Does Quick Time really take 34 Megs....

[RethugAssKicker]

What is the benefit... I currently use WMP or RealPlayer to watch video ... why should I install QuickTime?

[electropop]

1. QuickTime will eat your computer.

It digs into all kinds of obscure nooks and crannies, becoming adware for Apple. It destabilizes and degrades your performance. I avoid it, except on a special "sandbag" machine which I don't care if it breaks.

[RethugAssKicker]

3. Thanks, I suspected as much

[wheresthemind]

8. Your insane...

Care to back that up? There is no adware in Quicktime, just as their isn't in iTunes. I find it to be the most consistent video player in terms of quality of the videos and performance and would highly recommend it over Real or WM. Often when using Windows Media to download files it will trigger my browser to open without asking and send me to sites for all kinds of reasons.

Something that never happens in Quicktime. I would ignore all the anti-Apple zelots and downloaf it to try out forself and figure out which standard you prefer best.

Watch a few movie trailers here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/

[electropop]

19. Just personal experience.

Had to reformat a machine from scratch after installing QT. On other machines, (admittedly older ones) QT runs incredibly slow and stuttery, compared to MediaPlayer. And I despise Microsoft, so it's not like I'm touting for them. Just trying to save somebody some grief. Perhaps the open-source player another poster suggested is a solution for the sites that insist on posting things in proprietary formats like QT. Personally, I would never post any media in proporietary formats - I think that's inexcusably bad web design. There is absolutely no good reason to stray from mp3 for audio, or mpg for video. There are also some lesser-known and newer open-source media formats such as ogg-vorbis, but that puts you right back into making your site visitors go get special software.

[Occulus]

21. The last time I installed Quicktime,

I found it doesn't allow you to view video fullscreen (I just checked, and fullscreen playback is now a "pro" feature. I'm now uninstalling Quicktime as I type; such a ridiculous limitation of a basic video lpayer is simply a dealbreaker). Further, it decided, all on its own, to make itself the default player without asking me during the install process.

I hate Quicktime absolutely and avoid it at all times and in all cases unless it is simply not possible to find that video in a different format. I cannot begin to stress enough how completely awful a pile of junk Quicktime truly is.

By the way, did I mention this isn't a problem I have with Apple per se, but rather, a specific set of gripes about a specific product? This isn't an Apple thing. Quicktime really is a piece of junk, and you'd end up being a lot happier using a more fully-featured player. I don't care if it's WMP, Real, or the ATI native player, or something else entirely, but you can definitely do a lot better than Quicktime.

[emulatorloo]

9. Oh really? have not had that problem - but reminds me of DOJ vs MICROSOFT

But your suggestion makes me want to revisit the DOJ case regarding Microsoft.

Blast from the past - Tevanian's testimony to the DOJ regarding MS screwing with OS and IE to screw up Quicktime

http://www.tbtf.com/resource/tevanian.html

----

"The problems we were experiencing in running QuickTime on Windows with IE 4.0--problems that had not existed with earlier versions of IE--suggested that Microsoft would use its control of Windows to harm QuickTime. I was particularly concerned about Microsoft's bundling of its multimedia technology with its IE for the Mac OS. This would give Microsoft access to the Mac OS operating system while, at the same time, Microsoft was seeking to exclude Apple's multimedia technology from Windows."

"When Microsoft introduced IE 3.0, it touted the ability of its browser to use plug-ins developed for Netscape Navigator. After the introduction of IE 3.0, Apple was able to introduce a QuickTime plug-in that was fully compatible with both the Netscape Navigator and IE 3.0 browsers. However, with the successive releases of Microsoft's IE 4.0, MS Windows 98, and Microsoft multimedia software, Apple has seen steady degradation of QuickTime's capabiltiy to play back a variety of QuickTime-compatible media file formats while operating with Microsoft's IE running on the Windows operating system. The chart in attachment 4 illustrates the increasing degradation of QuickTime's performance as Microsoft has introduced greater technical incompatibilities between QuickTime and Microsoft products."

"Microsoft has used undocumented changes to the Windows registry to impair the ability of QuickTime to play numerous multimedia file types. In some cases, IE 4.0 bypasses QuickTime and uses Microsoft software to play a multimedia file from a web server. For many formats, the Microsoft software is not able to process the file at all. In other cases, the Microsoft software will play the file but with a severely degraded quality... In order to overcome these limitations imposed by Microsoft, Apple made a significant effort to reverse engineer the Windows registry software and the IE 4.0 registry preferences so that the multimedia file types would be properly associated with the QuickTime plug-in. Apple's efforts to correct these defects achieved only limited success. Thus, Apple was forced to ship a QuickTime product having degraded functionality for the Windows/IE 4.0 platform."

much more at link

[O.M.B.inOhio]

12. I like QT

I am a video editor and I find that plain old Quicktime can do things some professional editing software can't. Do simple cuts without re-rendering, add captions, add Flash layer, quick image modification, transcode most formats, easy custom skins, QTVR, interact with web pages for visual support or annotation....
Now as a plain media player, it's nothing special, but neither is anything else I know of.

[teach1st]

2. I use QuickTime Altenative

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

Much better...

[electropop]

5. Hey, thanks for the tip!

Never heard of that!

[hwmnbn]

15. Hey cool...

Thanks for the tip.

[emulatorloo]

4. no problems on my WinXP machine - you need if want iTunes

which is a hell of a free mp3 jukebox.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Well...

with Quicktime you can watch .mov format video, which a lot of sites use for streaming (personally I find it to be of higher quality than .wmv/.avi). There's a program called Quicktime Alternative (which you can find http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm">here; the installer is less than 11MB (installed it's probably about thrice that, maybe more; the installer file is a self-extracting compressed executable).

[DS1]

7. Quicktime is a piece of fucking SHIT!

But, if you hunt very carefully, you can still find a Quicktime WITHOUT iTunes bundled available for download.

Still, Quicktime is the Corvair of Media Formats - shitty at any speed.

[emulatorloo]

10. yeah, that's why so many pros use it

EOM

[RethugAssKicker]

11. So is the concensus .. to forget about Quick Time?

[emulatorloo]

16. I would say get it if you need it -- for iTunes or a site that uses it

if you don't need it, don't get it.

I disagree with those who are claiming that is is bad or messes up machines.

But if you don't have an application or site that uses it, why install something else?

(That being said, iTunes is really great for managing your mp3 library)

[mrfrapp]

14. MPEG-4

The Quicktime package from Apple is a lousy but the format is superb. In fact, the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) certified it for use as the basis for the MPEG-4 standard.

You'll shortly be seeing increased MPEG-4 deployment on everything from mobile phones to broadcast television. I'd get used to it if I were you :-)

[DS1]

17. Yes, the player IMO is the shittiest piece of software they've ever

released. If never remembers your selected volume level - browser or standalone. And if you want fullscreen, you have to pay 30 bucks, but that 30 bucks won't get you the pro version of the next release. So if you've bought QT6Pro, you'll have to shell out another 30 for QT7Pro. F that.

I'd rather take Flash Video, which with version 8 and the built in Sorenson compression is much smaller and very clear.

[RethugAssKicker]

18. Just downloaded QT alternative...

You're right no fullscreen...just wanted it for sights that require it.

[arcos]

20. Flash video is awesome...

Macromedia really did score big points on that one. And best of all nearly everyone has the player.

[BeyondThePale]

13. 34 megs really isn't much anymore (nt)