9.18. QuickTime The settings in the QuickTime panel affect the way movies are played back on your Mac, including movies that stream to you from a Web page and movies that you watch using QuickTime Player (Chapter 15). You don't have to touch most of these options, but here are a few worth tweaking: -
Register . Fill in the blanks to upgrade to QuickTime Pro; see Chapter 15. -
Browser . These settings control how your Web browser's QuickTime plug-in works with streaming video. "Play movies automatically," for example, tells the plug-in to start playing movies as soon as they begin downloading, rather than wait for the entire movie to download first. (If you have a dial-up Internet connection, you'll probably want this turned off to keep the incoming movie from stuttering.) -
Update . These controls provide an easy way to download the latest QuickTime software version. -
Streaming . Some streaming QuickTime Web sites are set up with multiple versions of the same movie, each saved at a different size and frame rate. Based on your connection speed setting here, the QuickTime plug-in can automatically request the appropriately sized version of a movie for the best possible playback. Usually, Automatic ”a new Tiger feature ”detects the speed, saving you the trouble of muddling with the pop-up menu. The Enable Instant-On feature means that you can begin watching a streaming QuickTime movie before it's been fully downloaded. However, this feature works because QuickTime analyzes how fast the movie data is arriving from the Web, and extrapolating . "If I'm getting 30 K of data per second," for example,"then I can begin playing this movie after three seconds' worth have arrived on this Mac. The rest of the movie data will keep coming in while I'm playing back, so I can play this movie uninterrupted." Well, right ”unless the stream doesn't keep coming at 30 K per second. If Internet traffic slows down the stream at some point, you'll wind up with a paused movie and a "loading" indicator while QuickTime catches up. The purpose of the Play slider, then, is to compensate for such network delays. Drag the slider toward Short Delay if you'd rather wait longer for the movie to begin, but enjoy uninterrupted playback. -
Advanced . Synthesizer : Here, you can choose a music synthesizer for playing back MIDI files. You don't have any choice unless you've searched Google for Sound-Fonts , downloaded some, and put them in your Library  Audio Sounds Banks folder. Transport Setup : On Automatic, QuickTime attempts to determine the best protocol and Internet port (channel) for incoming movie data. QuickTime usually works best if you set the Transport Protocol to http, and the Port ID to 80. Enable kiosk mode : This option shortens the shortcut menu that appears when you Control-click a QuickTime movie in your Web browser ”by eliminating the QuickTime Settings and Save Movie As options. MIME Settings : Lets you identify which kinds of Internet streams (that is, which formats of audio and video) you'd like QuickTime to handle. Visit these controls if, for example, a certain Internet radio show is opening up the Real Player instead of QuickTime Player. Media Keys : Media keys are supposed to be special passwords supported by QuickTime that unlock movies so you can watch them. As it turns out, nobody uses them. |
