QuicktimeQuicktime - (Macintosh multimedia format) - .MOV.What is it - Compressed audio and video. Encoder - Quicktime Pro, which is $30, and the Quicktime plug-in are available at www.apple.com. Input - .AIF, .SD and .WAV files can be used by the Quicktime to create the .MOV file. What is it - Quicktime is both an audio and video format for both Macintosh and PC computers. The video capabilities are extensive but beyond the scope of this page. However, not all Quicktime movies have a video component. If necessary, they can be just an 'audio movie'. Start with an audio file - An audio file must first be loaded onto a computer using audio editing software. The audio is then saved as a sound file such as .AIF on the Mac or .WAV on the PC. Quicktime Pro is then used to encode the new audio file. Various filters and FFTs are used discard the least relevant data in order to shrink the files size. Size = qualitiy - Quicktime allows you to choose a bit rate and whether you want a stereo or mono file. The higher the bit rate, the better the sound quality, but the larger the file. If you choose use stereo, the audio quality will be better, but the file will be larger. Waiting for playback - Quicktime movies don't exactly stream. A large percent of the file must be downloaded before any audio will play. There is limited interactive ability with Quicktime movies. Vesitile - The Quicktime Player is allows playback of mutliple file types including MIDI, and MP3. pros - Sound quality on par with CD versions of songs. - Allows you to store title, author, copyright, description and keywords with the sound file. cons - Larger files than RealAudio take some time to download and don't stream. - External Quicktime player needed to play file. - No copyright protection. File can be copied, sampled and altered. Close Window |