On the QuickTime-VR list, there's a 10/23
press release from Kaidan, announcing a new very large, elaborate, and expensive
object rig, new Macintosh software to control the KodakÆ DCS camera
family, and some special bundles deals, one of which is that you can "Purchase
any Kaidan motorized Immersive Imaging Object Rig or Turntable and purchase Apple's
QuickTime VR Authoring Studio for only $100."
Panorama Tools Version 1.5 beta0 for Macintosh is now available at the Panorama
Tools page. (This free software, previously only a plug-in for Graphics Converter
is now also a plug-in for Photoshop.You use it for for creating and
tweaking images so they can be used to create QTVR panos.)
Last week we mentioned a site that had trial versions of new VR tools for Windows--one
to convert between LivePicture and QTVR file formats, and the other to add
hotspots to QTVR and LivePicture files--but there were only Japanese versions
of the Web site and tools. Now you can go to an English
version of the Intec download page and get English versions of
these tools.
VR Toolbox has announced that they'll
start shipping their QuickTime VR panorama and object software (VR PanoWorx
and VR ObjectWorx) for the Mac OS this week.
At the Panoptic Vision home page,
you can see QuickTime VR and Live Picture panoramas shot with a prototype digital
panoramic camera.
The QuickTime
Gazette is running a poll, asking "What's the biggest impediment to the
acceptance of QuickTime 3.0 on the Windows platform?". There a tally of
current results available also, if you're interested.
We neglected to mention two upgrades to key QuickTime software last week:
Media Cleaner 3.1 and Premiere 5.1. You can read about Media Cleaner
3.1 in a 10/14
Terran press release, "Media Cleaner Pro 3.1 Now Shipping", and download
a demo at Media Cleaner
3.1 Demo page. You can read about Premiere 5.1 in a 10/14
Adobe press release, "Adobe Announces Update to Premiere 5.0".
And, as far as future upgrades to QuickTime software, you may want to read an eMedia article, "Adobe
After Effects to turn 4".
Nick V. King has released a new version of his VideoScope software for Mac G3s, which
allows you to analyze and tweak an incoming video signal before digitizing,
or to analyze an existing QuickTime movie. Check out the VideoScope
home page for more info.
Mac OS 8.5, which started shipping last week "includes" QuickTime
3 Pro. However, you must register your copy of Mac OS 8.5 before Apple will send
you the registration number you'll need to upgrade from the standard edition to the
Pro edition. (Use the QuickTime Settings control panel to see which edition you have.)
There's an Apple Tech
Info article about upgrading to the QT3Pro under OS 8.5 with more details.
In the ongoing saga concerning Microsoft's anti-QuickTime tactics are a couple
of stories with additional tidbits. At the bottom of a HeraldLink
story "Industry reps boo Microsoft policies" there's a paragraph which
describes how Compaq was going to license QuickTime, but didn't because of fears
of Microsoft retaliation. A News.com
article, "How chummy are Apple, Microsoft?" also mentions how Microsoft
leaned on Apple not to market QuickTime for Windows.
You can get trial versions of a couple of new VR tools--one to convert between
LivePicture and QTVR file formats, and the other to add hotspots to QTVR and
LivePicture files under Windows. There are only Japanese versions, and
the Web site is in Japanese, but if that's ok with you, go to <http://www.isl.intec.co.jp/proj/cg/web3d/tools.html>.
Radius EditDV is about ready to ship.This is a $999 editing package for DV camcorder
users, which includes a FireWire card and cable, as well as MotoDV software
for capture and Media Cleaner EZ for compression. A 10/14
Radius press release provides details, as does the Radius
EditDV product page.
The MacSpeedZone has published part of the introduction from our book, QuickTime
Compared to Other Technologies, in their Macintosh Mavens section. We don't know
how long the link will be good.
Russell Clarke has an update to version 3.1.1 of his Play it Cool QuickTime
movie player at the Play It Cool page.
FileMaker users may be interested in a free beta of software that lets you grab
a still image from a video source directly within FileMaker. More details are
at the Troi Grabber Plug-in
for FileMaker page.
MacWeek Online has a piece
by Robert Morgan, "RFI Report: SlowTime" in which he complains that
Apple isn't making QuickTime the priority it should be.
The Bay Area QTVR Association meeting this month (this Thursday, 7 pm, in Cupertino)
features Dr. Joshua Eskin from Panoptic Vision,who's developed a digital panoramic
camera. More info is in a 10/7/98
message from Joel Cannon on the QuickTime-VR list.
On the shareware front, there's OneApp Cineslider that can be used to create self-playing
QT movies; you can get more info, download, and register at the OneApp
CineSlider page. And Play it Cool is a shareware app that does movie playback
and editing, as well as creates self-playing QuickTime movies; get it
at the Play it Cool page.
There's a brief article
in eMediaweekly about Digital Renaissance's T.A.G. products. The article is mostly
about their non-QuickTime products, but this is a good time to make you aware of
their QuickTime 3.0 Macintosh product, now in beta. This product provides a timeline
interface to help you to do text track-based things to movies, such as adding
HREF tracks, chapter lists, and scrolling text. (It's supposed to also allow
you to add hotspots to linear QuickTime movies, too, but this wasn't working the
last time we checked.) You can get the beta at their T.A.G.
for Macintosh page.
Remember Hitachi's MP-EG1A? It's a little camera that can record 20 minutes
of MPEG-1 video which can be opened by Mac QuickTime users with the MPEG extension.
It came out a year or so ago for $2400, but you can get it for $600 from MacMall,
according to O'Grady's PowerPage. (If you go
to MacMall, just do a find for "MP-EG1A";
it's a clearance item, though, and it looks like they don't have a lot in stock.)
The Panorama Tools page, mentioned
last week, is now up and running. (The page was unavailable for several days last
week because of a crashed Web server.)
Microsoft Media Player beta 1 for Macintosh is available at a Media
Player for Macintosh page. It's advertised as being able to play QuickTime files
(among many other formats), but we couldn't even get it to open a simple video track-only
QuickTime movie.
VideoScript 1.1.2 is now available at the VideoScript
home page. (Last week we noted that 1.1.1 was available.)
Incwell released SuperCard 3.5 this week. Among other things, SuperTalk (the tool's
scripting language) includes commands for controlling QuickTime VR movies.
You can get more info at Incwell's
SuperCard page.
Macintouch noted that Yasuyuki Higuchi has
a new page that lists
products that come bundled with QuickTime 3 Pro.
Macintouch also noted that Heuris released their
MPEG Export Engine-Pro, which allows existing users of their MPEG Power Professional
to create DVD-ready MPEG streams by exporting from QuickTime products like MoviePlayer
Pro.
At the Panorama Tools page, the
final Mac version of of Panorama Tools 1.2 is available. (This is a free plug-in
for Graphics Converter for creating and editing panoramic images so they can be
used to create QTVR panos.)
ConVRter Pro (for converting between QTVR version 1.0 and 2.0) has been updated
to version 1.3d26, available at the VRtools
ConVRter Pro page.
ATI has released a new universal installer that automatically installs the right
software for any and all installed ATI Mac cards (NEXUS GA, XCLAIM 3D, XCLAIM
GA, XCLAIM TV, XCLAIM VR). Get it at ATI's
Mac Drivers Page. MacCentral has an article titled "ATI
provides more information on Universal Installer 3.3" with further details.
The Tech Info Library has an updated
article about uninstalling QuickTime 3 from Windows systems. It covers completely
removing QuickTime 3, since the uninstaller doesn't remove all files.