A streamingmedia.com article, "Darwin Streaming Server: Open, Functional and Free" provides an in-depth review of Apple's open source QuickTime Streaming Server.
When QuickTime 5.0.2 was released a few weeks ago, many were happy to see the inclusion of Sorenson Video 3, but began to wonder when a version of Media 100's Cleaner would appear that could fully take advantage of the pro version of the codec. Media 100 finally made an announcement last week that they'd have a free update "later this summer". Read a July 18th Media 100 press release about Cleaner 5 for more details.
Some QuickTime-related Mac OS updates reported at VersionTracker this week:
easy beat (QuickTime music track composition software) has been updated to version 1.3. See the VersionTracker easy beat More Info page.
MacMPEG2Decoder (for converting MPEG2 files into QuickTime movies) has been updated to version 1.0b6. See the VersionTracker MacMPEG2Decoder More Info page.
CoolStream (for live Broadcasting from a Mac OS 9 computer) has been updated to version 1.2. See the VersionTracker CoolStream More Info page.
VR Toolbox released VR Worx 2.1, their suite of tools for creating QuickTime VR panoramas, objects and scenes, for Mac OS X. According to a 7/18 VR Toolbox press release, VR Worx 2.1 doesn't have the ability to create cubic VRs, but does have other interesting features, including the ability to create an object movie with a panorama as a background. You'll find more information at the VR Toolbox web site.
The Little QuickTime page will be on vacation for the next
two weeks.
See you on August 14th!
An article at Digital WebCast on Sorenson Video 3 (a codec now available in QuickTime) compares the Basic version of Sorenson Video 3 to both the Pro and Basic versions of Sorenson Video 2.
A comparison of a large number of video codecs, including those for Windows Media and Real, as well as QuickTime) is going on at the Streaming Video CODEC Shootout page.
A July 17 Sorenson Media press release announces that the company is coming out with a new product called, Sorenson Squeeze, a compression tool for OS X. An article a Creative Mac, "Sorenson Puts the Squeeze on Mac OS X" reveals more about this tool, and which codecs will come with it.
Channel Storm released version 1.1 of Live Channel, software that serves as both a broadcaster and QuickTime Streaming server, It's also capable of mixing video coming from different cameras and adding effects , all live. In other words, it's like a TV studio in one software application. (It runs on FireWire-equipped Macs.) This new version add Live Presenter, which make it easy to synchronize your video with PowerPoint slides and other media elements. Check out the Channel Storm web site and download Live Channel Free (which lets you broadcast to 5 users).
The Intelligent Assistant for Cleaner is now shipping. This is a CD-ROM that contains lots of information, samples, and tutorials--all of which are designed to help you get the most out of Cleaner. Check out The Intelligent Assistant for Cleaner page.
An About.com article "QuickTime Shows Some Skin, Lots of it" provides yet another set of instructions on adding a media skin to your movie.
New versions of VideoScript (version 2.2) are available at the VideoScript Download page. (VideoScript is a tool that can be used to write scripts for processing video.) There's even a beta of a Mac OS X version now.
You can view Steve Jobs keynote address from Macworld New York tomorrow at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. Go to theQuickTime TV - Macworld New York 2001 page.
ABusinessWeek Online product review of the Kodak mc3 talks about the QuickTime movie recording capabilities of this $200 camera and MP3 player.
A MacCentral Online article, "MWNY: VR Toolbox releases VR Worx 2.1 for OS X" covers the release of what is currently the most extensive set of tools for creating QuickTime VR panoramas, objects, and scenes.
Apple has updated its QuickTime Live pages. You can now get info about sessions, registration and more for this October 8-11 Los Angeles conference.
You can now get Tribeworks iShell (a multimedia authoring tool with great QuickTime support) and LiveStage Pro (the tool for creating interactive QuickTime movies) together for $995. For more info read the Tribeworks promotion page.
There's a new version of XMLtoRefMovie, a great little utility that you use to create an reference movie (a file that downloads or streams appropriate versions of the movie depending on the users configuration). You create an XML description (nothing too complicated--a fairly simple text file), and then use XMLtoRefMovie to create a reference movie from that text file. Version 1.0 which is available for Mac OS 7/8/9, Mac OS X, and Windows can be found at the XMLtoRefMovie page.
A new QuickTime users group, the QuickTime Creative Developers Group will launch this week according to the QuickTime Creative Welcome page.
MovieWorks Deluxe 5.1 has been released. You can read more about this easy-to-use QuickTime-based content creation and multimedia authoring suite of tools in a 7/10 MovieWorks press release.
A couple of interesting little Mac QuickTime freeware tools can be found at the Intrigue Software web site. Click the links for QTJukebox, which lets you create playlists, and for QT File Converter, which is a utility for converting between various multimedia file formats (i.e. those that QuickTime supports).
The July 4th Mac Show Live was an interview with David Gratton, president of iciMedia, a company that's doing lots of interactive QuickTime stuff. You can find links to listen to the show if you go the the Mac Show Live Archives page.
There's a Digital WebCast tutorial called "Gimme Some Skin", which shows you how to create media skins for QuickTime movies.
The Windows version of Sorenson Broadcaster (for doing live QuickTime broadcasts) has been released. Get more details at a 7/9 Sorenson Press Release.
A StreamingMedia.com article, "Sorenson's SV3 Heats up Codec Battle", provides details about the Sorenson Video 3 codec (which was released as part of QuickTime 5.0.2 last week) and suggests that it will put QuickTime on a par with Windows Media and Real.
QuickTime 5.0.2 for Mac OS 9 and Windows computers was released last week. If you've already got a version of QuickTime 5, it should offer to update automatically; you can also run the QuickTime Updater application, or download the installer from the QuickTime Download page or the QuickTime 5.0.2 Stand-alone Installer page.
The most significant feature of QuickTime 5.0.2 is the inclusion of the basic version of the Sorenson Video 3 codec (which was in beta versions of QuickTime 5, but not in the release version). Sorenson has a Sorenson Video Product page and a Sorenson Video 3 FAQ page, both of which provide more information about this codec, including information about the Professional version of the product.
Mac OS X users won't get QuickTime 5.0.2, however Sorenson Video 3 is available as a separate component. It'll download automatically when a movie compressed with the Sorenson Video 3 codec is opened. It can also be manually fetched if you do the following: Open System Preferences->QuickTime->Update. Select "Install new 3rd-party QuickTime software" and click Update Now. Then click Custom. Then check the QuickTime Update checkbox and click Update Now.
New AppleScripts for QuickTime 5.0.2 have also been released; you'll find them at the QuickTime AppleScripts page.
QuickTime 5.0.1 is now available in multiple languages, at the 5.0.1 Stand-alone Installer page. (QuickTime 5.0.2 is available in U.S. English only currently.)
Phil Schiller's keynote address from the Streaming Media West conference is now available as a QuickTime stream at the QuickTime TV-Streaming Media West Keynote 2001 page.
VideoPlug version 1.2 has been released. This is a plug-in for RealBasic that allows access to QuickTime's video capture capabilities. For more info, you can read a MacCentral article, "VideoPlug gets Carbonized", or go straight to the VideoPlug page.