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Quicktime X in Snow Leopard
Jun 12 2009 23:27 | 65 Comments
As most of you have seen, Quicktime has gotten a huge interface overhaul in Snow Leopard, and skipped 2 versions, jumping from Quicktime 7 to Quicktime X (10). In this post I would just like to briefly run down over everything that has changed in Quicktime.
First of all, the interface. Completely revamped, the entire frame is gone and now the video is the frame. The controls are identical to those which you get in full screen mode, and the bar on top which contains the minimize, zoom and close buttons, now covers the video.
When you move your mouse out of the window, the controls instantly fade away and you're left with just the floating video. Interestingly enough, the corners stay rounded, kind of like the entire interface on the Palm Pre, just less curvy.
The trimming controls from the time line/bar bar are now gone and replaced by a "Trim" mode.
When you click it, the floating controls morph into what you see above. From what I see, the interface is identical to that which is used on the iPhone 3G S. The problem is, that this interface only allows you to trim clips. I still haven't found a way to combine multiple clips into one, but if I do, I'll definitely let you know.
One cool thing however, is that now you can view the audio waveform, if you click and hold the 'alt' key while in the trim mode.
You can now do full screen recordings directly from Quicktime! While you don't get any of the more advanced features as you get some some dedicated screen recording apps, this is free and easy.
Next to no options that you can set for recording. The video quality comes out very good. The frame rate however is locked in at 13.38FPS. Not perfect, but for some basic screen recording, works great.
When you start recording you get a 'Stop Recording' button in the menu bar. As soon as you press it, the video stops recording (as the name of the button may suggest) and opens it in Quicktime for playback.
The interface when playing audio files.
Finally, while not directly related to Quicktime, its close enough so I'll include it in this post too. When you hover over any video files in the Finder that are supported by Quicktime, you get a button to start playing it directly in that icon, the button works, but I found it to be extremely annoying because unless you're clicking on the corner of the icon, or on the text, you always end up clicking play and it very often, doesn't stop playing when the video opens in Quicktime and you have to go back to the icon and manually press pause. When it is playing in the icon you get a little circular progress bar, just like that which is used when previewing songs in the iTunes Store on the iPhone.
Another thing I want to mention is the Perian plugin for Quicktime. In works great with this version and the only thing that I noticed that Quicktime stopped playing are the .MKV files which Quicktime 7 used to play without any problems with using Perian.
Oh and as I said in a previous post and as some of you have said yourself, for whatever reason Preferences are completely missing from this build of Quicktime. I even browsed though every single file that makes up Quicktime and I haven't found any references to the 'Preference' menu item, so think what you will.
Thats it for this post. If you have any questions, please ask and thanks for coming!
Gorjan
Wow, thanks for the screenshots! It looks really nice, maybe I'll start using QuickTime again when SL comes out.
Do you know if it's possible to mount a TM-backup from Leopard to SL and copy over backups of documents, photos and music?
And dows Mail.app push mail correctly now?
Aidan Hornsby
No fancy new icon in this build I see..
Very nice screenshots, although some strange UI decisions in quicktime X (anyone else think it jumped 2 versions just because X sounds cool?), and a lot of people, especially video pro's have spoken out against them. As an editor and VFX artist as well as an aspiring interface designer I actually like them. I don't care about losing the ability to paste clips together - thats what final cut is for.
Having the controls over the video isn't a big problem for me either, but I can see where it could become annoying.
I agree that iTunes' scrollbars should be brought systemwide as well as some of the little bits of the UI of iLife 09, etc, but it sadly doesn't look like Apple plans this for SL or I think they would have announced something like that at WWDC. In fact, didn't they make a point to say they weren't changing the finder interface at all?
Also, I really hope they change that icon playback function as the way you described it made it sound really annoying...
Jamaipanese
oooh man you are trying to poison me...um i mean turn me into a mac fanboy! these screenies do look nice though but I wonder if I will ever own a mac
Andrew Jung
Does Quicktime X support Quicktime VR, sprites and other programmed tracks? Does Quicktime X support Flash tracks again?
These are some very important questions to some of us web developers out there and we're a bit afraid that Quicktime X is going to spell the death of some of these cool but lately unsupported extended uses of Quicktime as a multi-track platform.
Cheers, Andrew.
Michael Flux
@Andrew Jung, I was able to view Quicktime VR files when they're embedded into a page, however after downloading them, Quicktime refuses to open them and instead asks to install Quicktime 7. Flash I have not been able to open, just says its an unsupported file.
But yeah, as I web designer and developer myself, I definitely see what you're talking about and can't agree with you more.
dmmcintyre3
Looks similar to quick look but with the disappearing title bar and the editing interface.
Richard
I have a couple questions that I hope you are able to answer. When you go into 'trim' mode in Quicktime & select an area, can you still choose from, 'delete selected area' &/or 'trim to selection'? I use those features a lot. I would hate to think I can't actually edit video & only be able to move beginning & end points. My other question is about already paying for Quicktime Pro features. I paid for the Pro features, will installing Snow Leopard force me to overwrite old quicktime with the new one & make it so I have to buy the Pro again, or is QT10 already 'Pro' enabled? Thank you for the post.
NoD
Does the screen recording app allow you to choose the section of the window you'd like to record or are you stick recording the entire screen?
Michael Flux
@NoD, No, it doesn't allow you to select anything. You can only record full screen.
Piman
@Michael Flux, But you can then import it easily into iMovie and use the crop tool to make a selection there. It's limited to maintain the aspect ratio, but at least you can still get fairly close to doing a video screen shot of a selection.
Frederick Malouf
Hi Michael,
I see there is no option to see Movie Properties and extract/delete files, eg audio, subtitles, etc. And still, no float on top command. Why is this never introduced on Quicktime?
I had hoped QTX would be more than QT7 Pro, but I guess this is a wind-down of some sort. Seems a shame.
Thanks for confirming what I had failed to find.
Jamie Wolf
Hi there,
nice post about Quicktime X. As you also noted, Quicktime X does not play MKV files anymore, but I found a solution to this see http://www.boerngen-schmidt.de/en/2009/08/play-mkv-using-quicktime-x/
Cheers
Jamie Wolf
Justin
Can you delete custom Movie recordings files from Quicktime X? I've tried everything and cant trash the orginal files?
Bruce
Hi, can someone tell me how to pause an audio recording and then resume recording on the same audio file? When I stop the recording it automatically ends the recording session. Thanks!
Brian
So no access to tracks anymore? No cut and paste. No export. Chapter marks, Timecode, still frames? I guess it all ties into a overall apple application strategy somehow, but seems like they've ruined the best, always-at-hand, quicktime muliti-tool and quality analyzer. Keep going Apple and soon we'll have WiMP for Mac.
Jules
This new version does give you control over recording quality during movie recording. It's just not in the menus anymore. Click on the little downward-pointing arrow on the right hand side of the floating control area. You get three levels of quality to choose from.
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