Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Apple QuickTime Audio (.mov)

Although QuickTime is best known as a video technology, it is also possible to create audio-only QuickTime Movies (.mov). QuickTime is a container format, meaning it can contain a wide variety of media. In fact, the QuickTime format can store still images (JPEG, BMP, PICT, PNG, and GIF), a number of movie formats including MPEG-1, 360-degree panoramic images, Flash movies, MP3 audio, and other audio formats. Once you package up media in a QuickTime .mov file, you can take advantage of QuickTime features such as dependable cross-platform performance, excellent compression, and true streaming.

Although the QuickTime system extension is needed to play a .mov file, it is widely distributed and available for both Windows and Macintosh systems. In addition, with the QuickTime plug-in, a QuickTime audio player can be embedded right on the page. And QuickTime has proven itself as a reliable format since you can assume most users have the appropriate plug-in or player.

QuickTime is discussed further in Chapter 34. For more information on QuickTime, see http://www.apple.com/quicktime/.

The following summarizes the QuickTime format:

Good for...	Continuous-play audio (music, narration).
Delivery	True streaming via RTP or RTSP (using QuickTime Server on Mac OS X Server or the open source Darwin Streaming Server on Unix and NT), pseudostreaming on HTTP servers, download.
Creation tools	QuickTime Pro for $29.95.
Player	QuickTime plug-in for viewing within a web ...