What's New in QuickTime 4

Road Map to QuickTime 4

Streaming

QuickTime 4 introduces realtime streaming of QuickTime content. The API is described in QuickTime Streaming . A brief summary of the streaming features in QuickTime 4 follows:

View multicasts using RTP
View unicast streams using RTSP/RTP
Interoperates with third-party applications, such as Cisco's IP/TV, that support multicasting over RTP and unicasting over RTSP/RTP
Open .rtsp and .sdp files as QuickTime movies
Any application that can play QuickTime movies can play streamed movies
Streaming tracks allow local movies to include streaming content
Streaming tracks can be composited with other tracks
Streams these media types over RTP:

Video
Audio
Text
MIDI

Supports these IETF-standard RTP payload formats

H.261
H.263+
JPEG
GSM
aLaw
Law
DVI
LPC
8-bit and 16-bit raw audio
QUALCOMM PureVoice

Supports these QuickTime-optimized RTP payload formats

Sorenson Video
QDesign Music 2

Supports standard QuickTime packing (IETF draft) for all other QuickTime audio and video codecs
Partial frame recovery for these video RTP payload formats:

H.261
H.263+
JPEG
Sorenson Video

Partial sonic recovery for these audio RTP payload formats:

QUALCOMM PureVoice
QDesign Music 2

Allows developers to add new RTP payload formats
Movie export component adds "hinting", which allows existing QuickTime movies to be streamed by RTP servers
Open documentation of hint track format allows RTP servers on Unix and other platforms to stream QuickTime movies without QuickTime software

New Audio Decompressors

QuickTime 4 addsthe ability to decompress audio in three new formats:

New Data Handlers

QuickTime 4 includes new data handlers to support HTTP and FTP.

QuickTime VR Performance Enhancements

Several performance enhancements to QuickTime VR are being released as part of QuickTime 4. The new "LightningVR" panorama renderer

is typically twice as fast
enables realtime viewing at large window sizes
greatly improves image quality
is significantly more accurate
enables distortion-free viewing of large field-of-view panoramas
enables better integration with other media, such as video and 3D
uses less memory
adds "super high" quality level for photo-grade panning
adds wired actions for QuickTime VR hotspots

QuickTime Plug-In Enhancements

The QuickTime plug-in shipping with QuickTime 4 has several enhancements:

Supports alternate movies based on language
QTSRC tag lets authors force QuickTime plug-in to handle arbitrary MIME types
QTNEXT tag (and accompanying "GOTO " value) allow authors to play movie sequences
KIOSKMODE tag allows basic media protection
QuickTimePlayer target allows authors to target QuickTime Player as easily as frames
STARTTIME and ENDTIME tags allow you to play movie segments
MOVIENAME and MOVIEID tags let you set a movies's name and/or ID so you can send events from one movie to another
TARGETCACHE tag let's you set caching behavior for any movies that the embedded movie loads (the CACHE tag does the same for the embedded movie)
Enhanced BGCOLOR tag lets you specify HTML color names

Video and Graphics Enhancements

QuickTime 4 includes these new features:

QTNewGWorld () now supports arbitrary pixel formats
Deep video (64-bit) is now supported, including deep YUV formats
Wide video is now supported (rowBytes values > 0x3FFE)
Image compressor supports compression from non-RGB pixel formats

File Size and Open Files Improvements

QuickTime 4 includes these enhancements for movies that need to use large files or large numbers of files simultaneously:

Support for 64-bit file offsets enables media file sizes larger than 2 GB
Allows more than 384 files to be open simultaneously on Macintosh as well as Windows

Graphics Exporter Components

QuickTime 4 introduces graphics exporter components that simplify exporting still images to a variety of formats:

BMP
JFIF/ JPEG
MacPaint
Photoshop
PNG
QuickDraw PICT
QuickTime Image
Silicon Graphics
Targa
TIFF

Third-party developers may also write their own graphics exporters for other image file formats.

A graphic image can be exported to a handle, a file, or a data reference.

Graphics Importer Component Enhancements

QuickTime 4 adds several new features to the graphics importer components:

FlashPix images can now be imported
JPEG import has enhanced CMYK support
ColorSync profiles can be extracted from JFIF/JPEG, QTIF, FlashPix, GIF, and PNG files
Multiple images or multiple image layers in a single image file can be accessed independantly (A multiple-image PICT file or a multilayer Photoshop file, for example: not for use with animated GIF files)

Movie Importer and Exporter Additions

QuickTime 4 includes several enhancements to movie data exchange components (movie importers and exporters).

Movie import now supports:

Flash Shockwave files (.swf)
MIDI files (can now be imported in place)
Import from RTSP:// URL or SDP file for streaming

Imported text track samples can now include URL links that appear as underlined blue text in the same way as links are typically displayed in Web browsers. When the link text is clicked, the URL is launched, opening a web browser if necessary.
New MovieImportSetOffsetAndLimit64 function accepts 64-bit offsets for files larger than 2 GB.
Movie import components now include a public component resource holding the same data that MovieImportGetMIMETypeList would return.
The new MovieImportValidateDataRef function lets a movie data import component validate the data file indicated by the data reference, allowing the component to indicate if the file can be imported
Movie exporters can now export movie data in the following formats:

AVI
FLC/FLI
Image Sequence

Movie export components can now save settings in resources.
The new MovieExportSetGetMoviePropertyProc function specifies the procedure that an export component should call to retrieve movie-level properties during MovieExportFromProceduresToDataRef .

QuickTime Effects Enhamcements

QuickTime 4 adds several enhancements to QuickTime video effects:

User dialog now features "Load" and "Save" button for saving and restoring effects and their parameters
New MakeImageDescriptionForEffect function simplifies effect creation, allows "stacked" effects (one effect is used as source for another)
New Lens Flare effect
New Zoom effect
Improved effects (faster, new options)

Blur
Sharpen

Windows MIDI Support

QuickTime 4 adds support for MIDI hardware output in QuickTime Music Architecture.

DV & FireWire

QuickTime 4 adds several new features for DV and FireWire, including:

Video Output component
44.1 kHz and 48 kHz audio in addition to 32 kHz audio (in exporter and Video Output)
Lots of new cameras supported (bitstream differences)
Audio playthrough during grabbing

QuickDraw 3D

QuickTime 4 introduces several enhancements to QuickDraw 3D, which are described in detail in the document QuickDraw 3D 1.6 Improvements . A brief summary of the new features follows:

New compressed textures for producing smaller 3DMF files
New display group object culling for faster rendering
New world ray picking for collision detection
New wire custom elements to support QT wired sprite actions
New fog support in QuickDraw 3D and Interactive renderer
Support for Macintosh onscreen double buffered pixmap draw contexts
Improvements to 3DMF Viewer

More responsive interaction
New UI to select different plug-in renderers, adjust light brightness and background color
New fly-through camera simulation mode

Performance optimizations in

Interactive renderer
Window point/rectangle picking
Geometry decomposition and matrix operations

RAVE/Direct3D shim for Windows hardware acceleration
New RAVE features

Additional feature gestalts
Fog (4 modes)
More texture and bitmap pixel formats
Support for multi-texturing
Support for sharing RAVE engines across multiple monitors
Single pass texture compositing or multiple textures
Texture mipmap selection bias
Texture/bitmap priorities
Texture/bitmap draw contexts
Channel & Z Buffer masks
Z Buffer and Draw Buffer clear
to drawing buffer

What Was New in QuickTime 3

The following features were added after QuickTime 1.5 and documented in the QuickTime 3 Reference :

Support for access keys, which control access to encrypted data. For an introduction to this feature, see "Support for Access Keys" (page 52) .
Support for compressed movie resources. For an introduction to this feature, see "Compressed Movie Resources" (page 53) . For information about the storage format for compressed movie resources, see "Compressed Movie Resources" (page 1090) .
Support for DV video. Compressor and decompressor components for DV video are described in (page 232) . A decompressor component for DV audio is described on page (page 657) . Data exchange components for DV video are described in "DV Video Import and Export Components" (page 354) . For a description of the file format for DV video data, see "DV Files" (page 1089) .
The ability to specify the size of the image buffer for image compressor or decompressor components. For an introduction to this feature, see "Specifying the Size of an Image Buffer" (page 233) .
The ability to store captured data in multiple files. For an introduction to this feature, see "Storing Captured Data in Multiple Files" (page 280) and "Capturing to Multiple Files" (page 306) .
The ability to export data from sources other than movies. For an introduction to this feature, see "Exporting Data from Sources Other Than Movies" (page 356) .
Simpler implementation of movie data export components. For an introduction to this feature, see "Implementing Movie Data Export Components" (page 372) .
Support for video output devices other than monitors. This feature is described in Chapter 19, "Video Output Components."
Support for adding new compressor and decompressor components is described in Chapter 24, "Data Codec Components."
The standard sound component, which lets applications display a dialog for configuring their sound settings and get the settings that the user provides, is described in Chapter 21, "Standard Sound Dialog Component."
The base image compressor, a component that performs tasks for image decompressor components, including the scheduling of asynchronous decompression operations, is described in Chapter 22, "The Base Image Decompressor."
Support for real-time video effects is described in Chapter 25, "QuickTime Video Effects."
Support for progressive downloads. For an introduction to this feature, see "Support for Progressive Downloads" (page 54) .
Support for MIME types in graphics and movie import components. For an introduction to MIME type support for movie import components, see "Getting a List of Supported MIME Types" (page 369) . For information about MIME type support for graphics import components, see "MIME Type List" (page 513) .
Support for aliases to components. For an introduction to this feature, see "Component Aliases" (page 175) .
Functions that permit decompression at interrupt time. For an introduction to this feature, see "Compressing or Decompressing During Interrupt Time" (page 850) .
Support for vector-based graphics. For an introduction to these features, see Chapter 25, "QuickTime Vectors."