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QuickTime 6 adds MPEG-4 and more

Introduction
Touted as "The best MPEG-4 technology" by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the product's introduction at at his WWDC keynote in May 2002, QuickTime 6, released July 15, 2002, includes integrated support for AAC, "instant on" streaming, free QuickTime Broadcaster and MPEG-4 encoding.

The software was released as a public preview in June 2002 as a free download for Windows and Mac users at www.apple.com. The final version was made available on the same day the MPEG-LA announced licensing fees for MPEG-4 Visual, Systems and MPEG-J patents.

The road to the product's release has not been without a few bumps, not the least of which is the fact that QuickTime 6 came in dead last in a video encoding showdown appearing in the Feb. 2003 issue of DV Magazine.

The test pit the quality of MPEG4 encoded output from Apple's QuickTime 6 versus Sorenson's new Squeeze 3 (currently in beta) and Envivio Encoding Station. The results led to a unanimous vote for... well, let's just say that it wasn't QuickTime. The article notes that both Squeeze and EES support 2-pass VBR encoding -- a feature lacking in Apple's current MPEG4 implementation. Read more.....

MPEG-4 licensing row
Critics in early Feb. were describing QuickTime's pace in releasing long-promised MPEG-4 support as nothing short of glacial. The buzz about the emerging MPEG-4 video standard had been growing since the Dec. 2001 commitment of support from Real, the founding of of the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) and the emergence of several free, open-source and commercial DivX variants.

And, although Microsoft has been careful to distance itself from MPEG-4 by asserting that its Windows Media 8 video is superior, its MP4-V3 compressor/decompressor ("codec") is actually a close cousin to MPEG-4 technology -- and is the codec upon which the original DivX implementation was based.

Although Apple was a founding member of the ISMA (a group that streaming video market leaders RealNetworks and Microsoft have so far declined to join), it hadn't publicly shown support for MPEG-4 until Feb. 2002. But a licensing wrinkle threatened to put a damper on Apple's plans to implement MPEG-4 support in QuickTime.

At the company's QuickTime Live conference in Beverly Hills, in Feb. 2002, Apple first showed a prerelease version of QuickTime with support for MPEG-4 video. However, the company at the time admitted that its plans to release this version had been shelved "indefinitely," due to MPEG-4 licensing requirements it called unreasonable. Separately, Japan's mobile video content providers are threatening to snub the MPEG-4 compression format--touted as crucial technology for delivering video to mobile handsets--unless the cost of using it comes down.

The licensing terms are mandated by MPEG LA, a licensing body representing 18 patent holders with claims on underlying MPEG-4 technologies. Under the terms of its proposed royalty model, adopters of MPEG-4 technology could be liable for licensing fees as high as a millions of dollar per product. Apple says it's willing to pay, if the technology is worth it. However, MPEG LA demanded that providers of QuickTime streams pay $0.02 (US) per hour, per stream. It was this fee, not the codec royalties that Apple considered unacceptable. Apple's decision to shelve QuickTime 6 also held up QuickTime Broadcaster, a new program designed to stream live events. See ZDNet.com for details.

Here’s Apple's description of what’s new with QuickTime 6 (in addition to all of the features in QuickTime 5):

MPEG-4 File Format (.mp4): Since the QuickTime file format is at the foundation of MPEG-4, QuickTime 6 supports .mp4 files as first-class citizens. So with QuickTime 6, you can author professional-quality, ISO-compliant MPEG-4 audio and video files that can be played back not only by QuickTime 6, but by any other MPEG-4-compliant player. Learn more about MPEG-4.

MPEG-4 Video: The high-performance MPEG-4 video codec included in QuickTime 6 provides the highest quality results across a wide spectrum of data rates — from narrowband to broadband and beyond. This revolutionary codec offers compression times and video quality that rival those of the best proprietary codecs, yet it provides interoperability with other MPEG-4 players and devices. Tour the MPEG-4 Video Gallery.

AAC Audio: AAC is the new standard in professional audio. It provides more efficient compression than older formats such as MP3, yet delivers quality rivaling that of uncompressed CD audio. The QuickTime AAC codec builds upon new, state-of-the-art signal processing technology from Dolby Labs, and brings true variable bit rate (VBR) encoding to QuickTime. Listen for yourself in the MPEG-4 (AAC) Audio Gallery. Learn more about MPEG-4 AAC audio.

Instant-On: Instant-On means instant gratification for broadband users. Instant-On gives you an immediate and smooth playback experience — and instant access as you jump or “scrub” through a movie using the time slider. Tour the Instant-On Gallery.

Skip Protection: Apple's patent-pending technology for preventing interruptions or skips in streaming media just got better. QuickTime 6 and QuickTime Streaming Server 4 iron out the bandwidth bumps on the “information super-highway.”

Updated User Interface: QuickTime 6 includes up-to-date access to the best in QuickTime content as well as a new, easy-to-use “Favorites” interface. There are also a few changes to the shortcut keys. The Command-M (Control-M on the PC) "Present Movie" command has been replaced by a Full-screen command (Command-F/Ctrl-F) that does the same thing. The Command-3 (Ctrl-3 on the PC) command is no longer listed, but still works to expand the window to maximize the window size.

And Much More: QuickTime 6 also includes a new DVC Pro PAL video codec, support for Macromedia Flash 5, a new (Mac OS X only) JPEG 2000 still image codec, enhanced AppleScript support (again, for the Mac only), and a host of new developer application programming interfaces (APIs).

MPEG-2 Missing?
Although MPEG-2 playback support was not included in the public preview of QuickTime 6, Apple in February 2002 promised it would be part of the final release. It was not, but was delivered later, on July 19, as a US$19.95 downloadable component via the Apple Store. It's also worth noting that there are separate MPEG-2 Components for OS X and OS 9. So, if you want both, it will be US$40 plus the US$30 for QT6 Pro, if you want full-screen playback (Mac users could use the free AppleScript Full-screener! as an alternative) and the ability to save files. Macworld has details. Elsewhere, a MacInTouch reader notes that the MPEG-2 add-on component is a decoder for both muxed [multiplexed audio and video] and elementary Program Streams, but not Transport Streams. It allows transcoding to other formats, such as DV, QuickTime Movie, MPEG-4, etc.

Streaming quality
The streaming video quality of the MPEG-4 video is excellent compared to that of other QuickTime codecs and many competing technologies. An estimated 50,000 people watched Steve Jobs' 2002 keynote speech from Macworld New York Expo. We were among the 25,000 or so accessing the MPEG-4 stream and, on our broadband ADSL connection, the playback was virtually flawless -- by far the best we've seen yet from an event with this many concurrent streams. In Jan. 2003, Apple claimed the largest ever MPEG-4 Webcast, although critics point out that the company apparently did so by fudging the facts a bit.

QuickTime MPEG-4 "dead last" in encoding tests
A video encoding showdown in the Feb. 2003 issue of DV Magazine pits the quality of MPEG4 encoded output from Apple's QuickTime 6 versus Sorenson's Squeeze 3 and Envivio Encoding Station. The results led to a unanimous vote for... well, let's just say that it wasn't QuickTime. The article notes that both Squeeze and EES support 2-pass VBR encoding -- a feature lacking in Apple's current MPEG-4 implementation. Read more....

Installing/Uninstalling
Apple has provided tools designed to make it easy to uninstall it and return to QuickTime 5 at any time. Mac OS X users need to run a Mac OS X QuickTime 5 Reinstaller; Windows and Mac OS 9.x users simply need to run the QuickTime 5 installer. (QuickTime 5 disappeared from Apple's site on July 15, coinciding with the release of QT6.)

Note also that Apple says "QuickTime 6 has not been qualified for use with Final Cut Pro. Users should continue to use QuickTime 5.x." We've seen a few other reports of incompatibilities with QT6, including a DiskGuard conflict and other issues.

We've seen a few cases in which digital cameras and other devices can mess up a QuickTime installation with incompatible QuickTime Extensions. Simply uninstalling and reinstalling or upgrading QuickTime usually doesn't fix the problem. You may have to manually search for the offending ".qtx" files and trash them.

Pro Version
Although a Pro license key for QuickTime 5 worked in the QT6 Preview version, a new QuickTime Pro license key (costing US$29.95, as the version 4 and 5 releases did) is required to enable Pro functionality (back-and-forth looping, saving, full-screen mode, etc.) on the official release of QuickTime 6. The preview edition of QuickTime 6 will expire in Oct. 2002.

It is worth mentioning that the Pro key is only for the player and not the underlying QT layer. Thus, if you own QuickTime 5 Pro, simply make a copy of your QuickTime 5 Pro player. By running it instead of the QT6 player after upgrading, you will retain your current pro capabilities in QT 6.

QuickTime 6.x
Apple in Jan. 2003 released QuickTime 6.1, following with a 19MB update to version 6.1.1 in March. Apple says the new release fixes bugs in MPEG-4 streaming. For an overview of what's new, visit MacSlash. At the time, PlayBackTime noted that promised playback and encoding support for 3GPP-compatible MPEG-4 files was still missing in action. The company followed this with QuickTime 6.2, which adds AAC and DRM support, in May. See our report on the iTunes Music Store for details on the DRM implementation. Apple finally delivered 3GPP support with the release of QuickTime 6.3 in June 2003.

QuickTime 6.3
Support for 3GPP, including:

  • 3G Text, AAC and AMR audio
  • MPEG-4 and H.263 video
  • Native .3gp file format support (available via the 3GPP Component, a free download at apple.com/quicktime/download)
  • Playback of .amr and .sdv files (available via the 3GPP Component).
  • Automatic detection of streaming transport.
  • Improved MPEG video playback in Keynote.
  • Import and playback of Kodak DCS Photo Desk JPEG files.
  • QuickTime Pro users also get access to an enhanced AAC encoder.

Apple adds DRM to MPEG-4
By Feb. 2003, Apple and other supporters of MPEG-4 had apparently tired of waiting for the Internet Streaming Media Alliance (ISMA) to establish and approve a Digital Rights Management (DRM) standard and pushed forward with their own DRM specification. On Feb. 19, they asked the ISMA to approve their MPEG-4 copy protection system.

A license for Microsoft's Windows Media standard, which already includes DRM capabilities, is about half the cost of an MPEG-4 license from the MPEG Licensing Authority. This, along with the lack of DRM until now in the Apple-endorsed MPEG-4 standard, has made Hollywood favour Microsoft's system over Apple's offerings. MacUser has details. For additional details, see EuropeMedia.net.

The DRM used in QuickTime 6.2/6.3 and iTunes 4 (and newer releases) is Veridisc's FairPlay.

For Further Reading:

  • "Apple Announces Public Preview of QuickTime 6" PR Newswire
  • "QuickTime 6 Public Preview: Get a first look at MPEG-4, the next revolution in digital media technology/Download the Preview" Apple
  • "Apple Previews QuickTime 6 to General Public" MacSlash
  • "Apple releases previews of QuickTime 6, Broadcaster" InfoWorld
  • "QuickTime 6, QuickTime Broadcaster previews" MacNN
  • "Apple Releases Quicktime 6 'Preview'"OSXGuide.com
  • "QuickTime 6 Public Beta released" MacMinute.com
  • "QuickTime Broadcaster Public Preview: La web multimedia se acerca dos pasos más" Macuarium
  • "QuickTime Broadcaster Public Preview: The Web multimedia one approaches two steps more" Google Spanish-to-English
  • "Phil formally outs iTunes' DRM" Insanely Great Mac