QuickTime 7

QuickTime 7 is the latest version of Apple's audio/video technology. Its most commonly used and known element is Player, an application available for PC and Mac which plays back a whole host of audio and video files, with the notable exception of Windows Media content.

QuickTime 7 Player added a bunch of new features to an already excellent media playback application. These include the ability to record audio and video directly from within the Player, a new set of on-screen controls, and most interestingly from an HDTV point of view, the ability to playback high definition content through the inclusion of the H.264 codec.

H.264 is an Mpeg-4 codec which is rapidly gaining acceptance as the way to encode high definition video for distribution. It is the codec that will be used for broadcasting HDTV signals in Europe and will be used in both HD-DVD and Blu-ray.

To take advantage of QuickTime 7's new codec, Apple has posted a number of movie trailers in high definition formats on its webite. Impressively, Apple has provide these in all three HD formats, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. Naturally, the 1080p trailers are the biggest in terms of filesize, but realistically you'll need a broadband connection for all of them. You'll also need a fast PC or Mac, plenty of RAM, and a big screen (the 1080i and 1080p trailers have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels). You can, of course, scale the movies down when you play them on a smaller screen, but you lose the effect of the astonishing quality at large sizes.

QuickTime 7 is more than just QuickTime Player, however. It also incorporates QuickTime Streaming Server, a method of streaming media over the Internet, and QuickTime Broadcaster, a tool for broadcasting live events to a range of internet-connected devices.

QuickTime is also the technology behind Apple's iTunes, iMovie, and Final Cut Pro software.

Web www.the-hdtv-tuner.com