QuickTime 2.0 codecs are present in QuickTime 2.0.x. If you use external codecs, you should discuss the situation with a vendor who usually provides codecs for both platforms (for example, contact Intel for Indeo).
We support sound, video, text, music (MIDI), and MPEG tracks on both Windows and Macintosh. The difference between the two versions is that you can have only one of each track open under Windows, except for the number of sound tracks. Starting with QuickTime for Windows 2.0.1 you can enable/disable a multitude of sound tracks.
The biggest difference between these versions is the API access under QuickTime for Windows 2.0. We don't yet support all the API calls we have under Windows. Nearly all of the Movie controller API's are supported, as well as many of the basic calls, but the calls to create .sarc and further manipulate movie tracks are missing. You can't create specific media handlers with QuickTime for Windows 2.0, but you can write data handlers and codecs for the Windows environment.
In pure multimedia-playback cases, there are very few differences between QuickTime for Windows and QuickTime/Macintosh. The drawback with working with QuickTime for Windows is having to keep track of all the possible configuration issues that end users might encounter. We distribute README files with the latest information about compatibility and configurations (e.g., video/sound cards, drivers, etc).
In terms of performance, it's difficult to arrive at reliable measurements unless you press a test CD and measure the performance using a variety of systems and hardware configurations. Since the PC environment tends to vary considerably from system to system, we strongly recommend that you test your movies in at least three or four PC environments.
Here are some approximate performance figures for QuickTime/QuickTime for Windows 2.0 movies in double-speed CD-ROM environments:
For 320x240 movies, the frame rate is around 15 to 30 frames per second (depending on the amount of data, throughput, movement inside the movie and so on). Throughput is in the range of 180-240Kbps, maximum.
For key frames, you'll just have to experiment. Sometimes, natural key frames are the best approach. (If the frame changes more than 90 percent, a key frame is inserted.) Another approach would be to create as many key frames as the fps rate. In other words, if you have 15fps, create a key frame for every 15 frames.
With regard to sound, 11KHz/8bit is actually quite acceptable for pure speech and other non-musical sounds. 22KHz/8 bit is better, and 22/16KHz is probably a bit more than you'd need or want, as this could easily add approximately 88Kbps to the total throughput of the movie. Try to use 22.050KHz or 11.025 KHz instead of the more common sampling frequencies of the Macintosh. Sound Manager 3.0 is good at resampling these frequencies, but this is more of an unknown with various sound cards on the PC. Also, if you need to resample the sounds under QuickTime for Windows, this will consume some of the CPU cycles.
For additional information, see the SDK CD from APDA, which includes detailed
documentation regarding API and architecture issues concerning QuickTime and
QuickTime for Windows. How to Digitize Video by Weiskamp and Johnson
(Wiley Press) is another good source of information regarding the practical
issues of both QuickTime and AVI movie creation. Although this book is a bit
out of date (because of the technical discussions around QuickTime 1.6.1 and
QuickTime for Windows 1.1.1), much of the content is still valid.