Thanks to QuickTime's promised MPEG-4 compression technology, movie previews now look absolutely stellar. But don't get used to seeing the pretty pictures.
This week, Apple released a public preview of long-awaited QuickTime 6.0, its audio/videoplayer and development platform.
Enjoy it while you can
Although Apple boldly includes MPEG-4 in the public preview, it has yet to sign a final licensing agreement with the technology's patent holders. Apple CEO Steve Jobs says he's confident that Apple will resolve its licensing issues before the final release, which is planned to coincide with that of OS X update Jaguar in late summer, but we're proceeding with caution. After all, Apple previewed QuickTime 6.0 as early as last February but delayed the release when it couldn't come to agreement with MPEG LA, the MPEG-4 licensing body.
In the meantime, MPEG-4 delivers on its playback promises. QuickTime 6.0 offers sharp streamed images, with few hitches or jumps. Plus, the app's new Instant-On tool, which jump- starts playback without that long wait for buffering (though only on high-speed connections), makes video and audio streaming on the Web noticeably faster and smoother than previous versions of QuickTime. However, we found streaming in the player interface just as herky- jerky as ever.
High-tech goodies; slow interface response
QuickTime 6.0's MPEG-4 technology, of course, also lets you author MPEG-4 audio and video files, and the app adds AAC audio compression, which promises near CD-quality sound. QuickTime 6.0 is OS X compatible and sports a slightly updated interface that now includes a Favorites menu option for bookmarking movies you want to watch again.
Unfortunately, QuickTime 6.0's player interface has some glitches. For example, you can't mouse quickly between menu options without a jerky, blinking-arrow effect, and menus open and close with a slight delay. Switching between active movie windows often causes the player to stall. We'll chalk this up to prerelease hiccups for now.
The rest of the package
Additional new QuickTime 6.0 features include skip protection to ensure smooth streaming playback, support for Macromedia Flash 5.0, new developer APIs, and an improved interface for capturing and compressing video. Watch this space for our full review of the final release.
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