OS X Mountain Lion For Dummies

Playing Movies and Music in QuickTime Player

QuickTime is Apple’s technology for digital media creation, delivery, and playback. It’s used in a myriad of ways by programs such as Apple’s iMovie, by websites such as YouTube (www.youtube.com ), and in training videos delivered on CD or DVD.

QuickTime Player is the OS X application that lets you view QuickTime movies as well as streaming audio and video, QuickTime VR (Virtual Reality), and many types of audio files as well. The quickest way to launch it is by clicking its icon in the Dock. It also opens automatically when you open some QuickTime movie document files.

I say “some” QuickTime movies because some will open QuickTime Player and others will open iTunes. To change the app that opens for a particular movie, right-click or Control-click its icon in the Finder and choose the application you prefer from the Open With submenu. This opens the file with that program this one time only. To make the change permanent, press Option, and the Open With command becomes the Always Open With command.

To play a QuickTime movie, merely double-click its icon — and QuickTime Player (or iTunes) launches itself.

Using QuickTime Player couldn’t be easier. All its important controls are available right in the player window, as shown in Figure 13-2. ...