MoviePlayer 2.0 is a new and improved version of the classic MoviePlayer application. If offers the user many new movie playing features. However, MoviePlayer 2.0 maintains the original goal that the MoviePlayer application should do nothing except showcase the capabilities of QuickTime. Therefore,
all of the capabilities of MoviePlayer 2.0 are directly associated with a QuickTime function. All MoviePlayer does is provide a simple user interface to access those features.
This document does not attempt to explain the details of QuickTime or MoviePlayer 2.0. It is intended as a roadmap to the new features of MoviePlayer 2.0. MoviePlayer 2.0 provides sophisticated tools for working with movies. Among other things, simple track level editing is now possible.
Because the Movie Controller in QuickTime 2.0 is Drag Manager aware, you can perform drag and drop editing in MoviePlayer 2.0 (in fact, it works in MoviePlayer 1.0!). If you have installed the Drag Manager, you can click and drag the contents of one movie into another, drag insert movies directly from Finder, and all sorts of other cool things.
File Menu
Save As…
The Save As dialog is now the same as that used in the Movie Converter application and is depicted below. The only change from the Save As Dialog in MoviePlayer 1.0 is the “Playable on non-Apple computers” checkbox. This feature allows you to create movies which will play back on Windows using QuickTime for Windows.
Import…
The Import dialog is similar to the Open dialog (which allows for importing some types of files). However, the Import dialog also lets you import file types which are not available in the Open dialog, such as text documents and picture documents.
Export…
The Export dialog is a standard part of QuickTime 2.0. The pop-up menu at the bottom of the dialog lets you choose the format to export the media.
As with import, some exporters may provide special options. For example, if you export sound, you can set the format of the sound in the AIFF file that is created.
Print to Video…
The Print To Video dialog allows you to play a movie to any available monitor at Normal, Double, or Full Screen size. With most software based compression, either Normal or Double will work best. If your machine has only one monitor, the Screen selection box will not appear.
The Print To Video dialog respects the settings for "Looping" and “Play Selection” made in MoviePlayer. To abort movie playback, hold down the mouse button. You can adjust the movie’s volume during playback by using the up and down arrow keys.
Edit Menu
Cut/Copy/Paste/Clear
Since QuickTime 1.5 it has been possible to achieve extended editing capabilities by holding down various combinations of the Option and Shift keys when selecting the Edit Menu. These capabilities are still available.
Option key Shift key Option + Shift key
Extract Tracks…
The Extract Tracks dialog lists all of the tracks in the movie. To extract a group of tracks select the tracks and click “Extract”. A new untitled movie will be created that contains the selected tracks. The original movie is not changed.
Delete Tracks…
The Delete Tracks dialog lists all of the tracks in the movie. Select the tracks you wish to delete and click “Delete”. The selected tracks will be removed from the movie. Currently this operation is not undo-able.
Find…/Find Again
If the current movie contains text, the Find item is enabled. Choosing find allows you to specify a string to search for. The search is case insensitive, and always searches forward. The found text may or may not be visible, depending on how the movie was created. In any case, the movie time is set to the time of the found text. If possible, the found text is hilited. If the text cannot be found, the computer will beep.
Movie Menu
Show Copyright…
This item has been added for content providers who need a standard way to display rights information for a given movie. It brings up the standard QuickTime copyright dialog.
Get Info
The old Movie Information dialog has been completely replaced with an extensible mechanism which provides access to much more information about the movie, as well as information about each individual track.
There are two pop-up menus at the top of the dialog which control the information displayed in the rest of the dialog. The pop-up on the left controls what part of the movie information is displayed for. This can be the entire movie, or any individual track.
The pop-up on the right controls the type of information that is displayed on the selected piece of the movie. The contents of this menu vary, depending on what is selected on the left.
The Size panel shows the normal and current dimensions for the movie.
The Time panel shows the movie’s current time and duration. The format is hours:minutes:seconds:frames. The frames field always runs from 0 to 29. It is somewhat arbitrary as QuickTime supports any frame rate, or even variable frame rates. The current selection is also displayed in the format.
The Files panel shows all files referenced by the entire movie. This includes the file that the movie itself resides in. To open any of the files shown, simply double click the file name. The files panel is also available for individual tracks. In that case it only displays the files referenced by that track.
The General panel displays basic information about a track. The tracks start time and duration are displayed in the same format as the movie time panel. The track type is displayed. You can enable and disable individual tracks using the Track Enabled radio buttons. The average data rate of the track is also displayed. This data rate assumes that the movie is being played back at a rate of 1.0.
The Format panel displays information for sound and video tracks about how the data is stored. For video it displays the compression format, number of colors, and original dimensions. For sound it displays the sample rate, number of channels, sample size, and any compression.
The Timecode panel appears for any track which has a time code reference. It does not appear for Timecode tracks themselves. The Timecode for the current movie time is shown. The name of the source tape for the current time is also displayed.
The Volume panel appears for any track which supports volume control. These include sound tracks, music tracks, and MPEG tracks. You can adjust the slider to values from 0 to 200 -- 100 means normal volume. Values greater than 100 may sound distorted.
The Instruments panel appears for Music tracks only. It displays the currently selected instrument for each part within the selected track. You can change the instrument for a part by double clicking it. The standard instrument picker dialog will be displayed.
The Colors panel appears for movies. It is only available if you hold down the Control key while launching MoviePlayer 2.0. If the movie has a color table, it is displayed in the box on the left. You can remove the color table with the clear button. You can assign another color table by using the Set button. The Set button brings up a file selection dialog. Choose any file. If it contains any “clut” resources, you will be asked to choose one to use with the movie.
The Preload panel is available for all tracks. It only appears if you hold down the Control key while launching MoviePlayer 2.0. It allows you to set the Preload and Cache hint flags for each track. For more details, read the QuickTime 2.0 Movie Toolbox documentation. Use this feature with great care.