan on a broadcast monitor.   Production - Scales the image to compensate for the pixel aspect ratio but does not crop the image.   Encoded Pixels - No modification is made to the footage. Note the stretching caused by non-square pixels.   This is one of the many reasons why a broadcast monitor is essential. Categories: Video Editing, Analysis, QuickTime QuickTime 7.4.5 releasedOn the other hand, if your system is not working, you have nothing to lose. I'd advise cloning your system beforehand though, as a non-working system could potentially be made even worse by this update. Here are the links... use at your peril! QuickTime 7.4.5 for Panther QuickTime 7.4.5 for Tiger QuickTime 7.4.5 for Leopard I have also updated our list of QuickTime downloads. Categories: Video Editing, Apple, QuickTime Using Pacifist to downgrade QuickTimeApple does not offer a means of uninstalling a rogue version of QuickTime so the solution is rather "hacky". It will solve the problem but for best results, you are recommended to perform a full Erase and Install to reinstall Mac OS X. Also, don't perform this process unless it is absolutely necessary. 1. Download Pacifist. 2. Check which version of QuickTime works best with your software. 3. Download the version of QuickTime you wish to downgrade to. 4. Start up Pacifist and drag the QuickTime package onto the Pacifist logo in the main window.  5. A new window will pop up. Use the disclosure triangles to select the following two directories: System/Library/Components System/Library/QuickTime  It might be worth backing up the existing /System/Library/Components and /System/Library/QuickTime directories on your hard disk before performing this. 6. Now click Install up the top. 7. You will get this message, click Install and then type in your admin password:  8. It will spend a minute or so extracting and verifying files then this message will appear:  Click "Don't ask again for this installation" and then hit Replace. 9. When it finishes, restart your machine. If you go to QuickTime Player, it will still say the version number of the old version but if you open Final Cut Pro, it will now work as it did previously. Full credit for this tip goes to Fred Turner. Edit 2/17/08: Fixed a couple of errors. Update 11/16/08: Erik Smith sent me another solution to the issue, although I would definitely say try it at your own risk. Categories: Apple, Final Cut Studio, QuickTime List of QuickTime downloadsQuickTime 7: QuickTime 7.6 for Leopard QuickTime 7.6 for Tiger QuickTime 7.5.5 (Leopard) QuickTime 7.5.5 (Tiger) QuickTime 7.5 (Leopard) QuickTime 7.5 (Tiger) QuickTime 7.5 (Panther) QuickTime 7.4.5 (Leopard) QuickTime 7.4.5 (Tiger) QuickTime 7.4.5 (Panther) QuickTime 7.4.1 (Leopard) QuickTime 7.4.1 (Tiger) QuickTime 7.4.1 (Panther) QuickTime 7.4 (Leopard) QuickTime 7.4 (Tiger) QuickTime 7.4 (Panther) QuickTime 7.3.1 (Leopard) QuickTime 7.3.1 (Tiger) QuickTime 7.3.1 (Panther) QuickTime 7.2 QuickTime 7.1.6 QuickTime 6: QuickTime 6.5.3 QuickTime 6.5.2 QuickTime 6.5.2 reinstaller for QuickTime 7.0.1 QuickTime 6.4 reinstaller QuickTime 6.3.1 QuickTime 6.3 reinstaller QuickTime 6.0.3 QuickTime 5: QuickTime 5.0.5 QuickTime 4: QuickTime 4.1.2 QuickTime 4.0.3 Unfortunately Apple's site does not offer versions below 4, but I doubt many video editors out there are using a machine old enough to require QuickTime 3. Categories: Video Editing, Apple, QuickTime
| |||||||||
|
Comments, suggestions, bug reports? Leave feedback%%PAGE_URL%% | |||||||||
Follow us on Twitter
Global RSS feed