The QuickTime Live conference has been announced. It will be October 8 - 11 in LA. (Actually, Beverly Hills--same location as last year). You can go to Apple's QuickTime Live page, but there's no further information posted there, yet.
An interesting read concerning QuickTime's future and current place in the streaming market is found in an MacCentral Online article, "Schiller, Casanova discuss QuickTime with MacCentral".
You can also read about Schiller and Casanova's presentation at the Streaming Media West Conference last week in another MacCentral Online article, "Schiller talks QuickTime in Streaming Media keynote", as well as in a streamingmedia.com article, "QuickTime Goes MPEG-4".
For an alternative take on QuickTime's showing at the Streaming Media West Conference, read a Creative Mac column, "Talkin' Smack: QuickTime, SRS, CineWave & ICE".
Software updates:
Ben Bird has released version 5.01 of BTV Pro (a $35 Mac shareware tool for QuickTime capture and editing). You can read more about it on the BTV Pro Overview page, and download the tool from the BTV Download page.
There's an iMovie 2.0.3 Updater available at article 120020 of Apple's Tech Info Library.
Adobe has released an updater for Premiere 6.0. This 6.01 updater is a beta release; you can download it from the Premiere 6.01 Update Page.
CineStream 3.0.1b9 is now available. (CineStream is the current incarnation of what used to be Radius EditDV. It incorporates the DV capture and editing features of EditDV and adds web authoring features, including Media 100's "EventStream" technology which is useful for adding interactive elements such as HREF tracks and chapters.) You'll find info, reviews, and a download link at the VersionTracker CineStream More Info page.
Our QuickTime 5 book is now a physical reality. (Got 2 copies direct from the printer today! Yay!) This means it should be in bookstores any day now, and online orders should ship real soon.
An article at MacCentral Online, "Former Hip CEO wants to see 'QuickTime, Inc.'" relays Randall McCallum's lengthy arguments regarding how QuickTime could be better marketed if it was independent from Apple.
You might want to check out a streamingmedia tutorial, "Integrating Flash and QuickTime for Dynamic Media Delivery".
Ambrosia is working on an OS X version of their great SnapZ product, and they've just posted screenshots of the product at their SnapZ Pro X Screenshots page (SnapZ lets you create stills or QuickTime movies of what's happening on your Mac screen. We've used previous versions alot...we really needed this OS X version when we were working on our QuickTime 5 book!)
QuickTime VR enthusiasts may be interested in the SurroundPhoto system, which captures 360-degree panoramas in a single shot. It requires a $70 piece of hardware (a reflector which fits on most digital cameras), and a free piece of software that converts the images shot using the reflector into panoramas. You can read more in a 6/14 VR Interactive press release (announcing a new version of the free software), or at the SurroundPhoto product page.
Software updates:
Applimac Slide Show 5.8 is available at the Applimac Slide Show page. (This is a tool for creating presentations that can contain both still images and QuickTime movies.)
Go to the Movie2MPEG page to get version 0.1d6 of Movie2MPEG, a utility that converts QuickTime movies or AVI files to MPEG1 system streams.
Tribeworks iShell 2.2 is now available for public download. (iShell is a tool for creating multimedia presentations, like Macromedia Director. It's got the most extensive support for interactive control of QuickTime movies of any current cross-platform tool, and is very easy to use.) Go to Tribeworks Home Page for more info and to download a demo.
Mac OS X users will want to read an O'Reilly Network article, "QT Authoring on Native Mac OS X" which covers how to create a QuickTime slide show with transitions using only native Mac OS X tools.
A recently updated WebMonkey article, "Interactive Presentations with QuickTime" covers the range of tools you can use to create interactive QuickTime movies.
MPEG-4's relationship to QuickTime is covered in a streamingmedia.com article, "Navigating the MPEG-4 Labyrinth". (But be sure to read the comment about a "fundamental error in a core premise"; it's by Ben Waggoner, who's a expert on all compression technologies.)
According to the VersionTracker Virtual Composer page, there's an update to this Mac tool that you can use to create QuickTime music tracks.
There's now a Windows tool called GoCubic that can create cubic QuickTime VR panoramas. You'll find the program, along with a Read Me, at www.hoptour.com/downloads/gocubic.
iciMedia is offering promotional specials (various course, software, and hosting discounts) for its July New York City workshops on creating interactive QuickTime movies. Check out iciMedia's June 11 press release.
QuickTime VR enthusiasts may want to read a short article at Slashdot, "IPIX Shuts Down Free Software Developer - Again", which explains that Helmut Dersch's web site (where he distributes his great PanoTools software) has been forced to close down because of nasty IPIX tactics.
Media Metastasis has released their new QuickTime codec, ZyGoVideo Basic, for Windows and Mac OS 9, and they have a preview version for Mac OS X. This is codec is designed for low data rate (streaming) video, and it's fairly fast to compress with. The company has also applied to be part of the QuickTime Component Download Program. And they plan to offer a Pro version of this codec. Check out the ZyGoVideo Products page.
Totally Hip released LiveStage Professional 3, its tool for creating highly interactive QuickTime movies. Versions are available for both Mac and Windows. Read details about its new features in a MacCentral article, "LiveStage Professional 3 supports QT 5".
Ben Bird has released version 5 of BTV (for QuickTime capture) and BTV Pro (for capture and editing). You can read about BTV on the BTV Overview page and read about BTV Pro on the BTV Pro Overview page. These are shareware products, costing $20 and $35 respectively, and can be downloaded from the BTV Download page.
Version 2.1.3 of Goldberg, a freeware QuickTime viewer and image editor, is available at the Goldberg 2 page.
Mac users might want to check out a handy little utility: Codec Calculator. You tell it the settings you plan to use (codecs, frame sizes, frame rates, audio rates, etc.) and it predicts file sizes and data rates of movies, or will tell you how many minutes of video you'll be able to fit in a certain amount of storage. Get it at the Codec Calculator page.
The release version of QuickTime Streaming Server 3 is available; get it at document 12238 of Apple's Software Updates library. (This is the Mac OS X version. Also available is the Darwin Open Source Server for various other operating systems; go to the Open Source Streaming Server page.)
Apple has released version 2.0.3 of its Theater Mode extension. (This is an extension that brightens movie playback in some applications when using an Apple Studio Display.) You'll want to go to document 12259 of Apple's Software Updates library for more information and/or to download the extension.
There's a new version (1.3) of VideoScope ( software for Macs which allows you to analyze and tweak an incoming video signal before digitizing, or to analyze an existing QuickTime movie). Check out the Evological's VideoScope page for more info.
New versions of VideoScript for both Mac and Windows are available at the VideoScript Download page. (VideoScript is a tool that can be used to write scripts for processing video.)
Our new QuickTime 5 book went off to the printer last night. Whew....it should be available by the end of this month. We have a pile of mail to reply to; we will, we promise. If you have mailed us and don't need a reply let us know.