Quicktime Plugged In / Apple's Technology Hits the Web
Jason Snell
BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. Months after Netscape introduced a plug-in architecture for its Navigator browser, Apple has finally released a QuickTime plug-in for Navigator. Although several other companies beat Apple to the punch by releasing similar QuickTime plug-ins some time ago, Apple's version boasts unique features that make it the definitive plug-in for QuickTime on the Net.
Apple's QuickTime plug-in lets Web authors embed QuickTime movies in their pages. A set of HTML tags lets authors specify whether movies will play automatically upon loading and whether they will loop continuously or play only once. Movie viewers can play, pause, and fast-forward movies. And because QuickTime is more than a video format, the plug-in also allows the browser to automatically play background music, whether it's digitized or in the form of compact MIDI information.
The most noteworthy feature of Apple's QuickTime plug-in is Fast Start. Timing is everything with Fast Start. It allows the plug-in to measure the speed at which movies are delivered over the Net and to start playing a movie before it's been completely downloaded. By the time the plug-in has reached the end of the movie, the file should be completely downloaded.
In reality, this technology will probably make a difference only if you have a very fast connection (an ISDN line, for example) and if you're viewing a very long movie. In our tests of a 17-second movie downloaded at 28.8 kbps, the Fast Start feature saved us only 6 seconds out of a 4-minute-long download. Not much to write home about.
More intriguing is the addition of QuickTime VR support. Previously it was almost impossible to use QuickTime VR on the Net. Now Web authors can embed QuickTime VR scenes in their Web pages. QuickTime VR scenes are small enough to make download times reasonable, even with slow connections. The only thing that's missing is the ability to embed hyperlinks in QuickTime VR movies, a feature that would open up endless virtual-tour possibilities. Stay tuned -- according to Apple, that feature will be coming in a future version of QuickTime VR.
WITH APPLE'S NEW QUICKTIME plug-in for Navigator, you can view movies that are embedded in Web pages. In addition, sophisticated soundtracks can play as background music. This page includes a movie plus a looping animated logo.
