Introduction to QuickTime 3 for Windows Programmers

Conversion From Earlier Versions

Converting an existing Windows program from earlier versions of QuickTime to QuickTime 3 is relatively simple, but there are a few changes that you should be aware of. These include:

The calls for initializing and terminating the QuickTime Media Layer are now InitializeQTML and TerminateQTML instead of QTInitialize and QTTerminate, and the meaning of the initialization routine's parameter has changed; see Initializing and Terminating QTML and QuickTime for more information. Note, however, that the initialization and termination calls for QuickTime itself, EnterMovies and ExitMovies , remain the same as before.
QuickTime calls now use the Mac OS data types Point and Rect to represent points and rectangles, rather than the corresponding Windows types POINT and RECT . This is because the QuickTime routines expect the coordinates to be specified as 16-bit integers instead of 32 bits, as they are in Windows 95 and Windows NT. For example, the QuickTime routine GetMovieBox is now defined as



 
    void

        GetMovieBox

            (Movie   theMovie,

             Rect   *boxRect)

instead of



 
    void

        GetMovieBox

            (Movie    mMovie,

             LPRECT   lprcMovieRect)

as in earlier versions.

QuickTime routines that formerly accepted a Windows window handle (HWND ) as a parameter now implicitly use the current QTML graphics port instead, as discussed under Graphics Ports . For example, the function NewMovieController now takes only three parameters



 
    ComponentInstance

        NewMovieController

            (Movie        theMovie,

             const Rect  *movieRect,

             long         someFlags)

instead of four. To obtain the port corresponding to a window, you must first register the window with QTML by calling CreatePortAssociation , then use GetHWNDPort to get the port pointer. Remember to deregister the window with DestroyPortAssociation before destroying it.

The QuickTime call for driving a movie controller is now MCIsPlayerEvent instead of MCIsPlayerMessage ; see Movie Controllers for details.
As discussed under File Selection Dialogs , the QuickTime function OpenMovieFile now accepts a Mac OS file-system specification record (FSSpec ) identifying the file to be opened, instead of a string containing the file name.
QuickTime routines that operate on movie files, such as NewMovieFromFile , now use a Mac OS-style file reference number to identify the file instead of a Windows file reference.

In porting existing QuickTime applications from the Mac OS platform to Windows, the problem also arises of how to transport resources belonging to the application program itself. On the Mac OS platform, such resources normally reside in the resource fork of the application ('APPL' ) file. A utility named RezWack, provided as part of the QuickTime 3 Software Development Kit for Windows, incorporates these resources from the resource fork of the Mac OS version into the executable (.exe ) file of the Windows version. The QTML resource-management routines will correctly locate and read in the resources from the application's .exe file.

Previous | Overview | Contents