Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Quicktime 7 Pro and Quicktime X coexist

S

spacepower7

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 6, 2004
1,509
1
Quicktime Observation

Before upgrading my Mac mini to 10.6, I had installed Quicktime Pro 7. I had set up Quicktime 7 Pro to be the default app to open my .m4v handbrake video files rather than iTunes.

I just was testing some movies that I encoded last night before the 10.6 upgrade, which I did this morning.

Double clicking the .m4v file opened it in Quicktime 7 not Quicktime X. I looked in the applications folder to see if Quicktime 7 was still there but it wasn't. A quick Spotlight search and I found that Quicktime 7 (at least the Pro version) was moved to the utilities folder.

Conclusion: If you do a 10.6 upgrade install, and you have Quicktime 7 Pro, you don't have to install it from the 10.6 disc, it's just been moved to your utilities folder.
 
Thanks for the info, and good to know. I was in a panic. I thought they removed all the Quicktime Pro features from the new version, with no way to get it back. I am slightly bummed Quicktime X isn't Pro though... Or, am I missing something?
 
I had quicktime pro but its removed. I checked my utilities folder and its not there. Does this new quicktime do everything the pro version did?
 
bearcatrp said:
Any reference to this? Or, do you know what key features are lost?
Click to expand...

There are a lot of things, the biggest probably being the ability to export video into different formats. With QTX you can only export for iTunes, iPod/Iphone, and YouTube I believe.
 
I simply don't understand why Apple would remove the Pro features. Sure, maybe the terminology was bust (if you're a pro, you'll use FinalCut), but with all the new features they've packed in to the regular QT X player, the least they could have done is roll in the old pro features!

Here's why:
- FinalCut costs an arm, leg, and appendix.
- iMovie requires you to "import" video into a project/library (depending on version), thereby reducing the quality. Exporting again further diminishes the quality.
- The export settings in QT X are "grandma controls" at best. The Mac is gaining a wider audience, but Apple can't start alienating its knowledgeable customer base with a choice of not one, not two, but, gasp!… three choices for export quality.
- While the Pro features felt a tad kludgy, there is literally no software that combines its feature set with its low price and light-and-fast-ness.
- The standard QuickTime export options panels are still available to all QuickTime applications, including iMovie, free.

Sometimes you just need to dig down into the video file—the original file—and make some changes. When I put a video on YouTube, I don't just crop it. I trim out sections in the middle, put scenes ahead of others, and mess with the video file tracks. That's impossible in QT X. iMovie generally decimates my video and my sanity. But when I use QT Pro, it's fast, preserves all quality, and makes QT X's new interface look like what Microsoft did to Vista. Fail.

All they have to do is put an "advanced" button in the export box and include a preference to enable advanced menu features (enabled if pro features are bought). Alternatively, they could simply include all the pro features and just let the "less technically inclined" users skip over them. Instead, what Apple decided to do is separate the old features into a shadow app; that's eerily similar to what they did with the "new generation" iMovie. They provide amnesty for a while, in a separate app, mind you, still offering the old version… then, suddenly, they chop off all support for the old and force us to embrace the new, without giving us the features we needed in an update.

In all, this is a blunder for Apple. They cut most of the pro features, cut the price, put a fresh coat of paint on it, and promoted it as a shining feature of Snow Leopard. What you get is less.

I look forward to all my trusty tricks back, hopefully in QT 10.1.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back