There's new MPEG encoding software available from Astarte's download page--both new beta version (2.1b14) of M. Pack (an application for creating MPEG) and a new version (1.0.5) of the MPEG exporter (shareware plug-in which lets you export as MPEG from various QuickTime apps).
There's a new version of the Avid Cinema software, recommended for all Avid Cinema users, and available (with info text) at an Apple ftp server.
Puffin Designs has released a demo version of their high-end video painting tool, Commotion. It's available at their Online Demo page.
See a QuickTime movie of the first commercial of Apple's new advertising campaign at their Think Different page.
A NewMedia article on "Industrial-Strength Streaming Video", reports some interesting numbers from a HotBot search for file extensions on the web: Pages with QuickTime movies (i.e. those with the .mov extension) were found twice as often as the next most frequently found, MPEG and AVI. All others (the true streaming solutions) are used much less. (Go to page 2 of the article to get the details.)
Terran Interactive's CodecCentral has a demo movie and decompressor for a new codec, Eidos Techologies' escape videostudio codec. It's designed for movies that will run on fast CD-ROM drives (4x or faster). You can also order the compressor at CodecCentral.
Milton J. Aupperle has written and released 2 new pieces of PowerMac-only shareware: "MyVidCap" for capturing and playing QuickTime movies and "MyVidEditor" for editing and compressing movies. Get them at Aupperle's QuickTime Capture and Editing Shareware page.
There's a development version of a QTVR 2.0 Xtra for Director 5 and 6 now available from a company called DBZ; it's yours for entering your name and email address at DBZ's QTVR 2.0 Xtra Download page.
An interesting new application, now in beta, is Adrenaline Charts SE. It uses QuickTime and QuickDraw 3D to generate animated, 3D charts. You can even map a QuickTime movie onto an element of a chart. Read more and get info on downloading the beta version at an Adrenaline Charts SE introduction page.
QuickTime 3.0 has won a number of major industry awards, including the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) '97 Editors' Choice Award and BMUG's Choice Product award! You can read an Apple press release about the awards. (Pretty good for software that hasn't shipped yet!)
There are a couple for reviews for FireWire-based video editing systems; there's an article on PhotoDV/MotoDV and FireMAX at MacWEEK's site and a "Digital In, Digital Out" article at NewMedia's site .
Check out the "Tour the Floor" page of American Express's newly revamped website, which uses both regular QuickTime movies, as well as QuickTime VR.
A new QTVR Tutorial Page now has its first few pages containing tutorials about using QuickTime VR movies in Director.
There have been a number of reports of various problems when running Netscape Navigator 4.0 with the QuickTime plug-in 1.1.1. Nothing's been officially confirmed by Apple or Netscape, but don't think you're alone if you experience problems when running these two.
The QuickTime Gazette has a review of MovieWorks 4.0. Definitely read the review, but keep in mind that it neglects to mention that MovieWorks is one of the few end-user tools--certainly the only one priced under $50--that provides access to lesser-used, but very powerful components of QuickTime, such as modifier tracks and the 3D track.
There is a new version of QuickDraw 3D. Seems like nothing major, to quote from the Read Me: "Version 1.5.3 contains miscellaneous bug fixes and optimizations". It's available from the QuickDraw 3D site. Note: This version is only for Mac OS.
Mike Carambat has authored and posted a document titled "Targeting QTVR Hotspots on the Web for the Average Guy with No Money". It's got lots of tips and tricks for doing QTVR on a budget. We found out about this in a thread on the QTVR listserv about QTVR books (of which there are currently none); Joel Cannon and Susan Kitchens announced that they're working on one together.
The Macintosh Rumor Mill states that a pre-release version of the QuickTime browser plug-in 2.0 is shipping to developers.
The next meeting of the IQTVRA Bay Area Chapter will be on 9/18 at 7pm, at the Apple Campus, 3 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Amazon Room x2-4564. It will feature Charles Wiltgen doing a demo of QuickTime 3.0.
Speaking of Charles Wiltgen, he's recently redesigned his QuickTime FAQ site (but the FAQ remains the same).
We've finally put links to all our "how-tos" (mini-tutorials) in a single How-To Archive. Let us know if anything doesn't work.
Thanks, Judy and Robert
The QuickTime Plug-in 1.1.1 for Macintosh, which we mentioned last week, is now available from the QuickTime Software page. (Click on the Macintosh link after getting through the licensing pages.)
After all the weeks we told you about betas of Interactive Solutions MovieWorks 4.0, we forgot to tell you they finished it! You can read about the product and download a trial version at the MovieWorks Features page .
Apple has changed the URL of the site that was formerly known as "QuickTime Conferencing", and then changed to "QuickTime Streaming". (The URL was qtc.quicktime.apple.com and now it's streaming.quicktime.apple.com.)
There are two new plug-ins for Adobe After Effects available free to registered owners of After Effects. One is "Path Text Effect", for animating text, and the other is "Animated GIF", for exporting After Effects projects as animated GIFs. Get them at the After Effects Plug-ins page.
Astarte has a new version (1.0.3) of their MPEG Exporter (which exports QT files as MPEG), available from the ASTARTE MPEG Exporter page.
There will be a QuickTime VR Chat, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 5:00 PM PDT. If you read this in time, go to the Apple Developer World Directions page.
The Unofficial VRScript Support page (provided by Deep Forest Multimedia) now has a demo of what you can do with VRScript (an unsupported scripting language for QTVR which allows you to do things like add QT movies, sounds, and 3D objects to QTVR movies.)
If you're interested in QuickTime audio compression, you might want to
go to Terran Interactive's
Audio Compression Survey page, where you can give your opinion about what's needed
in terms of audio codecs, and sample some new audio codecs.
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