Series: App improvement discussion - App: Quicktime

[Diatribe]

K, this time it's Quicktime

Two of my requests have been answered and will be implemented in Tiger:

full screen mode controls and direct QT to .mac sharing

The ones I still have are:

- better handling of other file formats (built in divx encoder for example)

- remember volume after closing

- playlist for movies

As always: send Apple feedback!


The last ones in this series.

 

[brap]

Get rid of the bloody nag screen! Ack.

Improve the GUI. Let me do more things at the front end, for example playlists.

Improve the preferences. A dropdown? What?! This has been an oversight since freaking OS9, I'm sure it breaks multiple Cocoa guidelines.

Improve the encoder. Give me bitrate options, a preview screen, more file formats... gah.

Actually, why bother. MPlayer is so much less annoying.

 

[broken_keyboard]

Support more file formats.

Combine player and quicktime preferences - it is dumb have two sets of preferences, even if there is a logical division.

Make the GUI less heavyweight, the movie should be more prominent than the controls.

Make full screen playing on the free version.

Edit: get rid of Quicktime TV. It is classless trash.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

K, this time it's Quicktime

Two of my requests have been answered and will be implemented in Tiger:

full screen mode controls and direct QT to .mac sharing

The ones I still have are:

- better handling of other file formats (built in divx encoder for example)

- remember volume after closing

- playlist for movies

As always: send Apple feedback!


The last ones in this series.

Do you mean "remember software volume after closing" (which QT already does) or "remember hardware volume after closing" (which QT does not do yet, and which I would much rather have turned off)?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Support more file formats.

Combine player and quicktime preferences - it is dumb have two sets of preferences, even if there is a logical division.

Make the GUI less heavyweight, the movie should be more prominent than the controls.

Make full screen playing on the free version.

Edit: get rid of Quicktime TV. It is classless trash.

QuickTime TV isn't really part of the QuickTime Player software, so a request to get rid of it doesn't belong in a QuickTime improvement thread.
The other changes I agree with.

 

[Diatribe]

Do you mean "remember software volume after closing" (which QT already does) or "remember hardware volume after closing" (which QT does not do yet, and which I would much rather have turned off)?

Huh? It does what? Not on my mac. Are you running a different version or what are you referring to? And what would hardware volume have to do with QT?

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Huh? It does what? Not on my mac. Are you running a different version or what are you referring to? And what would hardware volume have to do with QT?

Ahh...I see now. I always have the software volume set at full, so I failed to notice that it doesn't remember the new setting if you change it. Good catch, Diatribe! BTW, I'm running QT 6.5.2 on Mac OS X 10.3.7.

 

[Diatribe]

Ahh...I see now. I always have the software volume set at full, so I failed to notice that it doesn't remember the new setting if you change it. Good catch, Diatribe! BTW, I'm running QT 6.5.2 on Mac OS X 10.3.7.

Ah good, thought I missed something. I'm running the same and QT is always too loud and it gets annoying having to tone it down every time I want to watch a trailer or something. If I watch a couple of those in a row I look like this

 

[iindigo]

My nags about QT that will be answered in Tiger:
- Make QT Player Cocoa

In Tiger, it seems Apple has started from scratch and re-written QT player in Cocoa. Another nice things about it is that it no longer stores its interface images (buttons etc) in a .rsrc file - You can just show the app's contents and boom! there's the buttons, etc in .tif image files. This makes QT player much more themable, and may allow for appskin support for QT in ShapeShifter.

 

[Bear]

...
The ones I still have are:

- better handling of other file formats (built in divx encoder for example)

- remember volume after closing

- playlist for movies
...[/URL]

As it stands, I do believe Tiger's Quicktime is getting codecs for more media file formats. The question is, are they the ones you are looking for?

 

[crazzyeddie]

I have serious doubts as to whether Apple would ever incorporate DiVX into Quicktime because of its *very* strong connection to illegal downloading and to a lesser extent porn.

 

[Bear]

I have serious doubts as to whether Apple would ever incorporate DiVX into Quicktime because of its *very* strong connection to illegal downloading and to a lesser extent porn.

I agree with your point, however, now the are DVD players which officially support the DivX format and are certified "DivX Compatible". This could cause Apple to add official support.

But you know something, downloading and installing the DivX codec is easy.

What is harder is dealing with Ogg Vorbis and some other audio formats if you want them playable in iTunes/ These audio codecs would be more useful to have properly integrated in QuickTime and iTunes.

 

[chameeeleon]

- Some sort of Quicktime Library window to replace the current Favourites one, and to list all the videos, iTunes style (ie: with search bar) and allow for playlists/shuffle/etc. Maybe in a looong drawer or something? This would also be a good excuse to clean up the Quicktime TV, and incorporate music videos and movie trailers in an iTMS-style. Maybe I'll do a mockup after.
- I agree that the preferences are a mess
- Add in the bookmarks, video clips and zoom features shown in DVD Player 4.5
- Speaking of DVD Player - Tell the DVD Player people to synchronize their keyboard shortcuts with you!
- Add an "Export to iDVD" button that would take whatever Quicktime's playing and just do the converting necessary and open iDVD with the video in it *cough* especially .avis *cough*. Maybe a pro feature?
- Add full screen support without a pro license. I own a pro license, I use Quicktime Pro probably once every day (and not just for fullscreen, lol). I'm sick of having to tell people to get VLC for fullscreen playback.
- Streaming Quicktime movies to a TV using a newly unveiled Airport base station would be insane. Otherwise Rendezvous sharing would be cool.
I think that's it for now....

 

[Diatribe]

As it stands, I do believe Tiger's Quicktime is getting codecs for more media file formats. The question is, are they the ones you are looking for?

The question is, are you sure more are coming and if yes, what are they?

 

[Nermal]

My requests:

- Add an AC3 decoder so you don't need to install your own
- Add MPEG-2 decoding (eg. for Super Video CDs, which won't play in DVD Player)
- Add full screen support to the free version
- Fix the Windows version

 

[AdamZ]

The option for BORDERLESS windows. I would like to have no borders when needing to view clips side by side, and I think it would generally look nice and help clean the screen up.

 

[Darwin]

Get rid of the bloody nag screen! Ack.

If your reffering to the get Pro ad that appears when you start QT there is a trick to get rid of it

Im jogging my memory here but it should be the right way

Go to your Time and Date settings fo OS X

You set the year to something like the year 2050 etc and save that

You then open QT and the ad then shows up, click to get rid of it as normal

You then quit QT and set your Time and Date back to normal and when you open QT it should show that ad again

I think thats how it worked, give it a go

 

[gekko513]

My most wanted feature is for the Quicktime browser plug in: I really want to be able to see clips at more than 100% zoom. An easy way to play the embedded video in an external player could fix this. Also preferences to always open embedded clips in an external player at 200% zoom for instance.