Apple making enemies they shouldn't be making?

[inocen1]

Hey Everyone,
Okay, I love Apple just as much as the rest of you, no doubt about that, but I'm getting a bit worried about something as well.
Right now, overall, there are three different formats for video compression and internet playback. Apple's Quicktime, Microsoft's Media player, and Real. There's little doubt now that Real really hates Apple and probably will no longer be supporting them after Real player 10, so down the road when technology moves on and there's a Real player 11 and 12 (about the time Longhorn will come out haha), guess who's going to get the short end of the stick and get undersupported. And then, there's Microsoft who has already stopped supporting Windows media for the Mac. I know that this isn't really effecting anyone just yet because media centered around the new player formats hasn't really come along just yet (not that often anyway), but it will, and then what? Does anyone else see this as a problem in the Mac's future? Yes yes, I know quicktime is BY FAR the best media format out there. There is no doubt about that, but still, I think it could hurt the Mac when regular people want it to be compatible with everything on the internet and then they find out that oops it won't play that Windows Media 10 file or oops it won't play that new Real media file. That spells trouble in the Macs future. I know I'm getting tired of my Dad whining about how everything on the internet isn't compatible with his Mac (because of ActiveX, though he has no idea what that is) as it is.
Again, I love my Mac and wouldn't go back to Windows for anything, but I'm starting to see how Apple's "Its our way or the highway mentality," might backfire on them eventually.
Matthew

 

[PlaceofDis]

i doubt Real will ever be a problem for Apple. They really are a sinking ship in my opinion. I don't know how much longer they will last to be honest. WMA is a crappy format, and while it is the major competitor to Quicktime only time will tell which one will become the standard. Although with the new codec for Quicktime....the quality and improvements might just help sway people to favor Quicktime

 

[inocen1]

I hope so

 

[wwooden]

I don't think it will or could happen. I'm pretty sure there are laws that prevent companies from doing stuff like what you are suggesting.

 

[kgarner]

If I were Real or Microsoft I would be really concerned by QuickTime 7. H.264 has the potential to revolutionize video on the Internet. Once compnaies see what you can do with it and how small the data streams can get I think you will see a lot of companies switching to it. And since it is not really owned by Apple they cna get their compressors from anywhere they want. Of course, only time will tell how this will play out, but I think that a lot of companies that providing streaming video have an eye on H.264. Just my take on it.

 

[aloofman]

Kind of jumping the gun here, I think. I work in streaming media and I don't know anyone who's investing much effort in Real. I don't think that MS or Apple considers them a major competitor right now.

There are some considerations here though. I work on Macs but produce quite a bit of content that must work on PCs. There aren't many Mac options for WMV encoding. Unfortunately, I can't just tell PC users to download QT because much of the content I put out is self-contained files that they need to play at full-screen. To do that they'd have to buy QT Pro, which is an unacceptable alternative. Now if Apple would just put full-screen back in the free version....

And remember that some of these things are very hard to predict. Maybe the new QT codec will knock people's socks off. Or maybe not. A very good codec that works transparently on many platforms will succeed because most users don't care which one it is or who makes it. They just want it to work well. For all we know, the next Windows Media codec might be the one. And remember that it's not always the best product that wins in the marketplace. Mac users should be familiar with that concept.

 

[inocen1]

And remember that it's not always the best product that wins in the marketplace. Mac users should be familiar with that concept.

No doubt

 

[7on]

Kind of jumping the gun here, I think. I work in streaming media and I don't know anyone who's investing much effort in Real. I don't think that MS or Apple considers them a major competitor right now.

There are some considerations here though. I work on Macs but produce quite a bit of content that must work on PCs. There aren't many Mac options for WMV encoding. Unfortunately, I can't just tell PC users to download QT because much of the content I put out is self-contained files that they need to play at full-screen. To do that they'd have to buy QT Pro, which is an unacceptable alternative. Now if Apple would just put full-screen back in the free version....

And remember that some of these things are very hard to predict. Maybe the new QT codec will knock people's socks off. Or maybe not. A very good codec that works transparently on many platforms will succeed because most users don't care which one it is or who makes it. They just want it to work well. For all we know, the next Windows Media codec might be the one. And remember that it's not always the best product that wins in the marketplace. Mac users should be familiar with that concept.

I believe there's a way to encode the video to play in a Kisok sort of mode, I have at least one QT video that will only play in fullscreen when I open it (then it always opens a website when it quits).

 

[patrick0brien]

I put out is self-contained files that they need to play at full-screen. To do that they'd have to buy QT Pro...

-aloofman

7on is correct, it only requires QTpro to configure for autoplay and fullscreen video - not to play it.

Any user who clicks on such a configured movie it goes fullscreen and plays. Very easy.

 

[aloofman]

-aloofman

7on is correct, it only requires QTpro to configure for autoplay and fullscreen video - not to play it.

Any user who clicks on such a configured movie it goes fullscreen and plays. Very easy.

I'm not aware of any preset that could make it play fullscreen on someone else's machine automatically. If anyone knows how to do that, I'd appreciate the info.

 

[calyxman]

The early days of OS X were hell in that many of us had to rely on classic versions of real and wmp to deal with viewing streaming media from certain websites, but even then it was still a nightmare with the rigid classic interface meshing in with the fluid aqua gui.

It felt like we were waiting forever until we actually got a stripped down version of WMP from MS and several months later a beta copy of Real for OS X. What's sad is that both are stripped down versions of the actual thing, and certain website run on codecs not supported by either of these players.

I don't think Real is going anywhere and MS definitely won't drop their gloves in this marketplace. But I do think that it's not a matter of who's got the best format but rather who will allow a playingfield with room for all to play. Unfortunately Apple is heading in the direction of driving everyone away from the field with examples of the iPod's limited support for certain audio files.

I for one think that Microsoft is slowly wrapping up their relationship with Apple. MS ported IE, Office, and Outlook Express to the Mac to help make it a viable platform while Apple was trying to get it's act together and put it's finishing touches on OS X. Apple has returned the favor by not supporting wma format for the iPod and practically knocking off other MS apps with Safari, Mail, and iWorks.

It will be interesting to see these next few years unfold.

 

[patrick0brien]

I'm not aware of any preset that could make it play fullscreen on someone else's machine automatically. If anyone knows how to do that, I'd appreciate the info.

-aloofman

So save a movie to autorun open the movie in QTPro and go to the menu 'Movie:Get Movie Properties' (cmd-J), in the right drop, select 'Auto Play', and check the control. Save it.

To have the movie go full screen, go to 'Movieresent Movie...' and in the drop, select 'Full Screen', and save the movie on the frame you wish to have it start from. Be aware if you invoke 'Present Movie' in 'Full Screen' the Auto Play control is automatically invoked regardless of how you have the control set.