QuickTime 5 and Final Cut Pro 2...rumors are bubbling up this week. MacCentral has a story, "QuickTime 5, Final Cut Pro 2 releases on schedule" reporting that these two products are on track to ship in the next 60 days.
A Macintosh News Network article "Seybold: Whither Final Cut Pro 2?", reports on how Final Cut Pro 2 wasn't announced at the recent Seybold Conference.
SingleReel, a video hosting site that will serve your streaming QuickTime movies for free, has announced a new feature of the site: Clubs. These are web spaces where groups can share video clips.
EDGE (Eastern Developers Group Enclave, a New York City-based QuickTime VR user group) has a page with video streams from EDGE/IQTVRA Macworld meeting in July. The streams show presentations by representatives from Panoscan, Kaidan, Canon, and VR Toolbox, all makers of QuickTime VR-related products.
Version 2 of SoundSaVR (a tool for adding directional sound to QuickTime VR panos) has been upgraded to version 2.0.1 and is available at the SoundSaVR page.
Apple released version 2.5 of their FireWire drivers for Mac OS 9 or greater. You should get these if you're using any FireWire devices. Go to article 11838 of Apple's Software Downloads library.
The early registration discount offer for the QuickTime Live conference ends this Friday, September 1. You can save $195 on the Platinum Pass to the Workshops and Conference; check out the QuickTime Live site.
For information about QuickTime's place in the market, check out a MacCentral Online article, "QuickTime, Akamai popular for big Web sites".
Part 2 of Barb Roeder's extensive tutorial on using Media Cleaner Pro (the premier compression tool), is at streamingmedia.com, in the article, "MCP Tutorial II: Compression Parameters for Web Codecs".
The DV Guys, a weekly live radio show, will also have a tutorial on Media Cleaner Pro on their show this Thursday, August 24th, from 6 to 8 p.m. (Click on Live This Week for details about the show.) You may also want to check out the Archives, where you'll find other QuickTime-related segments, including an interview last week with Glen Bulycz, who does QuickTime marketing for Apple.
Aurora Video Systems has announced a new card, aimed at filmmakers, that works with their Igniter card and works at 24fps and thus allows filmmakers to edit film on desktop editing systems. The card comes in a bundle, the Igniter Film bundle, or on its own (for those that already own an Igniter card). Check out a MacCentral Online article, "Aurora releases new Igniter 24 fps video editing card", or the Igniter Film page.
Aurora Video Systems has a new version (3.03) of their Igniter Drivers. VersionTracker has a More Info page re. Igniter that's got details and links to the download site.
Those that have iMovie 2 and have upgraded it to 2.0.1 may want to go to Apple's iMovie page to get iMovie Plug-in Pack 2, which includes additional Effects, Transitions, and Titles that will work from within iMovie.
Version 2 of SoundSaVR (a tool for adding directional sound to QuickTime VR panos) is now available for $199 (educational price is 50% off). Get more info, download a slightly limited version, or pay for the tool ( to enable all its features) at the SoundSaVR page.
QuickTime will be used to stream a number of music events this month; check out a MacCentral Online story, "QuickTime to stream upcoming music events".
Adobe is shipping GoLive 5, its web authoring tool. This version includes improvements to the Interactive editor, a great little QuickTime editor built right into GoLive. (Makes it easy to add new tracks, including Flash tracks and chapter tracks.) Check out Adobe's Enhanced on-board interactive editor page, for a little more info.
Other updates and new software:
Beta 9 of LiveSlideShow for Windows, a really easy-to-use tool for creating interactive QuickTime slide shows, is now available for download from the LiveSlideShow Downloads page.
ReelEyes, a video capture application, has been updated to version 1.1.1. You can get a free trial version or pay $70 for a full featured version. VersionTracker has a More Info about ReelEyes page where you can download the product and get details.
PhotoVista, a tool for creating QuickTime VR panoramas on Windows computers has been resurrected. Check out a MacWeek article, "PhotoVista back in business".
There are a couple of newer QuickTime VR tools for Windows: HotSpotCreator and VRConverter. There are currently only trial versions, which you can get at Intec's QuickTime VR Tools and Systems page.
A new QuickTime codec, Jamby 263 (also known as J263 or Jamby H.263) has been released (currently Mac-only). This is a codec designed for compressing at higher data rates (30 to 50 kbytes/sec), though its name seems to imply that its a variant of H.263 (normally used for low data rates). Movies compressed with this codec can play back on machines that don't have it. You can download it to try it out at the Jamby-Unit-Download page. (Note: though we did a quick test with the codec, we haven't used it enough to say much about it. We also know nothing about the company that's created it. Use at your own risk.)
An Apple Hot News article, "Triple Deep" talks about technology that converts QuickTime movies so they appear to be 3D when viewed with appropriate glasses (like those cardboard ones with red and blue plastic gel lenses). .A plug-in for QuickTime is required for playback.
There's a new version (1.1.2) of VideoScope ( software for Macs which allows you to analyze and tweak an incoming video signal before digitizing, or to analyze an existing QuickTime movie). Check out the Evological's VideoScope page for more info.
Tutorials:
Barb Roeder has written an extensive tutorial on using Media Cleaner Pro (the premier compression tool). "Part I: Preprocessing Audio and Video for the Web" can be found at streamingmedia.com.
Charles Evans' Tech Tips page has a number of tutorials covering methods for dealing with QuickTime VR problems. (The last two, on dealing with rotation errors and field of view errors, are new.)
A Mac Edition article, "QuickTime's stealth marketing is off the scope" provides commentary about Apple's lack of QuickTime marketing.
There's a review of iMovie 2 in MacUser UK, in which the author points out a number of shortcomings of iMovie.
Star Wars: Episode II will be streamed exclusively in QuickTime, according to an Apple Press Release, "Lucasfilm and Apple Bring Star Wars: Episode II to Starwars.com and Apple.com".
Media 100 has teamed up with Excite to offer to users a free Windows DV editing tool, IntroDV MovieMate. (This is essentially a limited feature version of Digital Origin's IntroDV.) Go to Excite's IntroDV MovieMate page.
Digital Origin has come out with two new DV software bundles, one for creating Web video and the other for DVD production. Read an August 2 Digital Origin press release for more info.
An article at UpsideToday, "Olympics snippets to be streamed in U.S.", details NBC's plans to stream parts of the Olympics. If you follow the "Free Content" link it takes you to the second page of the article; you'll see that the content will be streamed using only QuickTime.
Macworld has a short review of XLR8's Interview 2, an inexpensive USB video capture card.
There's a Macworld UK Hot Review of iMovie 2 (in case you still haven't heard enough about this easy-to-use capture and editing tool).
Software updates:
Escape Information Services has released version 1.2 of their QuickTime import component for the DICOM image format. (DICOM is an image format used by health care professionals.) You can read more about it, purchase it, or download an evaluation copy at the DICOM Import Home page.
VideoScript 2.0b1 for Mac is now available at the VideoScript beta page. (VideoScript is a tool that can be used to write scripts for processing video; a Windows version is also available.)
Slides from our Macworld NY talk, "Intro to QuickTime on the Web" are now available. . This QuickTime movie of our presentation is ~1.4 megs. (We created it using a beta of Totally Hip's LiveSlideShow for Windows.)
Dale Sorenson, has a report at Macintouch, "Macworld NY 2000: Streaming Video Report" covering QuickTime products from July's Macworld in New York City.
The Macworld keynote, by Steve Jobs, was available via QuickTime streaming. A July 24 Apple press release, "Apple and Akamai Deliver Landmark Webcast of Macworld Keynote" says the webcast "set new Internet records". You can view the stored stream at the QTV - Macworld NY 2000 Keynote page.
iMovie, Apple's so-o-o easy to use DV capture and editing tool, has received a lot of buzz lately:
At Macworld New York, Apple announced version 2 of iMovie, which ships with new iMacs and G4s, and will be sold for $50 starting in September. Find out more at Apple's iMovie page. Also, check out Jill Baird's article "iMovie Grows Up-Comparing iMovie with iMovie 2" at Macworld.com.
And, for those that have iMovie 2 (because they bought one of the new machines), there's already an update for it. Get the 2.0.1 Update at article11789 of Apple's Software Downloads site.
You may also be interested in a new mailing list for iMovie users, which you can join at the eGroups iMovie-List page.
A July 27th Wall Street Journal column by Walter Mossberg compares iMovie with MovieShaker (the program that ships with Sony Vaio computers--Windows computers with DV input).
Other software updates from the last month:
Interactive Solutions has released version 4.7 of MovieWorks, now called MovieWorks Interactive. Get an update or a demo version of this multimedia authoring tool at the MovieWorksDownload page. (You can also read a MovieWorks 4.7 press release for more details about what's included in the upgrade.)
Tex-Edit Plus 4.0 (a scriptable, styled text editor which has support for embedded QuickTime movies) is available at the software at the Trans-Text Software page.
VR Toolbox has released version 2.0 of VRWorx, their QuickTime VR creation tools (including tools for creating Object movies, Pano movies and scenes). The new version runs on both Mac OS and Windows. Read more at the VR Worx's page.
LiveStage 2 owners can get an updater to get you to version 2.1b19 of Totally Hip's LiveStage at the LiveStage Developer Network page.
The final version of LiveSlideShow for Mac, a demo version of LiveSlideShow for Mac, and Beta 7 of LiveSlideShow for Windows are available at Totally Hip's LiveSlideShow News page. (LiveSlideShow is a really easy-to-use tool for creating interactive QuickTime slideshows.)
Buena Software has released Effects Pack #3, 10 new QuickTime-based filters for $30. These will work with any tools that support QuickTime effects, including QuickTime Player Pro. For more information, to download a trial version, or to purchase go to the Effects Pack #3 page.
You can now get SwingTime 1.03b as well as a demo version of this $113 utility that exports a series of images from a QuickTime VR panorama. Go to the Empire Visualization web site.
QT JukeBox, an AppleScript which allows Mac users to create and use playlists with the QuickTime Player, has been updated to version 1.6. Read about it at the News page of John's Website
Totally Hip, maker of the interactive QuickTime tools, LiveStage Pro and LiveSlideShow, is working on new QuickTime tools, including a compression tool. For details see a 7/26 MacCentral article, "Totally Hip developing new QuickTime products".
Thecorrections page for the QuickTime for the Web book, by Steven Gulie, has had some useful pieces of information added. (Not corrections, so much as additions.)
PlayQT is a new AppleScript-based program that allows the creation of playlists of your MP3 files. Check out Geoff Graham's PlayQT page.
If you're interested in one of the new features of QuickTime 4, Movie Tracks, and the capabilities they offer when using LiveStage Pro, check out Mike Matson's Movies within Movies documentation.
Helmut Dersch has created an Editing Panoramic Images page, with a tutorial on using his free program, Panorama Tools, to insert text or images (properly warped) into a panoramic image that will be used to create a QuickTime VR panorama.
Channel360.com is a new virtual store where you can purchase hardware and software for creating QuickTime VR movies. (Note that the hardware all comes from one company, Kaidan.)
Apple is increasing its use of QuickTime on its web site. Some recent additions:
For the first time, Apple's home page contains a QuickTime movie!
At Apple'siMac Ads page, you can see QuickTime movies of the ads for the new iMacs that were shown at Macworld.
Apple has a new Customer Installable Parts page that currently has a pull-down menu that links to pages with information about installing components in the G4 cube and the G4. On these pages are "See How" movies (with text tracks!).
Apple's Hardware Gallery has self-playing (but user-controllable, too) QuickTime VR object movies with wired sprite controls.
Two new interactive video art and live performance programs are available and both are QuickTime based:
Vidvox Prophet lets you control QuickTime (playback, capture, and editing) via keyboard or external MIDI device. You can read more and a get a demo version at Vidvox's website.
Videodelic from U & I Software bills itself as a "real-time video art synthesizer and sequencer". It makes use of the MIDI standard. You can download the player and sample files from the Videodelic page.
Insight Magazine has teamed up with Apple and Xybernaut to cover the Republican and Democratic Conventions. What's cool is that the reporter is wearing a Xybernaut PC and streaming his/her video and audio from the convention floor, all with QuickTime. You can read an August 1 Xybernaut press release for more details, or check out the webcast at Insight Magazine's GOP Convention WebCast page.