I can't really speak for anyone else, but there are a few things that I like about Quicktime, more than say... Windows Media or Real.
The first reason is that I am a Mac user, and of course since Quicktime is an Apple product it is a natural to use Quicktime. I suspect that this is true of a lot of video bloggers since there seem to be a lot of video bloggers that are mac users. And the reasons for this are probably due to the fact that Apple has designed the mac with media creation in mind, with products like Quicktime, iMovie and Garageband preinstalled on all their machines. But I'm just making an educated guess here. The second reason is that Quicktime is a fairly open format. I can download a Quicktime file and cut and paste it into another file and make some simple edits--all within Quicktime itself. I can also burn Quicktime movies to DVD fairly easily. Or just convert it to other file formats easily too. So it seems pretty portable and open--unlike the alternatives. Yet another reason (and this is also partially due to being a Mac user too) Windows Media doesn't work all that well on a Mac. There aren't any authoring tools for it and it's just very awkward to do anything with. For instance if I am watching a WM file and I want to skip a head by dragging the playhead, there is a considerable lag time between the time the play head is moved and the time the video finally catches up. Quicktime allows you to 'scrub" thru the video when you do this. And by scrub I mean that you can see the frames you are moving the playhead over as you are draging it. That makes the viewing experience much better. The fourth and final reason that I like Quicktime is simple--the video iPod. So it all boils down to, it ain't perfect but it's better than anything else for the moment. Bill Streeter LO-FI SAINT LOUIS www.lofistl.com --- In [email protected], Frank Carver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Monday, October 17, 2005, 9:59:14 PM, Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen wrote: > > > Not really an argument to use MP4. All the Cool Shit(tm) will certainly > > never be used if the format is phased out. Wince we are at the cutting > > edge, working on making Cool Shit easier and/or promote it is what we > > should do. > > I'm really hoping nobody takes the following as a jab. I'm not really > a quicktime user - I don't use it at all beyond starting up the QT > player when I find a mov that VLC won't open - but I don't have any > axe to grind. However, there's something about this that plain puzzles > me. I know that there are several people on this list who sometimes > use these "advanced" QT features (for me, anything beyond a mov > containing one video and one audio stream, playing unadorned, counts > as advanced). I'm hoping that someone will be able to answer. > > The advanced QT features that I have encountered so far seem a strange > and ad-hoc bunch - features added seemingly as the whim of the > developers took them. For example, interactivity in QT movies seems > little more than a toy - I've not yet seen an example even as capable > as the "games" on a typical Disney DVD. Is there even a spec for all > this stuff that a third-party player manufacturer could use to make > sure the player works with *all* QT files? > > Quicktime is certainly not the ultra simple "video format" that we > desperately need for videoblogging to take off (a.k.a "the MP3 of > video"). That would need at least to completely pin down the choice of > codecs and define rigorous but expandable metatdata - to make it so > that all files of the same "file type" play the same on all devices. > > Neither does Quicktime seem the ultimate interactive downloadable > application platform. From what I've seen, creating the same kind of > mouseover-triggered alternate-play thingies that appear here from time > to time is both easier and better supported with tools in Flash, and > Flash offers a huge array of extra features including a "proper" > programming language built in. Whenever I've wanted to put interactive > content on the web, Flash has seemed the natural choice. > > So what _is_ the attraction of Quicktime? > > Please remember - I'm not trolling here. I'm genuinely interested in > the answer. > > -- > Frank Carver http://www.makevideo.org.uk > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get Bzzzy! (real tools to help you find a job). Welcome to the Sweet Life. http://us.click.yahoo.com/A77XvD/vlQLAA/TtwFAA/lBLqlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
