What’s New in QuickTime 6.5

Welcome to QuickTime 6.5 for Mac OS X and Windows.

This document provides details of some of the new features, changes, and enhanced capabilities that are available in QuickTime 6.5.

If you are a QuickTime developer, content author, multimedia producer or Webmaster who is currently working with QuickTime, you should read this document.

Documentation and Other Resources

This document is intended to provide QuickTime developers with detailed information to support their programming and development efforts. It is designed to supplement the information provided in Inside QuickTime: API Reference and the suite of QuickTime documentation available online, in HTML and PDF, at http://developer.apple.com/documentation/QuickTime/QuickTime.html.

Updates to the QuickTime technical documentation website are provided on a regular basis. Developers can also subscribe to various mailing lists for the latest news and information. To sign up for any of Apple’s Developer Programs, go to http://developer.apple.com/membership/index.html.

Installing QuickTime 6.5

QuickTime 6.5 is available as a standalone download for Mac OS X version 10.2.5 and later. The download site is www.apple.com/quicktime/download/.

Macintosh users can also use the Software Update mechanism in Mac OS X to update QuickTime 6.0, 6.0.1, 6.0.2, 6.1, 6.1.1, 6.2, 6.3, or 6.4 to QuickTime 6.5.

Hardware and OS Requirements

QuickTime 6.5 for Mac OS X requires the following minimum hardware configuration:

  • Mac OS X version 10.2.5 or later

  • PowerPC G3 or better running at 400 MHz or higher

  • At least 128 MB of RAM

QuickTime 6.5 for Windows requires the following minimum hardware configuration:

  • Windows 98/Me/2000/XP

  • A Pentium processor-based PC or compatible computer

  • At least 128 MB of RAM

Updating Earlier Versions

QuickTime 6.5 replaces and updates various dot releases of QuickTime 6 for Mac OS X and Windows.

The QuickTime 6.5 system software, including the QuickTime Player application, is a free upgrade for QuickTime 6 users. No new Pro key is required; QuickTime 6 Pro keys will unlock the Pro features of QuickTime 6.5.

Overview

The QuickTime API comprises more than 2500 functions that provide services to applications. These services include audio and video capture and playback, movie editing, composition, and streaming, still image display, audio-visual interactivity, and so on.

Although QuickTime 6.5 does not include any new APIs, it contains a number of enhancements to the functionality accessed through existing APIs. These enhancements are listed below in “New Features of QuickTime 6.5”.

QuickTime 6 In Perspective

QuickTime 6, introduced in 2002, represented a major advance in Apple technology. Because QuickTime 6 supports ISO-compliant MPEG-4 video and audio, both encode and decode, you can create and play back MPEG-4 video and audio content and use Advanced Audio Coding (AAC).

In subsequent releases of QuickTime 6, additional support has been provided for 3GPP authoring, playback, and delivery, and for Unicode text handling.

New Features of QuickTime 6.5

QuickTime 6.5 adds the following functionality and improvements to QuickTime:

Summary of QuickTime 6 Versions

The following table summarizes the different point releases of QuickTime 6.

QuickTime version

Mac OS X

Windows

Mac OS 9

Features

6

x

x

x

MPEG-4 and lots more.

6.0.1

x

x

x

Bug fix for QuickTime 6.

6.0.3

x

Bug fixes to address security issues. Mac OS 9 only.

6.1

x

x

Improved MPEG-4 video, full-screen modes, wired actions.

6.2

x

Support for iTunes 4, enhanced AAC codec, limited DRM.

6.3

x

x

Improved AAC codec, 3GPP support, which includes AMR codec.

6.4

x

x

New data reference functions, true multithreading, new graphics functions, component and movie property access, other API additions.

6.5

x

x

Support for 3GP2 and AMC files including the QCELP voice codec; support for Unicode text import and playback in Windows.