Have you upgraded to Snow Leopard only to find that the latest version of QuickTime appears to be quite basic? Well, we thought so too so we added a section in the Snow Leopard edition of Cocktail to tweak it a bit. Have a look at Interface - QuickTime X to see what you can do! Aside from our shameless advertising, let us show how you make the most of QuickTime X!
First up, have you ever tried to fast forward or rewind in QuickTime by clicking the buttons in the controller? Turns out it will increase the playback speed in steps of 2x, 4x, and 8x normal playback speed which can quickly get out of hand. However, if you hold the Option (Alt) key when fast forwarding or rewinding it will change in steps of 0.1x, making it much easier to control. If you listen to podcasts this is a great way to get through the podcast a little faster.
Even better, if you have a Mac with a multitouch trackpad you can drag left and right with two fingers to scrub through the movie and quickly find your favorite part.
Next, have you ever tried to open a video or audio file only to be told that QuickTime doesn’t support it? Apple has a good list of the video formats QuickTime supports but sadly it doesn’t include some of the most popular formats such as Windows Media or DivX. Fortunately there are two tools that will make QuickTime open and play virtually any media file you can find.
The first is Flip4Mac which lets you play Windows Media files that are commonly used to stream video online. The basic version is free and lets you play video files, however if you want to be able to create Windows Media files it costs anywhere from $29 to $179.
The other tool we highly recommend is Perian which appropriately calls itself “the swiss-army knife for QuickTime”. It adds support for a very impressive list of formats, including DivX and Flash movies. It will also add support for subtitles (.srt files) so the next time you watch a movie with subtitles they will show automatically.
While we are at it, did you know that you can also edit videos in QuickTime X? When playing a video or audio clip select Trim from the Edit menu (or press Command+T) and the controls turn into a timeline where you can trim your file. Now, say you want to extract a quote but don’t really know where it starts and ends? Simple, press and hold Option (Alt) and the timeline shows the sound levels in the clip instead!
First up, have you ever tried to fast forward or rewind in QuickTime by clicking the buttons in the controller? Turns out it will increase the playback speed in steps of 2x, 4x, and 8x normal playback speed which can quickly get out of hand. However, if you hold the Option (Alt) key when fast forwarding or rewinding it will change in steps of 0.1x, making it much easier to control. If you listen to podcasts this is a great way to get through the podcast a little faster.
Even better, if you have a Mac with a multitouch trackpad you can drag left and right with two fingers to scrub through the movie and quickly find your favorite part.
Next, have you ever tried to open a video or audio file only to be told that QuickTime doesn’t support it? Apple has a good list of the video formats QuickTime supports but sadly it doesn’t include some of the most popular formats such as Windows Media or DivX. Fortunately there are two tools that will make QuickTime open and play virtually any media file you can find.
The first is Flip4Mac which lets you play Windows Media files that are commonly used to stream video online. The basic version is free and lets you play video files, however if you want to be able to create Windows Media files it costs anywhere from $29 to $179.
The other tool we highly recommend is Perian which appropriately calls itself “the swiss-army knife for QuickTime”. It adds support for a very impressive list of formats, including DivX and Flash movies. It will also add support for subtitles (.srt files) so the next time you watch a movie with subtitles they will show automatically.
While we are at it, did you know that you can also edit videos in QuickTime X? When playing a video or audio clip select Trim from the Edit menu (or press Command+T) and the controls turn into a timeline where you can trim your file. Now, say you want to extract a quote but don’t really know where it starts and ends? Simple, press and hold Option (Alt) and the timeline shows the sound levels in the clip instead!
Thanks for that, didn't know about Opt to view the soundwave in Trim mode... nice blog, useful.
Posted by: Tommy Weir | December 17, 2009 at 03:23 PM
Is there really no way to bring back the real editing features of QuickTime 7 Pro (i.e., cut/copy/paste) in QuickTime X?
I know I can still use QuickTime 7 Pro (located now in my Utilities folder), but it sure would be nice if Apple wasn't removing features through updates. I mean, I paid for Pro; I'd like to maintain the features I paid for.
Posted by: William | December 19, 2009 at 07:26 PM