Frank Casanova, Apple Computer Inc.'s senior director of Mac OS X Audio and Video, spoke with Publish.com about what's new in QuickTime 7 for Windows, such as automating with VBScript, the promise of a new video standard, and how the two will combine to make practical the creation and distribution of HD (High Definition) video on platforms ranging from DVDs to satellite TV to mobile phones.

Casanova stressed that QuickTime has had a long history on the Windows platform. "QuickTime has shipped cross-platform for many years," he said. "Ninety-eight percent of QuickTime distribution from the Apple Web site is to PCs—these are only the downloads we can count," because this download requires entering data on Apple site, Casanova said.

"This totals about 500,000 downloads a day," Casanova said. "It's grown into an incredibly popular product."

In addition, QuickTime is distributed with every copy of AOL 9 and iTunes, as well as with many digital cameras, multimedia applications and enhanced CDs.

According to Casanova, the market analysis firm Frost & Sullivan counted over 400 million copies of QuickTime for Windows in use, which, Casanova said, puts QuickTime on par with the Windows Media Player application.

"The headline feature is H.264," Casanova said. "H.264 is an open standard, but we've contributed to the standard and created a H.264-compliant codec [in QuickTime 7]."

"The last big format was MPEG-2, which is used on DVDs and satellite television; the problem with it is that it's eleven or twelve years old and is running out of gas," Casanova said. In comparison, he said, "H.264 is a modern and incredibly scalable standard."

Casanova noted that recent cell phones use H.264 to deliver video. It has been tested for use with digital cinema projection, and new DVD player standards, including Blu-Ray and HD-DVD, will be based on it.

As a result, Casanova said, digital content creators interested in HD content can easily use QuickTime 7 for exporting video to future devices as well as current ones.

Casanova also pointed out that QuickTime 7 for Windows also supports VBScript: "The analogy on the Mac is AppleScript," he said. He gave the example that the Japanese telecom company NTT DoMoCo automates much of its production of video sent to cell phones through VBScript.

"In workflows, it's important to automate certain tasks, like adding metadata or annotation," he said.

The rise of HD content online and on cell phones will rely on the availability of high-speed data connections, Casanova said, because of larger file sizes for full-screen H.264 content. However, he said, if content were encoded with H.264 to the same frame rate and screen size, "it might take longer to encode, but you'll get a smaller file size and higher quality using H.264," though playback would require viewers to have QuickTime 7 installed.

Casanova offered as an example the BBC's decision to move content on its online Motion Gallery from Windows Media format to QuickTime. This required re-encoding all their archived content, Casanova said, but he said they considered the effort worthwhile. "They'll reach a broader range of players," he said, "from set-top boxes to satellite TV to cell phones."

Discuss Apple's QuickTime 7 for Windows Goes HD   People in all countries take the <a href="http://bestfinance-blog.com">loan</a> from... >>> Post your comment now!

>>> More Web Design Articles          >>> More By Daniel Drew Turner