Mac OS® X Leopard™ All‐in‐One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 8. No, It's Not Called iQuickTime

In This Chapter

• Viewing movies

• Listening to audio

• Converting media to different formats

• Keeping track of your favorite media

• Tweaking QuickTime preferences

QuickTime is a set of exciting technologies that gives you access to the greatest multimedia experience around. Despite its power, don't be surprised if you don't even realize that you're using it sometimes. Built with the average Joe in mind, QuickTime takes multimedia to new heights without forcing its users to become rocket scientists in the process. And dig that sassy chrome sheen — not bad for a software application!

QuickTime Can Do That?

QuickTime was created by Apple to perform all sorts of multimedia functions. Although normally associated with movie playback, QuickTime can do much more. Whether movies, audio, animation, or music, QuickTime acts as the main engine that drives all your multimedia needs.

• Media player: QuickTime's main claim to fame is playing all sorts of media — and I do mean all sorts. Table 8-1 lists the most popular of the media types that QuickTime can play.

  Table . 8-1: QuickTime Playback Formats

  Media Type	File Types
  Movie	.mov, .avi1 , .mpg, .dv, .mp4, divx, 3g (cell phones), h.263, h.264
  Audio	.aiff, .wav, .mp3, .au, .sfil, .aac, .amr
  Graphics	.jpg, .tif, .pct, .bmp
  Music	.mid, .kar
  3‐D	QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality)
  Animation	.swf

  The real beauty of QuickTime is that it transparently handles playback of all these media formats and more. You don't even really have to know what ...