This week's iQT column provides another LiveStage Pro tutorial, this one showing how to add sounds for rollovers and mouse clicks.
There's a review of Adobe Premiere 6 at Macworld.
Apple released Mac OS X this past weekend, which includes a release version of QuickTime 5. (You can't get a release version of QuickTime 5 for any other platform yet.) Apple's Mac OS X page has QuickTime clips showing the operating system in action. Here are some notes about Mac OS X QuickTime-related issues:
Those who have been playing with the Public Preview versions of QuickTime 5 will notice that the Mac OS X release is missing the Sorenson 3 codec, as well as the ability to handle media skins. (We assume there will be an update to address these issues.)
If you want to run QuickTime Pro 5 under OS X, you'll need a new-ish unlock key: one that was purchased after 10/10/2000. If you've been running the Public Preview versions, your key has worked regardless of when it was purchased, but you can tell whether it will continue to work by going to the QuickTime control panel, looking at the Registration panel, and noting whether it says "3.0/4.0 Pro Player Edition" or "5.0 Pro Player Edition". Only the registration number for the latter will work on release versions of QuickTime 5.
There are also OS X versions of iTunes and iMovie; go to the Mac OS X Downloads page.
If you're interested in using Adobe products under OS X, check out the MacInTouch Mac OS X Special Report: Adobe Compatibility page.
Evological has released two OS X QuickTime applications:VideoScope and VideoFunHouse; check out the Evological's home page for more info and links to download pages.
We're not sure when it was made available, but you can now download a demo version of Totally Hip's HipFlics, a new compression tool. Check out the HipFlics and HipPics page. (HipPics is for processing still images.)
In Brad Smith'sMarch 15th iQT column, you'll find reasons why QuickTime may be a better choice than Java or Javascript because of better cross-platform and cross-browser compatibility, and a tutorial on creating rollovers using LiveStage Pro.
If you're a Mac user wishing for realtime editing options, you'll want to read both an Insanely Great Mac article, "Matrox ships real-time DV editing card for Mac" and a press release at Yahoo, "Adobe Premiere to Support Real-Time Digital Video Effects on the Macintosh".
Version 2 of Final Cut Pro, Apple's professional video editing tool is now available. Read more in an Insanely Great Mac article"Apple formally announces Final Cut Pro 2" and on Apple's Final Cut Pro page.
Aurora Systems has updated the drivers for their Igniter card to version 3.1; they are compatible with FinalCut Pro 2, QuickTime 5, and Premiere 6. Go to Igniter's download page.
The most recent version of Internet Explorer 5.5 for Windows won't work with the QuickTime plugin. You can read more in a 3/9 message from Eric Carlson (QuickTime engineer) on the QuickTime-talk list. (Use "archives" for both user name and password.) If this problem will affect you, it's probably a good idea to let Microsoft know.
There's a new $10 shareware application called iSlideShow that you can use to create a slide show with transitions. Get more information (including a user review) at the VersionTracker iSlideShow More Info page.
To anybody who has emailed us lately, we apologize for not responding, but we've been swamped. We will get to your mail, eventually. (If you've solved your problem in the meantime, please let us know, so we don't waste cycles responding when you don't need us to.)
Good learning opportunities this week:
A good article at Streaming Media World, "Streaming Basics: Editing Video for Streaming" has lots of tips for editing video that will be streamed.
Recent tutorials at streamingmedia.com include "Getting the Most from Cleaner 5" and "Cleaner 5, Part II: Automated and Flexible Batch Processing" both of which cover the new and powerful features of Cleaner 5 (the premiere tool for preparing video for distribution).
Brad Smith will be publishing his iQT columns (covering issues of QuickTime and interactivity) at MacObserver. His premierearticle at MacObserver, "iQT - QuickTime & Interactivity" is short and introductory, but points out QuickTime's greatest competitive advantage: interactivity.
And a few software updates:
VideoScript 2.0.10 for Mac is now available at the VideoScript Download page. (VideoScript is a tool that can be used to write scripts for processing video; a Windows beta version is also available.)
The VersionTracker More Info page for NTV Tools Suite reports that version 1.0 of NTV Tools Suite (for creating interactive QuickTime movies and publishing them to a streaming server) is available.
Windows users that haven't already upgraded to the Public Preview version of QuickTime 5 may want to get the QuickTime 4.1.2 Patch at document 12023 of Apple's Software Downloads site.
There's a two day workshop being held March 15th through 16th at Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA) called "Advanced Video Compression Using Cleaner 5 and QuickTime 5". It'll be taught by master compressionist Ben Waggoner of Terran (the makers of Cleaner 5). We can't promise anything, but this looks like an excellent workshop.
Generic Media has released gMovie Maker and gMovie Player. gMovie Maker, available for Mac and Windows, converts movies (QuickTime as well as other formats) into movies that play on the Palm OS. gMovie Player, for the Palm OS, is used to play those movies. To get more info or to download a trial version, go to Generic Media's Products page.
Apple released iMovie 2.0.3 Updater a couple of weeks ago. iMovie users probably want to get it (from the iMovie Update 2.0.3 page) if they haven't already.
An article at MacCentral Online, "Initial version of OS X to lack some 'goodies'" says that iMovie probably won't be included in the March 24 release of OSX.
Hopefully you won't need the info, but article 31309 of Apple's TechInfo Library is "QuickTime: How to Remove QuickTime 5 Public Preview"
There's a MacUser UK review of iDVD, Apple's consumer-level DVD creation tool. The article includes a mention of how easy it is to include QuickTime movies on your DVD. (However, we question the knowledge level of the writer, who starts the article saying that "all budding iMovie producers could do to show their work was to play it on their Mac or export it back to a DV-in capable video camera". Hello? What about exporting as QuickTime and distributing on the Web or CD-ROM?)
If you're thinking about putting your QuickTime movies on DVD using Apple's professional tool, DVD Studio Pro, check out the DVD Studio Pro 1.0 FAQ in Apple's Tech Info Library.
If anyone out there is still using SuperCard, you'll want to update to version 3.6.2; this version is more compatible with QuickTime 4.1 and higher. Find out more at the SuperCard Updates page.
Hypnotizer.editor version 1.0 is available at the Hypnotizer Trial/Buy page. This is a tool you can use to overlay interactive buttons and menus (and other elements) on QuickTime, Real, and Windows Media files. (The downside of this tool is that it's not using QuickTime's built-in interactivity features, and thus requires that viewers have an additional plug-in, hypnotizer.player to play back the files. There's also currently no Mac OS plug-in. )
An InternetNews article, "Media 100 Launches 3 Streaming Tools" talks about audio:box, a system for converting audio to multiple streaming formats (including QuickTime), CineStream (the current incarnation of EditDV ñ for capturing video, editing it, and adding interactivity), and MPEG Charger (for creating MPEG movies from other formats).