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Movie Posters and Movie Previews

A QuickTime movie may contain a preview and a poster:

• A movie preview is a very short version of a movie, typically less than five seconds in duration. It is intended to give the user an idea of a movie’s contents.

• A movie poster is a still frame representing the movie.

The following Movie Toolbox functions allow your application to work with movie previews and movie posters:

• Use the PlayMoviePreview function to display a movie’s preview. The PlayMoviePreview function sets the movie into preview mode, plays the movie preview, sets the movie back to normal playback mode, and returns to your application.

• Alternatively, your application can control the playback of a movie’s preview. Use the SetMoviePreviewMode function to place a movie into preview mode. You can then use the StartMovie and StopMovie functions, described below, to control movie playback. Your application can find out if a movie is in preview mode by calling the GetMoviePreviewMode function.

• Your application can specify the starting time and duration of the movie preview with the SetMoviePreviewTime and GetMoviePreviewTime functions.

• Use the ShowMoviePoster function to display a movie’s poster. You can work with the poster’s boundary rectangle using the SetPosterBox and GetPosterBox functions. Your application can work with the starting time of the poster with the SetMoviePosterTime and GetMoviePosterTime functions. Posters always have no duration.

• Tracks may be specified for use in the movie, its preview, its poster, or any combination of the three. So, for example, when the Movie Toolbox plays the movie preview it uses only those tracks that are assigned to the preview. Your application controls the use of a movie’s tracks with the SetTrackUsage function. You can find out how a track is used by calling the GetTrackUsage function.

Contents:

Controlling Movie Playback of Previews
Controlling Movie Time

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