Movies and Media Data Structures
A traditional movie, whether stored on film, laser disk, or tape, is a continuous stream of data. A QuickTime movie can be similarly constructed, but it need not be: a QuickTime movie can consist of data in sequences from different forms, such as analog video and CD-ROM. The movie is not the medium; it is the organizing principle.A QuickTime movie may contain several tracks. Each track refers to a media that contains references to the movie data, which may be stored as images or sound on hard disks, floppy disks, compact discs, or other devices. The data references constitute the track's media. Each track has a single media data structure.
Your application need never work directly with the movie data, as Movie Toolbox functions allow you to manage movie content and characteristics. See the chapter "Movie Toolbox" later in this book for a comprehensive reference to the Movie Toolbox.
- Note
- Throughout this book, the term media is used to refer to a Movie Toolbox data structure that contains information that describes the data for a track in a movie. Note that a media does not contain its data; rather, a media contains a reference to its data. If more than one media is being discussed, the term media structures is used.
